[Closed] Octopus wildly over-estimating energy usage to bump up direct debits?

I thought energy bills are about to double though ?

Ha! After I posted that I got an email from USwitch, saying that they're "hearing of customers being overcharged"! I guess it's not just me then...

Had the same with Ovo... figure no point in stressing about it considering the hikes from Friday... Will give it a month or two to settle down then act accordingly.

I had this e-mail recently.
They are asking me to pay £205 a month which consists of an estimate of my future usage & a small amount on top (something like £13 a month) to pay off the current debit on my account.
For reference, my initial direct debit was set at £92 a month which was carried over from my previous AVRO account (where I was £42 in credit).
EDITED - it was AVRO I was with previously, not OVO as I originally stated.

I looked back at my usage since swapping to Octopus in October '21. It averaged £140 a month. Obviously this makes the £205 seems a bit extreme, but then I remembered that I think the prices are going up in April - so I assume this hike is an estimate based on the new prices that will be kicking in.
Luckily I can afford the hike in prices (as painful as they are!) so have decided to leave their estimate as it is, until I have a better handle on how the new rate compares to my actual usage throughout the year.

This seems to be an the rage with energy suppliers at the moment and they are doing it under the pretence that bills might go up again in October as well so they are doing it with their customers interests at heart.

All complete bollocks of course but nothing in the rules stopping then doing it...

As above, I think it should include the April hikes, well that's what my fag packet calcs suggest...

Also Avro -> Octopus, also being asked to increase a £77 a month direct debit to over £250 monthly ... thanks for the update then alter tip too 🙂

Also had issues with Octopus regarding a SMART meter, can't read my gas meter, coming out to replace it next month, the existing one is 12 months old. As for D.D.s I've increased them myself as I've gone from £12 in credit with AVRO to £600 in debt with Octopus and that's based on real readings and before the April hikes kick in. Someone somewhere is making a lot of money.

You can ask them to set the direct debit at a specific amount usually, at least EOn let you do that. Then it's up to you to try and balance out the expected usage and expected rises.

At the end of the day any extra you pay now means playing less later in the billing year provided you're savvy with reading bills and providing monthly readings.

Eon £120pm (always had unused balance) leccy&gas now £270.
This ain't gonna be fun.

Price cap is about to hit, more so if you’re on a variable tariff, so all energy suppliers are hiking prices to ensure they are not left with customers potentially owing thousands.

FWIW I’ve been an Octopus customer for a few years, never had a problem with them, in fact the couple of times I’ve had to deal with them over the phone they’ve been absolutely spot on. We’ve set our own direct debits, had over payments repaid at the click of a button on their website. Also had a few recommendation fees paid to new users and myself on switching.

Working in the industry I don't think it's malice. It's more likely the result of archaic and inefficient processes. The yearly consumption estimate processes is an industry wide thing. Your supply submits your readings and then eventually gets back an annual usage estimate. It wouldn't surprise me if Octopus hadn't yet got estimates for your meterpoint from the industry since you moved to them in October.

Annual estimates are also woefully slow to change. It's taken nearly 2 years of living in our house for our gas annual estimate to get anywhere near close to the previous owners (we're at about 1/3rd what they were). That's with a smart meter giving regular readings.

I know that the communications we sent out about the price changes included a break down of the costs; the standing charge + the annual usage x unit rate. And included a note to indicate if the industry defaults for annual usage had been used rather than actual estimates for your meterpoint. I'm not sure if that was a regulatory requirement though.

Had similar with bulb. The business model seems to be for the customer to lend them £600 a year. You get the credit back if you ask for it then they immediately start upping the recommended direct debit to build it up again. They tell your average use is £x a month but ask for a regular payment of £x+y
I now pay the exact useage month by month after doing the reading. Wasn’t hard to set up.

Thanks all.

It's not so much that they are increasing the DD - I understand there is going to be a significant per-unit price hike in April - it's that they cannot/will not justify how they have got to those numbers....

I've had the heating off from the start of March, so I know that my March usage is likely to be farly typical from now until the heating goes back on in October(ish). So I can reasonably forecast my usage for the next 6 month, and from that my expenditure. I want to see how they are working it out, and why it's so different. I may have got it wrong, but they appear to have mis-informed me initially about what data they have used, and may be using "off the shelf" consumption figures rather then actually basing it on my usage data, that they have full access to!

