Energy company wants to cut my direct debit massively.

[Nolongera]

As title, we pay £100 a month with Octopus for both gas and electric, well into winter and we are still £300 in credit.

They want to cut of payment to £40 a month. Just our standing charges alone are £20 a month.

Just seems a bit strange, is £300 credit that much?

Bit weird. I've been £400 in credit for a while and they still keep trying to increase my direct debits!

I had similar and I had to fight to get the monthly payments up, since it was pretty clear to me that otherwise I'd suddenly have a big increase a few months later which I didn't want. You can ask them to increase it a bit if you'd rather pay more...and also, if you think it's wrong (ie you're being charged too little) ask them to check it.

Some energy companies now assess a Direct Debit with each bill which is annoying and it means you are always paying a fluctuating amount, so really might as well just pay the full bill each time as it’s little different.

Does your bill not have a section where it shows the cost of your previous years electricity is so you can see what you need to pay monthly for the next 12 months. Mine aims to have you at zero at the beginning of summer and if your credit goes over a certain figure they will offer you a cash rebate

You should be able to work out your annual spending. So split that in 12, use that for your direct debit and tell them to give you your £300 back.

Mines just reduced mine feom £176 to £128 (with £360 overpayments). Its because my annual amount (to 1st April) means I'd have been in credit (this way I should break even). I ususally assess at the end of the month over the winter to see if I'm keeping on track.

That's really strange, Op. I'm with Octopus and have credit of nearly £700 and they keep trying to increase my direct debit!

Not as bad as Shell was though - credit of £1k and still tried to put my direct debit up every month.

Yeah that’s weird, I’m £500 in credit at the moment with Octopus and they haven’t suggested dropping it, I’d rather keep my payments higher too to make sure I’ve got a buffer.

Ours have suggested similar though not a big of a drop - not octopus though.

TBF we're ususally coming out of credit this time of year and we've got quite a bit still but Jan and Feb will be high use. We do have one less teen in house so maybe we are using less.

We've had loads of credit previously with them and they've want to increase DD which DH has to fight to get DD down not up - so it's a change in policy from them.

I think I'd be unhappy with such a huge drop and at some point it will likely feel like a big increase when it goes up. I'd try and get them to drop less.

When we were with Shell they wanted £165 a month, the lowest they would let us have is £95.

I can change it so it stays at £95 and I intend to do so.

Just seems an odd amount to lower it to.

If you go on Octopus website rather than the app, they have a balance forecast that you can tinker with to see what impact your payments have. It might be worth using this to argue for bigger/smaller payments or refunds

I have this problem with British Gas. A few months ago they sent me a refund of just over £200. Now they want to reduce my DD and after recent bill I am £130 in debt. At this time of year you need to be in credit. I went into the app and put my DD back to previous amount. I don't understand their logic.

Just want to mention you are entitled to this money back (it’s yours!) or you can ask for some back and leave a buffer amount in there if you feel more comfortable.

I don't see the problem they obviously think it's the right amount to pay, just accept the new amount and roll with it.

Your bill is going down by £12.50 a month from April anyway due to lower fixed charges so perhaps they're starting to take that into account.

Ours does that. It’s because we have built up a large amount in credit. But we always put it back up again. I want to have a buffer in case for some reason we have to have the heating on more.

I’m £2000 in credit and they keep trying to increase mine but I am using £300 per month atm but I have a daughter with respiratory issues so I can’t let my house temp drop too much

We're £400 in credit with them, and they suggested £86pm, rather than £130.

Look at what you paid last year Jan March and work out if £420 (£300 plus £40 x 3) is just enough to cover that after April you'll be using far less, so probably need to increase your payments at some point if you want a credit for next winter.

We were over £500 in credit with Octopus (electricity only) and instead of giving us a refund they dropped out DD, firstly to £30pm then to £8pm. We're now down to them owing us £450 as our usage goes up in Winter (we've got Solar panels so don't sell much back to them at this time of year. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what they do.

Edf reduced mine to £6 a month coming into winter a couple of years ago, I wasn’t massively in credit at all. I went into the app straight away and increased it! Don’t know if octopus let you do that on their app tho? I would make sure the dd is covering your monthly usage (bound to be more than £40 if you’re heating your house!)

Octopus will let you adjust the direct debit

To those telling me to adjust my debit, I have done just that, to £70 a month.

It just seemed bonkers to reduce it to 40. Since prices went up and we got a smart meter I have taken a much bigger interest in energy prices, I would prefer to pay less but I think it's pretty good value.

A meal for 2 in the pub and a couple of pints each would be best part of £70.

If you are with Octopus just change your DD amount on the app.

We are with Eon Next and have a healthy credit.
Eon are forever trying to reduce our monthly DD (from £80 down to £35) so we just put it straight back up again.

We could allow them to drop it but that means we would come out of the winter with little credit whereas we prefer to keep the DD constant and maintain the credit.

Ofgem (the energy regulator) is telling energy suppliers to reduce the credit they hold from customers. That's why this is happening to everyone all of a sudden.

I have credit of £250 and working out the energy cost based on my annual usage my DD should be £85 but I've kept it at £70 knowing I'll slowly erode my credit. Why don't you work out how much it should cost so you can judge yourself how much you want you DD to be?