Electricity goes up tomorrow

Hannah_Alumni

Please keep us updated @Bettahm Hopefully they answer soon! 

poppy123456

Bettahm said:

Whiskey26 said:

I am with Octopus and as someone commented above, I have always found them extremely helpful and understanding, although if you email them, they aren't always that quick to reply. As people have said, you can change your DD amount yourself. If you go onto your dashboard and see they've put your payment up, put it back down yourself to what you can afford. I currently pay £80 for gas and electric and they wanted to put mine up to £128. I emailed them and explained my situation and they said their suggestions are only a guideline, you pay what you can afford. They also confirmed in the email my DD will remain at £80 a month. I have found once you get a reply from them, rather than send a new email each time, if you click the reply button at the bottom of the email, it will go back to the person who sent it. All emails then stay in a chain, so you can check back as to what has been said and it also means you don't have to keep repeating yourself to someone new each time!

  I'll email them that I am putting the dd down then do it.

You do not need to contact them to tell them that you're lowering the DD. As i advised earlier in the thread, you just change it to suit yourself. I though in a previous comment you said you were going to leave it as it is because you're only £40 in credit?

Bettahm

poppy123456 said:

Bettahm said:

Whiskey26 said:

I am with Octopus and as someone commented above, I have always found them extremely helpful and understanding, although if you email them, they aren't always that quick to reply. As people have said, you can change your DD amount yourself. If you go onto your dashboard and see they've put your payment up, put it back down yourself to what you can afford. I currently pay £80 for gas and electric and they wanted to put mine up to £128. I emailed them and explained my situation and they said their suggestions are only a guideline, you pay what you can afford. They also confirmed in the email my DD will remain at £80 a month. I have found once you get a reply from them, rather than send a new email each time, if you click the reply button at the bottom of the email, it will go back to the person who sent it. All emails then stay in a chain, so you can check back as to what has been said and it also means you don't have to keep repeating yourself to someone new each time!

  I'll email them that I am putting the dd down then do it.

You do not need to contact them to tell them that you're lowering the DD. As i advised earlier in the thread, you just change it to suit yourself. I though in a previous comment you said you were going to leave it as it is because you're only £40 in credit?

I was going to leave it but would be good to bring it down even just ten pounds.  I've already emailed them that I'm thinking of doing it. So can wait their response because this months will go through now soon.

poppy123456

You're making it more complicated than what it is. Please just lower the DD and the new amount will be taken next month instead of the higher amount. You do not need to wait for a response.

Bettahm

poppy123456 said:

You're making it more complicated than what it is. Please just lower the DD and the new amount will be taken next month instead of the higher amount. You do not need to wait for a response.

Ok I will lower it.

2oldcodgers

Whiskey26 said:
If you go onto your dashboard and see they've put your payment up, put it back down yourself to what you can afford. I currently pay £80 for gas and electric and they wanted to put mine up to £128. I emailed them and explained my situation and they said their suggestions are only a guideline, you pay what you can afford. 

That is a rather dangerous way to have your DD set.
I would hope that anybody who wants to reduce their DD they must consider that they must pay for what the fuel used is. There is no point in paying under as that will only go one way - building up a debt that you will eventually have to repay. 

poppy123456

2oldcodgers said:

Whiskey26 said:
If you go onto your dashboard and see they've put your payment up, put it back down yourself to what you can afford. I currently pay £80 for gas and electric and they wanted to put mine up to £128. I emailed them and explained my situation and they said their suggestions are only a guideline, you pay what you can afford. 

That is a rather dangerous way to have your DD set.
I would hope that anybody who wants to reduce their DD they must consider that they must pay for what the fuel used is. There is no point in paying under as that will only go one way - building up a debt that you will eventually have to repay. 

Yes in an ideal world that’s what should happen. With the cost of living being so high there’s many thousands of people that have no option but to choose heat or eat. How far are some people able to stretch their already little money, I would think not far enough. 

Please remember that not everyone lives comfortably. 

Whiskey26

@Bettahm Yes do that, but make sure you put it down in good time before your next DD is due ( at least two weeks before). If your DD is due within the next couple of weeks and you think they may take the higher amount, Octopus told me to cancel my DD, make a manual payment, then set the DD back up again( for the lower amount) in time for next month's payment. If you click on Bills at the bottom of the screen, it comes up with a box saying " Make a one off payment". That's where you make the payment, should you need to. Hope this helps!

Bettahm

Whiskey26 said:

@Bettahm Yes do that, but make sure you put it down in good time before your next DD is due ( at least two weeks before). If your DD is due within the next couple of weeks and you think they may take the higher amount, Octopus told me to cancel my DD, make a manual payment, then set the DD back up again( for the lower amount) in time for next month's payment. If you click on Bills at the bottom of the screen, it comes up with a box saying " Make a one off payment". That's where you make the payment, should you need to. Hope this helps!

Yes thank you that does help as my payment would have been taken next week!
So I can sort that out now 
Thanks!

Whiskey26

You're welcome! Let me know if you sort it ok. 

Whiskey26

@Bettahm sorry forgot to mention when we spoke earlier, if you cancel your DD, make sure you set your new one up after a few days, because if not, the charges for your gas and electric will be a few pence more than they are when you're paying by DD and let's face it, were paying enough as it is!

