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Gas and Electricity Prices

Not sure what this can be, as d.d. IS variable. My contract is a fix but I could, I'm sure, increase it if I wished. Octopus would certainly do so if I started bingeing on energy.

It's payment in arrears - you submit meter readings, which generates a bill, and a DD is taken for the full amount of the bill, which will vary month to month (or quarter to quarter, depending on the frequency of submitting meter readings).

Presumably, what you are paying is called 'fixed' DD, even though the amount can be increased/decreased, depending on your actual usage over time and/or wholesale costs (as many are now experiencing…).
 
It's payment in arrears - you submit meter readings, which generates a bill, and a DD is taken for the full amount of the bill, which will vary month to month (or quarter to quarter, depending on the frequency of submitting meter readings).

Presumably, what you are paying is called 'fixed' DD, even though the amount can be increased/decreased, depending on your actual usage over time and/or wholesale costs (as many are now experiencing…).

Still baffled, as that sounds the same as, e,g,., my Virgin Media bill, except insamuch as they vary according to usage and I get the ;invoice' prior to the dd. being taken. Surely, direct debits are only 'fixed' until they're changed, as is my Octopus one. Some of my d.d.s are in arrears, some not and some part and part (like council tax, though the 10 monthly payment scheme means you are continuously 'loading' the payment to earn the 2 month holiday.

Sorry, but for me a direct debit is a direct debit; their operation can vary but I'm not aware of a different form of one.
 
Still baffled, as that sounds the same as, e,g,., my Virgin Media bill, except insamuch as they vary according to usage and I get the ;invoice' prior to the dd. being taken. Surely, direct debits are only 'fixed' until they're changed, as is my Octopus one. Some of my d.d.s are in arrears, some not and some part and part (like council tax, though the 10 monthly payment scheme means you are continuously 'loading' the payment to earn the 2 month holiday.

Sorry, but for me a direct debit is a direct debit; their operation can vary but I'm not aware of a different form of one.

'Fixed' DD is where the projected annual use is divided by twelve, to get a monthly DD payment - if your actual use accords with the projection, the DD will stay the same each month; if you use more, the company can/will increase the monthly amount to take account of the increase from the expected usage, or you can request a lower DD if usage is lower than expected; equally, if, as has been the case in recent times, wholesale costs rise significantly, they will increase the monthly DD in response. The idea is that you build up credit through the lower energy usage of summer, to cover the higher energy usage of winter, while your monthly DD remains the same, so that you end up a with a zero balance at the end of the 12 months (give or take)… in theory.
(At least, that’s my understanding of how it works, as I’ve never paid by ‘fixed’ DD)

Variable DD is as I’ve described previously – each month, a bill of actual usage is produced, putting the account in debit, until such time as the DD for the full amount of the bill is taken, bringing the account back to zero – you do not build a credit balance on the account. So, in January for example, the bill might be say £150, so the DD will be £150, whereas in July it might only be say £40, so the DD will be £40, and so on for each month of the year.

The energy industry has designated these options as fixed DD (even though the amount can be changed), and variable DD.
 
SSE pretty much doubled my DD (from £58 to £115) despite me being over £500 in credit and never having used more than £40 in a month. I was able to adjust me DD down, but only to £74 per month. Given how in credit I am it seems wrong that I can't actually adjust the credit to less than I use, in order to reduce how much in credit I am, as even at £74 per month I'm still paying more than I use.
 
SSE pretty much doubled my DD (from £58 to £115) despite me being over £500 in credit and never having used more than £40 in a month. I was able to adjust me DD down, but only to £74 per month. Given how in credit I am it seems wrong that I can't actually adjust the credit to less than I use, in order to reduce how much in credit I am, as even at £74 per month I'm still paying more than I use.

If it's suitable/of interest, SSE seem to offer variable DD, although it's quarterly rather than monthly billing.
 
You could ask SSE for a refund of the amount you're in credit.

It might get to that, although I'd rather just get them to work through the amount I'm in credit as it's easily enough for a year or so.

If it's suitable/of interest, SSE seem to offer variable DD, although it's quarterly rather than monthly billing.

I didn't see an option for that via the website, but will have a look thanks.

I might end up calling them (although I'd rather not waste the time!) and seeing if they'll maybe turn off the DD for 6 months and work through the credit amount, or alternatively refund the credit balance and then do the variable DD thing.
 
The energy industry has designated these options as fixed DD (even though the amount can be changed), and variable DD.

Thanks for the patient and exhaustive description, Caledon, but at the end of the day it's purely a terminological aberration (sorry, variation) for the energy companies' own strategies, but a direct debit is a direct debit, is variable regardless of the use the d.d. is set up for.
 
SSE pretty much doubled my DD (from £58 to £115) despite me being over £500 in credit and never having used more than £40 in a month. I was able to adjust me DD down, but only to £74 per month. Given how in credit I am it seems wrong that I can't actually adjust the credit to less than I use, in order to reduce how much in credit I am, as even at £74 per month I'm still paying more than I use.
Getting excess credit back from SSE.

https://sse.co.uk/help/bills-and-paying/how-to-get-a-refund
 
had the bailliffs knocking on family members door today over unpaid energy bill . even though a payment plan in force . very distressing indeed . i guess this will be repeated all over the UK !!! :eek:
 
Hmm, just spotted that Octopus haev (finally) billed me yesterday for electricity we used in February-March. Thought my 'balance' was looking a bit healthy, though I have no idea why it took them 2 months to do this.
 
It seems like they’ve turned the cap into a tracker of energy prices, this makes it useless.

From The Times:

https://archive.ph/3vh1e

'“We do not consider that we should prioritise the lowest possible prices for consumers at the present time over the need to enable efficient suppliers to finance their businesses,” the regulator said.'
I agree that the cap is currently of little benefit, but we might keep in mind that the cap is to prevent profiteering and cartel type price fixing, not to exercise control over pricing, pe se.
 
I wonder how the cap should be working in the case of electricity supply standing charges, which should be unaffected by wars fought thousands of miles away.
 
The cap is nothing to do with standing charges.
Their increase has nothing to do with anything other than the consumer picking up the tab for previous company failures as has been explained on here several times.
 


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