Alternatives to OVO EV tariffs

​@Phil Smith the rules are incredibly tight with that sort of thing, and have been tightened as you say. If you were with a supplier that went bust, then your credit is guaranteed by Ofgem, under the Supplier of Last Resort process.

I hope you manage to make the decision that’s the best one for you. If you’re getting quotes from other suppliers, make sure to enter your annual usage figures, which can be found via your online account. Log in, click on ‘Plan’, then ‘plan details’. You’ll see the usage labelled under ‘future annual consumption’. Make a note of these figures, and enter them when you get a quote from another supplier.

When comparing EV tariffs, you could try making a note of all the ones you’re thinking would maybe fit the bill, and then entering them into an AI platform such as Gemini, along with some info as to your home set up, your EV, and what miles you do / charging habits etc. The AI tool will then scrape sites like the OVO Forum, and other sites and forums to come up with some suggestions for you. Of course, you can’t always take this as gospel, but it could be helpful when trying to compare lots of different offerings.

Let us know how you get on, and what you decide to do.

​@Ben_OVO 

Thanks for the tips for comparing EV tariffs. I'm just saddened that my journey with OVO is likely to end soon. I've been with them for many years and always had competitive fixed tariffs, but my renewal is over 30% higher this time. Add to that the Ohme issue resulting in one of my EVs being incompatible with OVOs software, and the rate for the compatible EV  doubling, means I need to look elsewhere. 

​@Phil Smith that is a shame, and we’d be sad to see you go. It’s frustrating that the renewal quote is so much higher, though I would have imagined that we’re not any higher than the rest of the market at the moment - there’s been increases across the board I believe. If you shop around using your usage figures you might find that, after all, we’re not coming out that much more expensive than other suppliers. 

At the end of the day though, you’ve got to do what’s best for you in terms of cost, ease, service and products and, if switching to another supplier means you’ll be better of in these regards, then we’d always promote doing that!

Let us know how you get on, and let us know if you have any further questions. Also, if you do switch away you’re still more than welcome to remain a part of this Forum community 😁.

​@Ben_OVO 

Thanks for your comments.

The new fixed tariff offered by OVO had similar unit prices to the July Price cap, which surprised me. Gas was the worst, as it would've gone up from my current 5.35p to about 7.4p. That's an astonishing increase of about 38%. So, today I've decided to move to Outfox Energy, and the start date is 04th July, inside the 49 day penalty free switching period - my plan ended on 30th July.

I do have a few questions, if that's OK.

Firstly, on line it states that my plan now ends on 03rd July, which is correct. However, under Charge Anytime it says "You've cancelled, your plan will stop at midnight". Surely this is incorrect, as my cancellation date is 03rd July, not today.

Secondly, I've had an email stating that 

"It could take up to 10 weeks to wrap everything up. Meanwhile, we’ll keep your Direct Debit running, so you might see more payments going out to cover your energy during this time. Your switch could take up to 4 weeks to complete - Your new supplier should have confirmed your exact switching date.

We’ll send your final bill 6 weeks after that. Once you get it, you’ll see your balance is either positive, negative or £0:

If it’s positive – we’ll refund you within 10 days

If it’s negative – we’ll cancel your Direct Debit payments as soon as it reaches £0 (or, you can simply pay everything off now)

If it’s £0 – there's nothing else to do"

On 4th July, my account will already be in credit, so I don't want the next payment to be taken on 8th July, as this will add hundreds to my credit balance. Can I therefore cancel my direct debit to stop this happening?

Thanks.

Morning ​@Phil Smith,

Regarding the email about Charge Anytime, I’d recommend getting in touch with the Charge Anytime team to query this, as we don’t have access to your Charge Anytime account on the Forum. They can be contacted via email at ovocharge@ovo.com. Let us know what they say about this one - we’d appreciate the info.

In answer to your second question, if you’ve got enough credit in your account to cover the final bill, then feel free to cancel the Direct Debit. You’ll receive an email requesting that you set it back up again, but this is automated. If the worst came to the worst and you had some debit left to pay, you can make a one-off payment for the remainder. 

I hope this helps, and best of luck with the new supplier!

Thanks Ben, I'll give ovo charge an email.

​@Ben_OVO 

In light of the ceasefire I'm considering cancelling my move to Outfox Energy and waiting till the end of my contract on 30th July, to see what happens.

However, on a webchat, I was advised that if I cancel my move, my contract will still end on 3rd of July, the switch date. Surely this is unfair, and cancelling the switch should restore my end of contract date to the original 30th July?

Hi ​@Phil Smith 

I'm sorry that you find yourself in this situation but I will hazard a guess with the following response. When you are in a contract, right up to the last day, OVO will buy energy on the futures market (months in advance) to cover the likely amount of energy you would use. It's an Ofgem requirement to prevent the situation where Bulb went out of business because they hadn't bought enough energy in advance. When you cancelled your contract this set an end date of 3rd July beyond which OVO was not buying energy for your use. If you cancel the move OVO can't retrospectively buy the energy you would likely use until the 30th July at the price they could have got it for at the time (because the price goes up the closer you get to the usage date) which is why your end date is still the 3rd July. This is why there are exit fees on FP contracts because the energy has already been bought (or at least the sale price has been agreed) and if you dive out of a contract then the supplier is left with energy it has agreed to buy (a contract) but now doesn't have that customer to sell it to.

If you are now thinking, Well it was bought months in advance they should still have it but OVO also sell excess energy as soon as they know it's available and that could be the reason why.

It might be worth talking to customer services to ask if they can restore the orginal date (webchat answers can be right but often generic) and they may be able to do something but OVO are technically right not to restore your old end of contract date because you ceased the contract and OVO have a right to sell the energy bought on your behalf that is now outside the revised contract date.

Peter

​@Peter E 

Thanks for your in depth response.

I don't disagree with anything you say, but I'm permitted to leave without penalty in the last 49 days, and I've exercised that right. I feel that until I've left the contract entirely, the end date should remain as the original date. 

I'll probably phone customer services tomorrow to see what they have to say, but for a number of reasons I'll be glad to leave OVO. They let me down by having a weak contract with Ohme, which meant that my Ohme  EV charger was no longer compatible with Charge Anytime. Then they doubled the cost of charging from 7p to 14p.