Octopus Energy customers can make an automatic £80 saving with one change (Image: Getty)
Octopus Energy customers will be given an automatic saving of £80 on their by making one simple change.
has said that customers who pay by Direct Debit will get and those who make the switch will make an annual saving of £80 on average.
Those that don’t have a Direct Debit set up end up paying more as it creates more admin for suppliers. Octopus says it doesn’t think it’s fair to make everyone cover the extra cost so it offers a cheaper rate to customers who choose to pay by Direct Debit, which costs the firm less to manage.
Any customers that make a change to how they pay their energy bills will then have their bills automatically adjusted, making a saving of £80.
The supplier explains: “Our Flexible tariff will have slightly different unit rates and standing charges based on your payment method. The £80 isn’t a flat discount for Direct Debit customers (or a charge on non-Direct Debit customers) – it’s the typical savings an average home could see over a year on the cheaper Direct Debit dual-fuel rates.
“If you change how you pay, our system will pick that up and adjust your rates automatically, so if you don’t have a Direct Debit right now, it’s super easy to access the cheapest prices. All you need to do is set up a Direct Debit online and we’ll do the rest.”
The money-saving tip comes ahead of a hike to household energy bills from January when Ofgem will raise its price cap.
The cap is going up by 1.2% – or £21 – from the current £1,717 per year for a typical household in England, Wales and Scotland to £1,738. This amounts to an extra £1.75 per month.
But the latest forecast from analysts Cornwall Insight suggests that the cap could rise even higher due to the prospect of reforms adding extra costs, meaning it may go up to around £1,782, or a 2.5% increase, from January.
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The price cap limits the amount an energy supplier can charge for units of gas and electricity and it also impacts the standing charge, which is a daily cost per fuel type set by Ofgem.
The cap isn’t the absolute maximum price households will pay for energy as it is based on usage, so those that use more energy will pay more.
But Octopus has said its prices are lower than Ofgem’s price cap and its standing charges are the cheapest standard tariff rates of any large supplier.
The supplier added: “Ofgem has announced that on 1 Jan 2025, the Price Cap will rise by 1% to £1,738/year for a typical use household paying by Direct Debit.
“Octopus remain the only large supplier to have never charged the full price cap. We’ll get in touch with every customer this affects, with a personalised breakdown of what this means for you.”