So much for smart meters makin life easier!

On the last point about comms stating standard figures had been used in their companies comms - Octopus specifically stated that they used my usage information to calculate the estimate/DD amount, and made no reference to "standard" usage numbers in altering my direct debit.

Tbf to octopus they esnt out details of the new tarrifs and did not hike the direct debit.
I balanced my combined gas annd elec at £52pcm, the elec is steady through the year and the gas use goes up 5x in winter.
You email the reading through monthly and within 2 to 3 hours a detailed bill arrives
If its next day its usually accompanied by a demand for more dosh as ypu have triggered a parameter, stll negotiate this increase though.
There are odd things though, lady at work does weekly readings and her bill and demand for more dd money came through with a guessed reading and the bill saying 'actual' on it. The reading was low to infer higher use.

I thought energy bills are about to double though ?

A lad at work was moved to Octopus when his old supplier went bust last year, he's just been told his bills are rising from £96 pm to £279 pm. I'm also with Octopus (by choice, not moved and don't have a smart meter) but haven't had the same email, I'm currently paying £63 pm with no indication of how much its going up nxt month

I’m with Octopus and when I bothered to properly read their comms it was pretty fair. They basically said you can either bump it up a bit now and spread the cost of a rise, or take a massive hit when the time comes. Ultimately you’re only going to pay for the amount you actually use so it’s just down to how you want to manage the costs.

Never had an issue and been credited the money back if I’ve overpaid and want the money back in my account.

I'm with Octopus and as far as dealing with them (installation of smart meter, electric vehicle charging point etc) they've been brilliant. Their management of my combined supply account has been extremely good

Their communications around likely price hikes have shown eye-wateringly high increases (way more than the figures quoted in the press), but then there have been a few emails along these lines and I get the feeling that they are trying to give customers as much warning as possible but are having to re-issue comms as things change.

We were moved to eon next. New DD is £330 (from £130)! No option in the app to set your own value though. Grr.

That's nothing. We were on c.£91 per month with zebra. British Gas wanted £2,400 per month.

I've seen someone else with 6k per month estimated.

As geuben says above, it's shit systems and processes. Once I'd supplied BG with readings and waited a couple of days, it calmed down to £140 ish per month.

I'm not letting them do DD though as they WILL **** it up. We're paying quarterly.

I'm with Octopus. Most user friendly supplier I have had. If you think you are building up too much credit over the summer just go to your online account and there is an option to return it to your bank account.

No need to navigate call centre mazes.

Similar issue here. Moved from Avro to Octopus so they have very little to work with, meaning you get total insanity like this:

My current DD is £218 per month. Gives an annual amount of around £2600 give or take.

They are proposing going to £423 per month which is £5076 although they are estimating £5,262

The right answer is somewhere in the middle but seeing as they only have data since our consumption increased around September then it's likely too high an estimate.
"Based on your estimated annual usage, not the figures you gave when signing up." is the line used - the issue seems to be that they are applying the estimate using autumn and winter usage year round.

Will look at my recent email from them then!
Have been very happy with their service when switched from Avro.

I will stick to providing readings and paying a bill when they send it. Direct debits can **** right off.

Just remember that paying quarterly is usually more expensive than paying by DD. Usually £100-200 more and some discounted tariffs (those that are left) make paying by DD a prerequisite.

Stop the DD and you may lose the deal. Worth checking before pressing the button

I will stick to providing readings and paying a bill when they send it. Direct debits can **** right off.

Yes there is this option too, might do that myself.

granny_ring
Full Member
I will stick to providing readings and paying a bill when they send it. Direct debits can **** right off.

Yes there is this option too, might do that myself/blockquote>

That's a good idea. I wonder if you can do that pro actively and input a meter reading monthly, and pay the due amount?

 

Oh how the chuff do you quote on here? And the preview button has disappeared!

We were moved to eon next. New DD is £330 (from £130)! No option in the app to set your own value though. Grr.

You can log into website and change the amount and date for your direct debit as often as you want, it takes 30 seconds. And no I don't work for them.

Thanks airvent.

