Monthly direct debit for gas and electricity

[ANEC]

I’ve received an email from Octopus Energy saying my new monthly d/d will be £283, up by about £20 a month. Apparently this is to keep on track for the winter months. I’m already £430 in credit.

As I’ve no idea when I set up the latest tariff I looked to see what they’re offering. 3 tariffs with a difference of about £28 between them. The scariest thing was they think I’ll use between £3100-£3450 worth of gas and electricity over the next 12 months!!
I’m absolutely gob-smacked. I live in a 3 bed bungalow with my hubby, who works away and only comes home every 3 weeks for a week. So for the majority of the year it’s me, myself and I. Only 1 bedroom is used, the other 2 are in the attic and due to the insulation we’ve never had the heating on, ever. I hate lights and switches being left on. I’m quite happy sitting with a night light on. I do regular meter readings. 1 load of washing a week.

I’ve spoken to clients and friends and they seem to be paying less a month than me with bigger houses and more people.

Can I ask what your monthly direct debits are? Am I being taken for a patsy?

I have a 4 bed house. Live here with DH, Adult DD, her boyfriend and DD12 I pay £180 a month on direct debit

That seems a lot. Can you try the compare markets to see what other deals are about ?

What are your meters saying you are using?

im in a 4 bed, 3 level end terrace and according to my app we used c2,240 kw electricity and c10,700kw gas

we pay £167 a month

ETA: 1 adult and child full time, one other adult half the time

The utilities are going up again in October I think , so the projection for usage is just that I suppose. Is your meter working ok? Do you have a smart one ? I’d ring them up , they answer pretty quickly and helpful usually. The numbers may be wrong ?

What temperature do you have your thermostat at?

How old is your bungalow?

I pay less than half what you pay in a small 30 year old 3 bed detached and we used a lot of electricity as we only heat one room at a time so use a fan heater most of the time.

That seems awfully high. We live in an old 5 bedroom farmhouse, 3800 sq ft, run dishwasher and washing machine and sometimes dryer daily. We run electric to a barn that we also use regularly and outside lighting. There are 4 of us living here full time. No gas, only electric. We have a £160 a month direct debit and I think nearly £500 credit. We have an oil fired boiler for heating that we fill up maybe £500 a year, though don’t necessarily use it all every year. I don’t keep a warm house. We use wood burners when it’s really cold. We are with British Gas, definitely haven’t really shopped around as I couldn’t be asked.

Are you submitting your meter readings? They always estimate we use a lot more than we do.

I'm paying £121 a month for gas and electric. Two bed poorly insulated semi detached council house. I would contact them and ask them to re adjust the direct debit. Good luck! Currently just over £250 in credit with octopus

Octopus is always very expensive for us. I've just fixed my gas and electricity for another 2 years. It's £101 a month. we're with EDF.

We have a 3 bedroom house modern semi (although the spare room is a box room). 4 adults and we all have daily showers, run a dishwasher three times a week, no tumble dryer. It was £121 a month but has come down. I do expect it to go up though once winter kicks in.
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Yeah, I just don’t understand gas and electric bills (and water ones). Everyone seems to be paying wildly differing amounts or sums that don’t seem to tally with the size of and number of people in their house.

My DD is £160pm for gas and electricity with just two of us in a two-bedroomed house. I don’t use much but my DC does.

I just change the DD to what I believe is the right payment

My gas is double the electricity in the winter and mine has gone down by 30 pounds a month since Ds 2 moved out. Also had a smart meter installed and that makes life a bit easier as they can see the readings that way. Octopus are good at customer service , I’d be on the phone querying it all as that sounds too much or changing over which isn’t as bad as it sounds and they have to play ball with it too after the law made it more simplistic to do. Read your meter and give them the numbers , it could be they have had the wrong digits down or something like that and it’s mounted up.

That can't be right OP. We're in a 4 bed detached, both WFH full time and only pay £78 per month for electric. We are off grid for gas so I can't compare prices there! The Octopus app is pretty good, can you see what your actual usage for last year was?

That's ridiculously high.

We're about £350 in credit with E-on at the moment, and we've just received a letter telling us that our direct debit is going to be reduced from about £95 to £79 a month.

Their estimate usage in units for the next 12 months in our not particularly well-insulated 3 bed terrace will cost about £1,200pa for using:

Electricity 1,740 kWh
Gas 5,794 kWh

I agree that people are paying a lot less or more for utilities and now I’m wondering why ? I did claim a refund from octopus and got it within two days. I did it on the app. You can put it up and down yourself , maybe try that ? Send them a meter reading too

I'm with octopus too, 186 DD and we're 750 in credit. We're high users.

Are your meter readings estimated? If so, when was the last time actual readings were taken? Maybe look at their most recent meter readings and check them against your meters.

1960's 3-bed bungalow, radiators are on in every room (well, come on when the temp drops low enough anyway) and we pay £132pm with Octopus. Gas central heatin, everything else is electric.

Yours seems way too high.

I was with Outfox on a fixed tariff that comparison sites said was the cheapest. We were paying £270 for both a month and had built up credit of £360. When the fixed tariff period ended a month ago so I could change with no penalty, I went on uswitch and have now signed up with Fuse. Our first bill is £79 total for both gas and electricity, and they only charge you for what you use rather than a fixed dd, so it will fluctuate and obviously be more in the winter, but I won't be giving them my money in advance for them to have instead of me!
I hate the fixed dd model where you build up credit and would much rather only pay for what I use.

Thank you for all the responses. Definitely phoning Octopus tomorrow. Something is not right.

I'm with octopus, 4 bed detached but live alone. Never skimp on heating. My DD is £140 per month, I've got about £300 credit at the moment.

I read my meters every month so I get a monthly bill from them and I keep control of what my actual bills are compared to the DD. I do not always accept their DD suggestions and change it to what I think is right.

You can see if their estimate of your bills is right by looking at your meter readings of a year ago on the octopus app or website( assume you do read them regularly) and now, work out the total kWh used and use the unit prices to work out your expected annual bill.

Do take your actual current meter readings before you phone them.

2 of us in a draughty Victorian terrace, top floor not used and not heated so 3 beds. 106 per month for gas and electricity on an Octopus fixed rate tariff which ends in the autumn. I need to read the meters but last bill we had some 300 credit, probably more now. Yours does seem very high.

Three bed plus study terraced and in winter I have heat set at 18 but on all the time. And I have a dryer. And a gas fire. It’s just gone up to £120/month.

I'm in an old and drafty 3 bed semi. Just me and my 7yo DD (who lives here half the time), and my direct debit is £140pm. I'm hoping it may go down a bit because I'm about to get new double glazing and external doors. Plus I had a brand new boiler in April, to replace my 15 year old one. Next year i'm getting better loft insulation. Yours does sound very high.

I’m single, 2 bed apartment. Fairly careful with gas and electric but I cook, shower often, do a fair amount of washing etc
it averages out at around £90pm for gas and electric
this is my summer bill