Electricity suppliers - direct debit

[jack]

I'm about to move away from Good Energy, who we've been with for a few years. There have been a number of issues leading to this, the latest being how they've handling a request to increase our monthly direct debit.

 

Long story, but basically they emailed me today to say that my direct debit isn't enough to maintain a "credit buffer" over the course of the year. They don't say what my current balance is, what my current direct debit is, what they expect the credit buffer to be, or how they've calculated anything. 

 

So this is the final straw and I'm moving to another supplier.

 

What I'd really like to do is just get a bill every month or quarter and then pay it off in full. I don't want to pay some monthly charge based on estimated annual usage.

 

I haven't changed supplier in years - how common is it to have payment terms that let you just pay your bill in full each time it comes out?

 

Thanks.

[recoveringbuilder]

We recently changed to octopus energy, they ask for a meter reading every month and you can pay more if you’ve gone over what your monthly direct debit is, still not like paying a monthly bill but because they’re keeping track of your usage you don’t get any surprises when they suddenly say they need to up your payments.

[newhome]

18 minutes ago, jack said:

 

I haven't changed supplier in years - how common is it to have payment terms that let you just pay your bill in full each time it comes out?

 

There are tariffs that allow this but they don’t tend to have the best rates unfortunately. Most companies want monthly direct debits, an online only account (ebills etc.) and regular customer reads. 
 

I’d use one of the price comparisons and read the small print as I’m not sure if ‘pay for energy in arrears’ ( which is essentially what paying a bill equates to)  is one of the options you can select. 
 

https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub?_ga=2.121589514.368469421.1610133549-802344845.1610133549

 

 

[jack]

1 minute ago, newhome said:

Most companies want monthly direct debits, an online only account (ebills etc.) and regular customer reads. 

 

I'm happy to do all of those. It's just the monthly direct debit being based on some opaque average that is clearly designed to keep me permanently in arbitrary deep credit that annoys me.

[TonyT]

Those energy switching sites are useless, asking how many bedrooms do you have? 
 Who cares!

 

tell me the price of a unit of gas/electricity and any standing charge and I will make my own decision. 
 

 

[ProDave]

I am with Octopus (If you want a referal code that will get you £50 off PM me)

 

They are very transparent, and constantly getting good scores for customer service.

 

They do work on a fixed monthly direct debit.  But each month you send a meter reading and they immediately work out a bill and tell you how much your usage is.  they keep a running total available on their website saying how much has been paid in (your DD) and how much has been taken out (your bill) and your monthly balance.

 

There is a mechanism if YOU want to vary the Dd amount, there is a mechanism to make a one off extra DD payment if you have had a high usage, and there is a mechanism to request a refund if your account is too much in credit.

 

I too have been looking to switch, but I cannot find anywhere else that is as flexible or gets such good reviews, and some of the alternatives get some shockingly bad reviews

[joe90]

I too am with Octopus and concur with @ProDave about customer service, they request a meter reading every month and within a couple of days email me a figure they will take as a direct debit payment.. I too like to pay for what I use and not let anyone keep my money!!!

 

p.S. I will supply a code to anyone to get £50 if they transfer to them. Just pm me.

Edited January 8, 2021 by joe90

[newhome]

15 minutes ago, TonyT said:

Those energy switching sites are useless, asking how many bedrooms do you have? 

 
I never enter that, I just put in my annual consumption. 
 

 

[dangti6]

57 minutes ago, TonyT said:

Those energy switching sites are useless, asking how many bedrooms do you have? 
 Who cares!

 

tell me the price of a unit of gas/electricity and any standing charge and I will make my own decision. 

 

They ask questions like that for the benefit of those that don’t have access to/ cannot be bothered to look up their annual usage from a statement. 
 

Number of bedrooms at least gives an indication based on average consumption for a property of that size, obviously not taking in to account any of the variables.

 

If you don’t know your annual usage but know what your daily standing charge is plus what you pay per KwH, you can drill down through each supplier and compare those figures.

 

I’m another Octopus customer. 
 

The monthly email reminder to request an actual reading is a nice touch to ensure your account’s not running on just estimations for those without smart meters.

[jack]

3 minutes ago, dangti6 said:

The monthly email reminder to request an actual reading is a nice touch to ensure your account’s not running on just estimations for those without smart meters.

 

That's what annoys me about Good Energy. They ask me for this (optional) reading, and most months I go the effort of giving it. But they don't actually use the information to vary the amount they take.

 

I really have no idea where they get the numbers they quoted in today's email. My current direct debit is £82 a month, which is about right over the course of a year given my expected annual electricity charges. They're now saying they want to bump this to £140(!) a month if I make a £240 balancing payment now, or £157(1) a month for a year to catch up as they put it (or, more accurately, get them as far in permanent credit with my money as suits their preferences).

