We’ve gone from £70 with Avro to £96 with octopus & been told next bill will be £170 per month. Haven’t got round to working out the figures yet but when thames water upped their monthly bills I complained & got told tough, bills from them have just been reduced so in the end it will all work out I guess.

I’m with Shell (not through choice, they took over my previous provider) and they asked me to increase my own DD with a suggested value. Their email implied it was my choice but I’d be in debt if I didn’t increase. I can change it any time on the app with a slider and it gives me a projection on where I’ll be in 12 months based on the DD chosen.

I’m not sure if Shell have a different policy but the value of the DD is in my control – I guess if I got mega bucks in debt they may enforce something?

EDF did the same with me, I increased it to make sure we didn’t carry a balance into April.

Tried to upload my final March meter readings to Octopus to ensure that I get billed correctly but the site’s not accepting them. I expect a lot of other people are trying to do the same. I’ve taken photos as proof in case I need to dispute a bill later.

Tried as well, got this on the octopus site

We’re super busy today so you might have a long wait if you call.

The best day to give us a meter reading is this Saturday (our standard variable prices don’t change until 00:00 Saturday 2nd April.) Make a note of your readings or take a photo of them on Saturday. When we receive this reading we will apply it to your account from 00:00 midnight on the Saturday. You will have a week to submit them to us, so please don’t worry if you can’t get it to us that day.

Their quoting system is up the wall at the moment.

I submitted my reading and got an estimate for April to be £314 from £78! I have a Tesla Powerwall and use my gas very little other than cooking. I live on my own and shower at the gym. Most of energy is provided by battery too so god knows where their latest price has come from?!

I live on my own and shower at the gym.

Either you don’t get washed a lot or you must be at the gym often!

I’m with Octopus (by choice) and found the opposite – the estimated use is too low and I have manually increased the DD.
Also have SMETS1 smart meters from Solarplicity (before they went bust) and they only work as dumb meters so have to manually provide readings which is annoying, hopefully the DCC will finally roll out the update to let them be migrated.

@airvent 😀 Sometimes the former and sometimes the latter!

And – as if by magic – BG have just been in touch. To automatically set up my DD at £233 per month.

So that’s £91 with Zebra.
BG’s initial offering was £2.4k
After a few days, BG’s system was saying £141
Now, after a quarterly bill of 500 quid for mid-Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar, they reckon the DD will be 233 per month.

****. They are grabbing money precisely because when prices go up in October and people can’t pay, BG will be protected because they’ve squirreled away this extra money now.

Is it?

Or is it helping people who cannot budget for the upcoming increases to smooth that forthcoming hardship. Is it any different really to paying a flat DD that’s over the odds through the summer to make winter less of a bump?

 when prices go up in October people will still be able to afford to have the heating on

Money grabbing ? I’d buy that if they were taking it from you and denying it from you…. But that’s not what’s happening is it ?

I’ve been with Octopus for the last couple of years, I turned off auto adjust for the DD and they’ve never tried to change it.

I just keep an eye on it & adjust it or top it up with an extra payment if needed.

They’ve never tried to grab my money.

I don’t think suppliers make the profit that people think they do.

The break down is usually 5% or so?

The company group that may include boiler service contracts etc are different.

Good experience with Octopus here. Very helpful, respond quickly and you don’t get passed around. Have been a customer for several years. Atleast we though we had…

2 months ago we started getting letters from British Gas addressed to MR DUPLICATE, we ignored the first few but when they continued I opened one to find that our gas supply had been changed to them without our knowledge. Predictably BG were useless and just told me that I had to request to transfer back despite me protesting that I had never requested to move from Octopus. Octopus were much more helpful and submitted an erroneous transfer notification to BG. BG refused to release us. Last week we finally got to the bottom of what had happened.
Together Energy (never heard of them) had transferred our account to them in July 2020! without our knowledge and had never contacted us. They went pop (no wonder if they were taking on accounts and not charging) so the account was transferred to BG.
Still with me? BG and Octopus are still trying to work it out but despite our Octopus account be massively in credit I’m bricking it about how much we may owe.

Is it?

Or is it helping people who cannot budget for the upcoming increases to smooth that forthcoming hardship. Is it any different really to paying a flat DD that’s over the odds through the summer to make winter less of a bump?

Gosh, yes. The famously altruistic Centrica plc 🙄

Money grabbing ? I’d buy that if they were taking it from you and denying it from you…. But that’s not what’s happening is it ?