Considering there is little benefit to a supplier to bump up direct debits def false pretences, but a big customer service impact if they do, I think it is safe to say you might be reading into this too much… Octopus are one of the best suppliers out there, and that is from someone who works for a competitor (but not a supplier).

The best thing I can advise anyone is to look at your last year of bills and work out your annual consumption - from that you can then use your new prices to work out your annual bill. Assuming you have no debt in your account, divide that by 12 for your monthly DD. If that is wildly different to your suppliers suggestions give them a call with the figures.

The expected outcome will be a correct direct debit. Anything less is worth an ofgen complaint.

I know it's tricky if your supplier went bust and your account disappeared overnight. But if it's any help, because I'm a data nerd and also because we had a new boiler a few years ago I got into the habit of keeping figures and tracking usage pre and post. Then covid, and wfh, I kept going to see how much extra I use as a result of being at home (spoiler - electicity quite a bit; gas not so much but I do have a new down bodywarmer instead 😉 )

If it's any help I find my electricity consumption almost flat across the year, as long as you turn lights off when not in use, etc., the same amount of TV and kids electronic devices and electric oven usage etc. So as an estimate for the year, take whatever you have on Octopus so far and extrapolate.

On gas, yes if differs, but as a rule of thumb I use about 30% of my gas in the summer months April - Oct and 70% Oct-April, and it's not that variable. OFC it went down due to the boiler and then up due to covid but because I still wasn't running the heating very much when WFH the actual ratio stayed about the same. And also OFC we haven't had a proper cold winter for a few years.

So if you only have the past 6mo or so of data due to a supplier going tits up, maybe use that 70/30 split as a guesstimate for your year. It'll almost certainly be better than just doubling the last 6mo.

And FWIW I find Octopus great, despite being with them for 4 years now I've not had a problem other than my sum total of the wheel-of-fortune bonuses being £1. In 48 months give or take. And two spins a month. I think it's fixed.

other than my sum total of the wheel-of-fortune bonuses being £1.

ohhh get you and your big win

big fat zero here, I also think its rigged.

Martin Lewis has been talking about energy Cos bumping up DDs way over the 54%, he's believes it 'may' be Energy Cos trying to increase cash-flow, although I suppose you can't blame them, things have been tough for them too with most of the market going bust!

I think the thing I've learned from this is that energy is bloody complex and all this talk of 'average caps' which worked in normal times, is more misleading now.

I also think how fair it is all boils down to personal circumstances.

My fixed price deal ended in Oct, so back then my payments went from £111 to £144 and I was 'on the cap' now because of the raise in cap I'm going to £195, that's not quite 54%, partly because we reduced our usage and partly because in the year before we were paying too little (EDF only bill twice a year). So, it's all but doubled over 6 months. So people though who's deals are ending now, or had to switch because their provider went bust are getting it all at once, so their bills are doubling "overnight", add a year of underpayments into the mix and it could easily be more.

It must be hard for people who've been switched because there's not enough data for their new providers to honestly estimate usage, and they're going to be keen to take more, rather than less, there's likely another big jump coming in Oct!

I'm with e.onnext (which apparently is not the same as E.On), got transferred to them from npower.

They took on my DD and everything pretty smoothly and they've tried to put my DD up a couple of times but the app has an option to set your own payment level.

With the price rise, they told me mine was going up 70% and I went online and knocked it right back down - I'm already in credit with them. I submit a monthly reading via the app - they keep telling me to book a smart meter installation but that's not going to happen.

anyone read the article on BBC yesterday/today. Interesting breakdown the average annual bill of £1,971 the operating company makes £35 profit (source ofgem).
Can hardly accuse the companies of profiteering, just trying to keep the business alive with the current market volatility

The industry is broken

Source;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58090533

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?

We've been with Octopus for 18 months and have been happy with the service tbf.

We were paying £117pm, then had an email a few months ago saying due to usage it was increasing to £147 and now been told it's gone up to around £250. Kind of in the ballpark I was expecting so will just suck it up for now and keep an eye on how much in credit the account is.

We should be able to cope as we have slack to cut but god knows how those with little spare will afford it. Mate of mine works full time but isn't on a huge wage, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't really do anything that costs except fuel for work but regularly is down to a few quid the week before payday. Plenty will be worse off than him.

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.

****wits. 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 ****ing 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.

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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.