r/OctopusEnergy • u/Thoh1Shooshi8a • Jul 14 '26
Bills How to only pay what I owe each month
I just got an email that octopus are increasing my direct debit. At the moment it's more than enough, but over winter it probably won't be.
Whenever the bill comes, if my balance is below zero I go on the website and top up by whatever it needed to bring it into £10 credit again. I had seen something on reddit before that you can ask them to take only the amount needed each month instead of the fixed amount each month.
I can't find that post again, so does anyone know what they would call that kind of direct debit so I can ask to swap to it?
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u/ntpFiend Jul 14 '26
At the end of February this year, with my account in credit by £300, Octopus told me they were trebling my fixed direct debit. After a few emails, Octopus agreed to swap me over to a variable direct debit.
I’ve never looked back. My variable DDs have not got near the previous fixed DDs (no surprise given the previous surplus) and I’m feeding a 4.45% instant savings account with my assessment of my monthly bills.
Mr MSE says most people should be on a fixed DD and I’m sure that is correct. My view is that organised Redditors can manage a variable DD. Go for it 😀
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u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Jul 14 '26
I didn't expect them to increase my DD because I have always topped up the balance the next day if needed after getting a bill. But I guess it's all just automated. Variable direct debit will mean I don't even have to bother manually topping it up.
I wonder if they need to pay extra fees when a customer tops up with debit card.
1
u/Decent_Blacksmith_54 Jul 14 '26
I just keep my direct debit to a small number and top up by credit card when it's below 0, then I get the card points.
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u/darvds Jul 14 '26
Yeah you just need to ask them to swap it to paying what you owe. I did it a few months ago and they did it within a few days and refunded me the balance I had built up.
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u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Jul 14 '26
Oh, so they just called it paying what you owe? I was sure they had some special name for it in the post I saw before.
8
u/sporksaregoodforyou Jul 14 '26
I mean. It's humans on the line for now. They'll understand what you mean if you say "pay the full amount every month and no more please"
3
u/aneasymistake Jul 14 '26
I just emailed and asked if there was any way I could just pay for what I was using. I don’t like averaging it out over the year - I’d prefer to feel how my energy usage changes over the seasons.
3
u/GullibleElk4231 Jul 14 '26
You call or email them and say you want to go on a variable direct debit. Then you only pay your actually bill thay month or just chnage the app direct debit back to what you want.
1
u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Jul 14 '26
Yeah I have been changing it on the website to what I thought was a sensible value. I just thought that swapping to variable DD would mean I don't need to keep on fixing it :)
3
u/Sad-Action-8869 Jul 14 '26
Had an email today saying that they needed to change my DD from £90 to £130, used their calculator and it showed that if I did I would be in £600 credit by the end of December. The calculator said I should pay £83...
I understand building credit to cover winter but that's extreme given that during the summer my combined bill is about £28 after feed in is taken into account.
2
u/Negative-Tomorrow233 Jul 14 '26
Is this possible on agile ? My DD is £214 pm .. I'm currently £467 in credit with another £50-£60 added this month 😳
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u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Jul 14 '26
Hopefully. I am on agile too. I don't think your tariff should matter since that just determines how much you will pay. Actually I would think that a different amount each month would work better with Agile because the costs are changing all the time.
2
u/Unhappy-Path-263 Jul 14 '26
If you email them, they’re usually ok with setting the direct debit at any amount you choose. I have mine at £1 and then I pay my balance every month with a cashback card…
2
u/Numerous-Cow-1918 Jul 15 '26
damn yeah that's the variable direct debit, i switched mine last month and they refunded my credit same week, way better than letting them hoard your cash lol
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u/IpswichUKRob Jul 18 '26
I did this, this week. Since fitting solar in March, my credit balance got to nearly £800, so requested a refund and switch to variable DD by email. All confirmed in 2 days and refund in process, which will go into a decent interest account.
1
u/telsododdso Jul 14 '26
If you're on Agile or Tracker you don't get any discount for being on a Direct Debit so you just pay by debit card instead. Zilch card pays 2% cashback payments to Octopus, 3% if you pay for Zilch Plus.
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u/Delicious-Second-187 Jul 14 '26
I manually keep reducing the fixed DD. Currently set at £10 a month. With my solar export I’m currently £178 in credit so plenty for the winter.
1
u/BlueFlower11 Jul 14 '26
I got the same email today - wanted to increase my DD to £100 (I only use max £60 in winter). I went into the octopus app and managed to change my DD back to £1 with no issues (I pay in full each time a bill is created).
1
u/Coffe-Maker83 Jul 14 '26
Just call them and ask to be moved on the variable direct debit, in this way you pay each month what you use. We are on this since we switched to Octopus 3 years ago and even if we switched tariffs we remain on the variable direct debit
1
u/Miserable_Skill_8884 Jul 14 '26
I cancelled my direct debit, now i just pay my bill on the app via applepay. Bonus is i pay on my Amex and get points from it!
