We have been moved from Avro to Octopus by Ofgem, following Avro’s collapse.
We were advised to keep our existing Avro direct debit active (rather than setting up a new one with Octopus) as the administrators could then keep taking our payments, which would be taken into consideration when the final bill was passed over to Octopus. Sure enough our usual fixed tariff amount has gone out (against the Avro dd) on the usual day every month.
Our Avro direct debit usually goes out on the 15th of the month. Doing a bit of banking online this morning I noticed the Avro dd instruction was missing from our list of regular direct debits, but neither myself or dh have cancelled it. I assumed that Octopus must be in the process of transferring it over to them, but have had no indication of that and there’s nothing showing in my bank account to suggest it.
Checked and I had an email from them overnight saying:
“We've just heard from Avro that they've calculated your final bill for account XXXXXXX. You'll find it in your Octopus online account, it should also be available in the usual spot on Avro's website.”
”Your final Avro bill includes a credit of £413.08 that has been automatically transferred to your Octopus account, where you'll also find your recent payment(s) of £308.00. The good news is this means your Avro account is now closed, and your transfer to Octopus is now complete.”
Obviously, I would like to know when they are taking my next dd and how much it is likely to be. (I have given them monthly statements since the one I took on the day were were informed of Avro’s demise, so they should be up to date with our readings/usage.)
Emailed them and their response has left me even more confused.
“Your next scheduled monthly payment in the amount of £154.00 is due exactly today. Since we do not have your direct debit instructions on the account, we will not be collecting it. As far as the DD instructions with Avro, I really have no information, nor can I offer a plausible explanation in this regards.”
“Please be advised that we intend to keep your monthly payment the same until we can objectively assess your actual consumption.”
”Considering all this, I think it is best to wait for another week or so, to see if we will receive your instructions (and possibly the December payment) from Avro. If this does not happen, I'd assume it is safe to set up a new direct debit instructions on your Octopus account.”
”Your account is well in credit (£721.08 as of today). The current bill is in the works and you should be receiving it in the following days.”
What is confusing is that, as of the 26th September we were actually £600 in credit with Avro. Final bill has come through as 413.08CR, which I suppose is due to the price increase and our old fixed tariff not covering the full amount. However, the £308 the first email says should be showing as payments on our new Octopus account seems to have been added to the £413.08CR to give the £721.08CR figure they stated in the second email and that is the amount showing as ‘in credit’ on our Octopus dashboard as well. Surely that’s not credit, but should have been used as payment against usage?
So, am I right in thinking that they aren’t going to take any money at all off us this month, then we are likely to be hit with a double bill next month when they have finished messing around and finally shifted our Avro dd over to Octopus? Are we suddenly going to get hit with huge a bill for October/November/December, even though Avro administrators took the payments for October and November via our usual dd?
I don’t understand why, if they have our final account/bill and credit details from Avro, they didn’t just let us set up a new Octopus dd and start taking payments. My instinct was to do this but, given all their emails and updates have said not to, I’m worried that I will mess up some process going on behind the scenes and potentially make things even more complicated if I do.
I was tempted to just make a payment for our usual £154 directly to my new Octopus account on the 15th, just in case, but have realised that if they then do suddenly take the dd late themselves, we will have paid double, which I’d rather not do at Christmas.
Stressing slightly as we are in the process of applying for a mortgage and need our bank account to stay healthy and well managed even more than usual at the moment.
I have a horrible migraine, so am possibly just not understanding all this properly and confusing myself.
Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.