Octopus refund

I'm £280 in credit and have a direct debit of £70 per month, which is the amount they recommended in May, that I pay to cover their forecast of my usage. They phoned me yesterday to say I should increase my direct debit again to £90 per month. I pointed out that we will be having £400 added to our accounts for the energy rebate, plus I'll be paying them the winter fuel allowance of £500, plus I'll be applying for the Warm Home Discount scheme again this year. So no, I won't be increasing my direct debit. They didn't argue.

I did a rely to the warning e mail we get saying the direct debit is due to go out on such and such a date. I e -mailed at 12.15 am (!) and had a reply by midday. My DD has been reduced from £270 to £230 a month now. Thanks Georgesgran for starting this thread. It made me do something!!

I find octopus very responsive to email on [email protected]
I don't quite understand the app though. I thought we were straight - I don't like being too much in credit I'd rather send over an extra payment now and then which is easy to do. Then I looked and we were £300 behind ! I don't quite know how they worked that one out ! But we find the using email address is very responsive.

Just to reply to .Mum - I tried to do that last night and an email this morning from ‘Johnathan’ says they don’t recognize my email address!
I love their App for ongoing information but trying to actually do something is impossible. As they’re asking for more personal details, I’m going to ring them and hopefully speak to a real person.

Our balance with Octopus is over £550 so I have tried to reduce our DD on the website. It wont let me so I've emailed Octopus and asked to decrease the DD by £40 a month. I'll see what they do!!

I’ve found them good so far?They do keep saying for me to put my direct debit up but I’m just easing it up month by month and keeping an eye on my balance. They’ll get what I give them and no more!

Have emailed and will contact ? by phone tomorrow. Probably easier to take a real ?back at this rate. X

I am also with Octopus and I have some credit but only about a month's d/d which is around £98 a month. £500+ is a ridiculous amount to be in their account but they do ask each month if we want to change payments etc.

I have always found them to be reasonable so good luck.

The likelihood of any of us staying in credit for long next autumn is not great, I reckon. But yes, we should be entitled to withdraw it. DDs are worked out to try and spread the load evenly over the year though, so it is swings and roundabouts.

I had no problem getting a refund from Octopus a few months ago. Perhaps they want to keep some because they know that fuel prices are going to shoot up even further. I'm letting my credit build up because I don't want to be cold like I was last winter when I was too afraid to put on the heating for any length of time. If I'm in credit I can burn more gas if necessary. Then if, by next Spring, I'm still well in credit, I'll withdraw it and we'll have a few days away. Seems like a win win situation to me. A warm flat in winter, no unexpected bills and the possibility of a short holiday.

Prentice
Sorry put your correct name ... pressed post ... funny noise then changed name ... sorry ?

Prestige
You made me smile ?

octopus will refund without question, they did to me and also reduced my dd payments on request

I'm not excusing them, but I think it has become standard practice for energy companies to keep customers accounts in credit by at least one month's DD amount.

I emailed octopus as I noticed £1380 in my account . I have been sending in my meter readings every month so thought great I will get a refund . But no the person I emailed said I had not been sending readings & they had not billed me for 4 months . I checked my online account & they had the last reading I sent on the 3 rd July . They apologised & said it was a computor error . Took £900 & told me I should leave the balance in but I could take a direct debit holiday for one month . I did this as it’s £380 . After reading this I am going to insist on a refund aswell

Yes, that is ridiculous Georgesgran your own money too, not theirs.
I admit that I saw the title of this thread and thought to myself,
Why would anyone take an octopus back to the shop for a refund?
I think the hot weather has affected me.

Like you say your money ! Keeping some because of how prices are going up , but if you request a refund I agree you should get it , why don't you put your DD down for the next month or so ... can't do anything about that ... as can only take what you authorise ... if you can't get it one way get it another !

I think I’ll do that too. I don’t mind being a few pounds in credit over the Summer, but it’s ridiculous that I can’t get my own money out.

When Octopus increased my DD I went in and reduced it back to the original amount - then just pay the additional difference each month.

I'm not having credit in a company's account when it can be in mine instead!