How much credit do you keep on your energy account?

[Amandatelly]

How much balance (if any) do you have sitting on your energy supplier account?

I got an email yesterday from Octopus saying they want to increase my DD by another £30. This despite the fact my monthly DD is already £240 (gas and elec), and have a credit balance every month at the moment. I’m currently £280 in credit.

I can’t find it now but recently I saw it suggested I should be having a balance of over £500 just sitting there.

Now, I know my usage is low this time of year and that will begin to increase over the next few months but I will deal with that as it happens. I’m not going to just let them sit with even more of my money in their bank accounts.

I’m with Octopus and have £170 in credit and we pay £280 a month. Our monthly bills are around £230ish so we always have a little left over. We let the surplus get to around £200 and then request £100 back. We’ve never been asked to increase our payments.

Wow 😮 that is insane!

I have similar I think around £240 credit sitting there. I have in the past changed the dd because it went up to £500 at one point and I really needed the money for food, so they refunded 400 of it and I have built it back to £240 even though I pay less than they recommend. However I do realise we pay more in the winter and prices are going up, so I am leaving it there this year in case the rises are ridiculous and I can't top up.

We asked them to increase our DD as we were clearly going to be hugely in debit by the end of the year, they did and then dropped it again shortly afterwards, can't they do sums?

We tend to keep plenty of credit although our actual usage/bills are relatively low (based on MN comments). Usually around £500 increasing as we go through the summer. DD is £90.

Do you still get the cheaper tariff doing that? I thought you had to do the fixed amount monthly, I would prefer to do it that way if you get the same tariff.

I don't know why Octopus do this. They tried it with me. I was around £150 in credit and that was just after winter. They wanted to increase my payments by £20. I phoned up and told them No, and they said fine. I actually decreased the amount as I don't see why I should ever really be in a lot of credit. I was always under the impression that over summer you can get a bit in credit so that it evens out in winter when you use more.
The idea of being hundreds of pounds in credit makes no sense.
I like Octopus but this increasing of payments seems pointless.

You’re supposed to have most credit in November, and least in May.

We are £320 in credit and Octopus emailed recently to say our direct debit will increase again. You can change the payment in your account though- I always return ours to what I think is a fair amount if they change it.

I keep an eye on it over the winter months and up it slightly if it’s particularly cold. No need for them to have too much of our money year round!

Yes I do - this is with Octopus.
The cheaper tariffs are direct debit, which I am - just on the bill not on a set monthly amount.

I'm on an EV tariff now, but have been on a solar tariff and a fixed tariff.

You can't (or couldn't a few years ago when I changed it) swap to it on the app, you have to log in on a browser.

I've just had a look, and you can't see to do it online now either - you need to contact them.

I’m £214 in credit with Octopus and my DD is set to £100. They’ve said it should be £96 but I’ve just left it as it is as it’s a nice neat number.

weirdly, we just changed our tariff with EDF, and we're £1400 in DEBIT.
But they haven't asked us to change our monthly direct debit?!
DH reckons if they don't ask for it then we should let it be... they're not charging interest...

I draw down my utility credit balance annually on 31st March. It's when the expensive winter months have been paid.

I used to keep about £400-£500 credit however I’ve recently moved to Fuse who bill only for what I’ve consumed so my bills are really low currently. I put an extra amount each month into an instant access savings account which earns an ok interest rate and I’ll dip into that in the winter if I need to when my usage goes up. Means my money is earning for me rather than my energy supplier. I didn’t think I’d like it this way but actually I do.

Octopus are really easy to deal in terms of saying no and requesting the money back. We normally review in the spring when we stop using the heating and adjust DD and request money back then.

About £800 in mine, I pay 170 a month.
I'm a low earner and have managed to build up a safety net buffer. If something awful happens the energy bills are OK for a few months.

I'm with Octopus for both gas and electricity, having recently taken over all of the household utility bills following the death of my DH in March.

I am currently £71 in credit and have been paying £162 on direct debit per month. I'm really watching carefully how this goes.

I have my own solar panels which we got several years ago using government grants. Plus, I have my own storage batteries in my loft and can see on my app that currently, in this weather and the long, bright days, I am mostly using my own solar and stored energy except when it comes to some gas for the hot water and cooking (gas hob). So I am buying virtually nothing in from the national grid at the moment, though I do appreciate that that will change somewhat as we head into autumn/winter and the days are shorter. Solar power and batteries will still help somewhat though.

I can see all of my usage on the Octopus app. I won't be allowing them to increase my direct debit beyond what it currently is unless I can see myself that it has definitely become necessary. I might even reduce it further when I see what happens over the next three or four days as the next contribution goes tomorrow.

If the credit on my Octopus account reaches anywhere around £200 I will consider claiming a £100 refund.

I do this with Octopus. We had the same trouble years ago trying to get money back off them, it was about £1200.
I refused to do a DD with them again. I just take the readings monthly, send them in and pay.

None. We're with Fuse, they just take for exactly what you've used each month.

Basically, you want a decent amount of credit in your account built up over the summer before the days get shorter and the heating goes on.

So if you can work out how much extra you spend in the winter months, that's how much credit you'd want heading into winter so you're sitting at around zero in April.

I aim to be about £500 in credit by October time. I’m current about £250 in credit and have just increased my payment from £150 to £175 (at Octopus’ request).

They had previously suggested I increase to £235 but I declined as I don’t think they factored in my solar which means I don’t actually get billed anything over summer and in fact I get credits to my account for what I sell back to the grid.

The trouble with this approach is that the rates are higher on standard credit than other payment types.

I'm with Octopus as well. Every month when I go into the app to enter my meter readings I reduce my direct debit as it is always far too high. I'm currently £600 in credit! Shell was even worse though!

I have 6 months plus credit. Just in case anything happened and I know it one less thing for my POA to have to deal with short term.