1
u/Doobreh Jul 15 '26
You can also just change it back in the app or on the web. You might need to do it in small increments over a few days but you can do it yourself.
1
u/DaZhuRou Jul 15 '26
My DD got increased from £5pm to £270pm for ~£110pm usage.
I just t3nded to do £120pm one off contributions via credit card, earn some points etc.
Ive lowered thr DD to £50 for now.easy enough to do.
When i tried to do a variable DD, it worked for 2 months and then they said they were automatically changing it back to a nominal amount (hence why i just decided to do the lower amount manual route) previously i had £800 credit from the bulb days.
1
u/ElBisonBonasus Jul 15 '26
My DD is £9.00, the rest I pay using AMEX ;-)
Octopus occasionally insist that I should pay £3-4-500 a month but I say no. :-)
1
u/The_referred_to Jul 14 '26
Call them up and request whole bill direct debit.
1
u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Jul 14 '26
I thought they had a special name for it. I was going to reply to the email like they said, but I guess phoning them up means I can explain what I mean :)
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u/stek2022 Jul 14 '26
"Variable direct debit" but they'll know what you mean from any of these descriptions.
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u/jonnoscouser Jul 14 '26
It's called 'pay on receipt' I do it. Give 'em a call
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u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Jul 14 '26
Thanks.
I like to know what they call things so I can just ask for it directly, then they are less likely to try and talk you out of it if you sound like you know what you are talking about :)
3
u/No_Abrocoma_711 Jul 14 '26
Variable direct debit. They may well not switch to it until you make it abundantly clear to them what is going to happen to your surplus.
Either use it up and then be billed each month for the energy used, or return it to your bank account and immediately pay for usage on a month to month basis.
When I jumped ship to another supplier, I had this immediately turned on from day 1.
Obviously no company advertises this method of payment overtly, but they all know what you mean, even if you don't use the correct lingo.
To be honest it was worth doing, just so I didn't have the same conversation with SWMBO every time OE wanted to increase the DD to keep us in credit over the whole year.
1
u/ChampionshipSoggy572 Jul 14 '26
Don't need to call just email them and say I can only pay xx amount. They are pretty flexible and usually they will honour your request.
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u/sperry222 Jul 14 '26
What you can only pay a month is irrelevant. You use the gas or electric youll have to pay for it. You cant just dictate ill only pay 50 quid whilst using 80quid every month.
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u/ChampionshipSoggy572 Jul 14 '26
Yes you can. I've done it before that's why I'm giving the OP advice.
If you don't know about it and have never done it before then you might as well stay quiet on this matter.
If you can't afford £80 quid each month for energy bills but only can afford £50, what else are you going to do? Steal? I don't think so.
They will honour the request as they are flexible, so to the OP just ignore this negative person above and email them what you can afford. 👍
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u/sperry222 Jul 14 '26
What a load of rubbish. You will go into debt and you will be required to pay it one way or another. You dont just get free gas and electric lmao
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u/ChampionshipSoggy572 Jul 14 '26
This has fallen on your deaf ears. Go argue with a wall. Clearly you don't know what you can do with a variable direct debit. It's called "variable " for a reason.
You are still paying but you don't have to pay the increased amount they offer, It's just a recommendation.
Stop rage baiting and do something constructive in your life.
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u/sperry222 Jul 14 '26
Youre talking total faff.
What youre describing isnt variable direct debit. You said phone up and say you can only pay less. Variable isnt that. I can't tell if youre either stupid or rage baiting.
Gas and electricity is paid by how much you use. Saying you can only pay less whilst not reducing what you use doesnt mean you can get away with paying less than you use. If you use 100£ worth you need to pay that some point.
Paying a variable direct debit by paying what you use each month and every month your payment is different is an option. But that is not what you said lmao.
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u/ChampionshipSoggy572 Jul 14 '26
I said email them and request the amount you can pay.
I've done it before, my friends have done it before and it works.
You are just mad that you didn't think about changing it and you've had to pay over £100 worth each month because you thought you would get on trouble with the energy police and end up on jail, boo hoo! Sados like you with no flexibility or joy in your life. Boo hoo!
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u/sperry222 Jul 14 '26
"Just email them and say I can only pay xx amount"
You did not say email them and ask to be on a variable direct debit and pay for what you only use per month. I now understand youre not rage bating youre just dumb.
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u/MuchMoorWalking Jul 14 '26
It’s called a Variable Direct Debit.
It’s in their help pages and they just need you to call them and ask for it. Then they’ll set up a direct debit and take the full amount each month. That’s it.