 

All this with no information or explanation.

 

@ProDave, please PM me your code. I'll use it if I go with Octopus once I've had a look around.

Thanks.    

[Vijay]

1 hour ago, TonyT said:

Those energy switching sites are useless, asking how many bedrooms do you have? 
 Who cares!

 

tell me the price of a unit of gas/electricity and any standing charge and I will make my own decision. 
 

 

 

The one I use, nice and easy https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

 

[Vijay]

If you contact Octopus, make sure your check your usage is what they actually quote you on. They were far from honest when I got a quote with them, by adjusting my estimated usage much lower to give me a competitive price, which meant into my contract I'd have been over paying. I didn't like that they only told me that when I pushed for a reason.

[TonyT]

I have Gas at 2.915p per kWh and electricity at 14.074p per kWh both with standing charges 15.34p per day.

 

thats what I want a website to show me, - the money nothing else.

 

 

 

[dangti6]

22 minutes ago, TonyT said:

I have Gas at 2.915p per kWh and electricity at 14.074p per kWh both with standing charges 15.34p per day.

 

thats what I want a website to show me, - the money nothing else.

 

 

 

And it will. Go on one of the popular comparison sites, click on to each of the suggested providers and drill down to see what the charges are rather than just £x per month/year under the heading.

[Gone West]

12 hours ago, jack said:

 

That's what annoys me about Good Energy. They ask me for this (optional) reading, and most months I go the effort of giving it. But they don't actually use the information to vary the amount they take.

 

I really have no idea where they get the numbers they quoted in today's email. My current direct debit is £82 a month, which is about right over the course of a year given my expected annual electricity charges. They're now saying they want to bump this to £140(!) a month if I make a £240 balancing payment now, or £157(1) a month for a year to catch up as they put it (or, more accurately, get them as far in permanent credit with my money as suits their preferences).

 

All this with no information or explanation.

 

That's odd. I'm with Good Energy and have been for years. I give a monthly reading as requested and my quarterly bill shows my usage and account balance. I have had one instance, some time ago, when they asked me to pay more and I refused and asked them to show me how they worked it out. They backed down and accepted my calculations.

[jack]

16 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

That's odd. I'm with Good Energy and have been for years. I give a monthly reading as requested and my quarterly bill shows my usage and account balance. I have had one instance, some time ago, when they asked me to pay more and I refused and asked them to show me how they worked it out. They backed down and accepted my calculations.

 

Interesting.

 

The email I received yesterday includes the following sentence:

 

"Based on our latest calculations, you're actually using an average of £135.30 more each month than your monthly payments account for, and currently your account is not at the balance expected for this time of year."

 

We have a lot of PV, and we're electric only, so there's a huge difference between what we use in summer andb winter. I assume a system somewhere has put December's numbers into an algorithm and decided that we're going to get behind at some point.

 

What I'm frustrated by is that the email doesn't include any real information. As I said above, they want to change my direct debit from £82 a month to £140. Based on my annual usage that's utterly ridiculous. 

 

There're other reasons I want to leave. Despite several attempts, they still haven't managed to let me access the app for both electricity and PV readings.

 

I'm also slightly wary of just how much a force for good they really are, based on a number of stories that have appeared in Private Eye over the last few years.

[Pocster]

I've just changed to octopus. Can't see how I change the DD online - can't see the option on their website once I've logged in.

[ProDave]

14 minutes ago, pocster said:

I've just changed to octopus. Can't see how I change the DD online - can't see the option on their website once I've logged in.

Menu > My Account

 

Scroll down a bit > Change My Payments

 

Right hand column, scroll down a bit to > Edit Payment amount

 

Enter new payment and submit.

 

 

[Pocster]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Menu > My Account

 

Scroll down a bit > Change My Payments

 

Right hand column, scroll down a bit to > Edit Payment amount

 

Enter new payment and submit.

 

 

I needed to swap back to the old dashboard .

Get the DD edit option now - but it just goes to my personal preferences...

Edited January 9, 2021 by pocster

[PeterW]

1 hour ago, pocster said:

I needed to swap back to the old dashboard .

Get the DD edit option now - but it just goes to my personal preferences...

Could be because your DD is due in the next 5 working days - they will pre-process the request so changes can’t be made normally. 

[Pocster]

23 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Could be because your DD is due in the next 5 working days - they will pre-process the request so changes can’t be made normally. 

Maybe . But I think the dd went out just a few days ago . I’ll leave it 5 days then check