@Londono
I'm really concerned about this as a single parent household. Should I be increasing my direct debit now to ease the blow later?
Either that, or set some money aside each month in a savings account. Although tbf interest rates are so low you would barely notice the extra you would earn by doing the latter.
If you go onto your Octopus account on the website, a few lines down from the the one which tells you what your monthly payment is there is a link titled Change My Payments. Click on that, and then Change My Payment Amount. This will show you a suggested amount based on your current tariff and usage. You don’t have to accept that, you can put in whatever number you want, but it gives you indication of what Octopus’s system thinks you need to be paying.
What I’m not clear on is how often Octopus themselves will initiate a DD change and how much credit or debit they will let you get into before they force a change. But if you check that figure from time to time, as well as your account balance, you should at least be forewarned.
Personally, I like having a degree of control. Since I joined Octopus in December 2020 I have bought an electric car, had smart meters installed and gone onto the Go (EV) tariff, retired, moved house, had smart meters installed in the new house and had solar panels and battery installed. So basically my energy usage is all over the place, but I have been keeping an eye on my actual usage and nudging my DD in whichever direction seems to make sense.
Having just fixed my gas on a much higher rate than Flexible on the assumption this will be better for next winter, I still want to build up a credit balance over the summer. Because my electric fix runs out in November, and goodness knows what will happen then.