Did you look at my figures? I don’t think you quite realise the scale of that company and the utter reliance of some people on it. This is probably billions of pounds across the UK in – let’s not forget – a credit meter.
Absolute shower.

I did. I’m still struggling to get outraged.

I think your underestimating just how much energy’s going to be next winter

My issue is more that they are unwilling/unable to justify how they’ve come up with my estimated usage. I know unit costs are about to go up by 50%, and probably that %age again in autumn ’22. What I object to is being told they’re massively upping my payment without the calculations to back it up! It’s more of a principal thing, having been to this rodeo before with npower, British gas, EDF, avro and now octopus. Surely it can’t be that hard to include a calculation of how they’ve worked it out?

Then take control and work out your own estimate and tell them. You’ve got 6-7 mo of data and I suggested a means of estimating winter vs summer. As opposed to their estimate.

I think the thing I’ve learned from this is that energy is bloody complex

It really shouldn’t be. It’s all the same. There’s no free range, artisan, hand knitted electricity or gas supply. The end product is exactly the same regardless if you live in a bedsit or a mansion. The myriad of tarrifs and pricing options are almost certainly designed to confuse and screw the consumer.

It’s not like insurance where you can say person/house A is riskier than person/house B, therefore a price difference is justifiable.

The entire industry is a shambles

Octopus are putting their energy prices up at midnight tomorrow. I uploaded my meter readings this morning without issue. When the headline figure of the increase is 54%, I struggle to see how a supplier can bang the price up from say £100pcm to well over £200pcm. That’s some way above 54%.

It really shouldn’t be. It’s all the same. There’s no free range, artisan, hand knitted electricity or gas supply. The end product is exactly the same regardless if you live in a bedsit or a mansion. The myriad of tarrifs and pricing options are almost certainly designed to confuse and screw the consumer.

It’s not like insurance where you can say person/house A is riskier than person/house B, therefore a price difference is justifiable.

The entire industry is a shambles

100% this.

What a monumental waste of human time and effort all the marketing and administrating the myriad tariffs for an identical product is.

I suspect those most screwed are those who can least afford to be, who don’t have the spare time to spend researching and comparing.

When the headline figure of the increase is 54%, I struggle to see how a supplier can bang the price up from say £100pcm to well over £200pcm. That’s some way above 54%.

That’s going from standard capped tariff to standard new capped tariff. If like me you were on a fixed term deal ending roughly the same time, you may be seeing a double move. Mine has gone from £104 to £180, but really more like £104 to £125 and then to £180

There is some reassurance in this thread. I’m with Scottish Power. Current bill is around £120 a month DD. They have sent me an estimate for next year of around £2300 total based on usage which is inline with the increases. The fixed deal quotes are a whopping £444 per month direct debit. No idea what is going on. Tried to get an answer out of them but didn’t really. I know we were fixed on a very good deal.

Plugged my kWh usage figures into Ovo and that came out at around £250 a month. Still a massive increase but better.

This is shit. I’m going to have to cut back on luxuries but I feel for people without any buffer. In my 20s this would have crippled me financially – I’d have just had to turn the heating off.

Anyone else been utterly appalled by their smart meter today? Timing couldn’t have been better for the energy companies, massive temperature drop married up with a **** big price hike…

I’ve been at work most of the day and today has been the most expensive day of the year in terms of energy costs…

Will be knocking the heating off as soon as the kids are in bed.

Anyone else been utterly appalled by their smart meter today?

I haven’t got one but my heating goes off at the end of Feb and doesn’t come on again until at least October so probably wouldn’t have noticed much difference.

Always intrigued when people say the heating goes off at set times of the year, surely its been on this week or is a log burner involved?

surely its been on this week or is a log burner involved?

No, not even crossed my mind to put it on. I do have a tv blanket and a cup of tea deployed though.

It’s all the same. There’s no free range, artisan, hand knitted electricity or gas supply.

I agree with the sentiment about price tariffs (privatisation is absolutely shit) but not all gas is the same, some is biogas. Not much, but you can pay more for it on the assumption that your profit goes into developing the capability.

Same for renewable electricity.

surely its been on this week or is a log burner involved?

Nope, our heating is off and won’t be back on for a while. No other heat source either. TV blankets and jumpers, we’re all good.
2, slightly tight fisted adults in the house which I guess helps tolerance levels.

We whacked our heating right down, and honestly it’s not that bad really.