Bettahm

Whiskey26 said:

@Bettahm sorry forgot to mention when we spoke earlier, if you cancel your DD, make sure you set your new one up after a few days, because if not, the charges for your gas and electric will be a few pence more than they are when you're paying by DD and let's face it, were paying enough as it is!

Ok thanks for that.
Thanks for your help.

2oldcodgers

poppy123456 said:

Yes in an ideal world that’s what should happen. With the cost of living being so high there’s many thousands of people that have no option but to choose heat or eat. How far are some people able to stretch their already little money, I would think not far enough. 

Please remember that not everyone lives comfortably. 

I was only stating the obvious.
Do people actually want to go into debt?
One of the first things that they should be doing is speaking to the fuel supplier to get their take on what is to be done.
What is being suggested is that we do our shopping at the supermarket and when getting to the till only offer to pay what you can afford. I can see that happening - not.
As for living comfortably I don't know how you can say that - you do realise that we are on a low income that is being topped up by a means tested benefit.
In our home we do not incur debt - we budget our money carefully. The priorities are all of our bills including insurances. Secondly food and clothing. Finally with what is left we spend on maybe a bar of chocolate each or put it away for a future cheap holiday. If all or most of our money is spent by the time we get to food & clothing we simply buy the necessities and nothing more. 

Wibbles

Bettahm said:

Whiskey26 said:

@Bettahm sorry forgot to mention when we spoke earlier, if you cancel your DD, make sure you set your new one up after a few days, because if not, the charges for your gas and electric will be a few pence more than they are when you're paying by DD and let's face it, were paying enough as it is!

Ok thanks for that.
Thanks for your help.

Have you registered with Octopus as a vulnerable customer ?

https://octopus.energy/policies/extra-support/

Octopus (and every other supplier) have dropped their prices (as from September 1st) - so if your tariff has increased, I would be extremely surprised...

If your DD has increased - it will be to allow Octopus  to catch up with debt - not due to increased  charges !

Bettahm

Wibbles said:

Bettahm said:

Whiskey26 said:

@Bettahm sorry forgot to mention when we spoke earlier, if you cancel your DD, make sure you set your new one up after a few days, because if not, the charges for your gas and electric will be a few pence more than they are when you're paying by DD and let's face it, were paying enough as it is!

Ok thanks for that.
Thanks for your help.

Have you registered with Octopus as a vulnerable customer ?

https://octopus.energy/policies/extra-support/

Octopus (and every other supplier) have dropped their prices (as from September 1st) - so if your tariff has increased, I would be extremely surprised...

If your DD has increased - it will be to allow Octopus  to catch up with debt - not due to increased  charges !

I registered on their priority services register a couple of days ago.
Yes my tarrif has gone up. It went from 50.72 to 80.27 but when I checked my account it said I should be paying 96.25
Almost double!
So I have lowered my dd now but through September have been emailing them asking why it's gone up so much and no replies. A few days ago they sent me two emails about debt but I'm not in debt. 44 in credit.
So I've bought the dd down, see what happens now.

poppy123456

2oldcodgers said:

poppy123456 said:

Yes in an ideal world that’s what should happen. With the cost of living being so high there’s many thousands of people that have no option but to choose heat or eat. How far are some people able to stretch their already little money, I would think not far enough. 

Please remember that not everyone lives comfortably. 

As for living comfortably I don't know how you can say that - you do realise that we are on a low income that is being topped up by a means tested benefit.

I never actually said "you live comfortably" what i actually said was..

poppy123456 said:

Please remember that not everyone lives comfortably. 

You just assumed i meant you.. i said no such thing.

Adrian_Scope

2oldcodgers said:

poppy123456 said:

Yes in an ideal world that’s what should happen. With the cost of living being so high there’s many thousands of people that have no option but to choose heat or eat. How far are some people able to stretch their already little money, I would think not far enough. 

Please remember that not everyone lives comfortably. 

I was only stating the obvious.
Do people actually want to go into debt?
One of the first things that they should be doing is speaking to the fuel supplier to get their take on what is to be done.
What is being suggested is that we do our shopping at the supermarket and when getting to the till only offer to pay what you can afford. I can see that happening - not.
As for living comfortably I don't know how you can say that - you do realise that we are on a low income that is being topped up by a means tested benefit.
In our home we do not incur debt - we budget our money carefully. The priorities are all of our bills including insurances. Secondly food and clothing. Finally with what is left we spend on maybe a bar of chocolate each or put it away for a future cheap holiday. If all or most of our money is spent by the time we get to food & clothing we simply buy the necessities and nothing more. 

I think it's very important to point out that not everyone has this option. We've had members whose total income is less than just their rent alone. It isn't always down to budgeting, the issue can be quite simply that income is not high enough and sadly this is the case for many people. 

rabi

Bettahm said:

Mine goes up 30 a month tomorrow. 
I think I get the warm home discount and I will get the 300 cost of living payment in November. 
I'm on kerosene for heating and that is currently 400 for 500L, minimum order.
I'm on benefits only.

Just emailed my electricity supplier about introducing a social tarrif like the broadband and landline people have.

All they are doing so far is signposting people who are struggling financially to charities and organisations that help with debt.

Going to be a hard winter.

Well I just got my 40 lpg yesterday we on prepaid meter our electric is 30 a day and our sole source heating is gas we on benefit and landlord doing nothing county council just ignore you he also adult care  hus name bris so under his watch he total ignorance person