Our house is modern and well insulated, and we could have it nice and warm all the time (we have in the past) and yes, it’s lovely. Now though we’ve slashed the heating temps and duration, it just takes the edge off the chill in the morning at at hometime and really, it’s no different. We are mostly in the living room, the kids in their bedrooms, and with the doors closed and electronics on, they warm up well enough. We lounge on the sofa with a jumper on or a blanket, and we’re perfectly warm and cosy. When I’m in the kitchen I’m cooking or I’ve just cooked, so it’s warm from that (largely due no doubt to waste heat from the gas hob). Honestly, closing doors and (thick) curtains are the most effective things we can do in this house. Still paying £140/mo on gas for now.

I think I’m gonna invest in cell blinds where possible and curtains over the front and back doors.

The trick is though you still need ventilation or you’ll get condensation and damp, so it’s a balancing act.

TV blankets and not expecting to wander round the house in just your pants will help

What exactly is a “TV blanket” ? Is it the poor man’s equivalent of a middle-class “throw” ?

Thanks.

Octopus have been great from our move from Avro. They’ve given us the recommended DD hike but been clear we can set it to what we want.
I have a energy readings spreadsheet that goes back years. It’s quite staggering to see how much gas pence per kWh has gone up over the years. But I know exactly how much this massive hike is going to cost me. I can thoroughly recommend maintaining a spreadsheet of all your tariffs and readings, never rely on the supplier websites, they’re all terrible.

Elec up
Gas up
Interest rates up
NI up
Food up
Petrol up
Salary NO CHANGE.

Thanks 2022.

What exactly is a “TV blanket” ? Is it the poor man’s equivalent of a middle-class “throw” ?

It’s just a blanket you sit under on the sofa in front of the telly. Maybe the poor man’s action blanket (without the action) 🙂

Are you all on fixed deals or on the standard variable?

I’ve been on the standard variable for yonks for my leccy, it’s increased quite a bit over the last 5 years tbh, used to be about 50 quid a month on leccy, and had been incrementally increasing every year till last year, where I was sitting on £83.

I’ve just bumped that to £100 to cover the rise.

But reason why I ask is that the ‘deals’ they are offering me are ridiculous.

They are estimating average annual cost is around £1200, and I checked that against the average rate(using last year’s numbers), fair enough, But the deals they are offering are in the £2200 range, what’s that all about? £1000 more expensive for a deal is well above the energy cap rates? How is that legal?

Are they just hoping unsuspecting people will click these deals without checking their own numbers?

My gas is on a fixed deal till oct, so only paying £23 a month at the mo(I turn the heating off for about 5 months of the year and a pretty consistent 21C the rest of the year), will see what they offer me, but with the current capped rates, even if I don’t get a deal, that should only rise to about £34 on the standard variable. So I’ll see what they offer come october, and redo my sums when the winter caps numbers are announced.

The deals in question, as you can see estimated £1200 up top, but the deals are are £2200? Just crazy tbh.

Been with Octopus for a few years (they took over from GB Energy who went bust a few years ago). They’ve doubled out DD from £81/month to £160 which seems a bit steep for a supposed 50% rise in energy costs, but not outrageous. I think our usage has gone up a bit due to WFH and having two laptops + lights + monitors on all day over the last couple of years – so maybe it’s not so bad.

Our latest Octopus statement estimates our new annual usage at just over 2k. Sounds about right. Our old DD was £94 per month. I,ve put it up to £180.

Filled the car yesterday. £99. £20 more thannit has ever needed before.

May need to pull the odd overtime shift.

The deals in question, as you can see estimated £1200 up top, but the deals are are £2200? Just crazy tbh.

The energy companies are restricted on how much they can charge on the SVT. I do not believe they are so restricted on fixed price tariffs. It was expected that under normal conditions the market would always offer cheaper fixed price/term deals, however with the massive increase in wholesale costs, retailers are now losing money on anyone still on a historic fixed tarif, and anyone on the SVT as the cap is too low for them to make a profit.

So no companies want to take on new customers, basically.

Our energy supplier went bust and we were moved to British Gas. I cancelled my Direct Debit with the old supplier because I was already over £600 in credit with them (I’m told I’ll get this back “in a few months”).

I’ve taken the opportunity to stay off Direct Debit. I know energy prices are nuts, but British Gas had suggested a monthly payment 3x the old one. It’ll cost a few quid extra to pay the bills the old fashioned way, but at least they won’t be able to build up a big balance on purpose.