In July 2022, I was moved to the simpler energy variable plan (electricity only), as my previous fixed 2 year plan had ended. I didn't have any choice in this as I couldn't afford any other fixed rate plan on offer. I’m on a Smart Meter. Direct debit payments were steadily increased until in Jan this year I reached the limit of what I could afford. I cancelled my direct debit, paid the Feb bill by credit card a day early and have now set up a Standing Order for the maximum I can afford to start 1st of next month. My latest usage tells me I’m in credit to the tune of nearly £50. I was paying 0.32p per kwh but since my DD was cancelled Ovo have increased this to 0.36p which of course has only made my life harder. You can’t get hold of anyone to speak to and the only time I managed that they were utterly useless. I’ve sent emails but have never had a response or even an acknowledgement, the Whatsapp facility elicited no response either and the Chat Bot is useless. I have to go with an SO because I need to manage my finances, not OVO. Bills are being paid but I’m being penalised and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about this except wait for 8 weeks and then speak to OfGem. Is anyone else having this kind of a problem?
Monthly direct debit unaffordable for me
Best answer by Jeffus
Hi
I am afraid by cancelling your Direct Debit, you were then put on a higher rate automatically.
I suggest you call the OVO Collections team and see if they can work out a payment plan that you can afford on direct debit. By getting back on a Direct Debit plan they should put you back on the lower direct debit rate.
0800 0699 831
The Collections team should work with you to come up with a payment plan you can hopefully afford.
Don't use the normal phone number, chat or WhatsApp, use the OVO Collections number in this situation.
Unfortunately the OFGEM rule say suppliers can charge more if you don't pay by Direct Debit. You are simply being charged the higher rate that Ofgem themselves set. So you can't complain about the higher unit rate if you cancelled the DD.
See if the Collections team can come up with a reasonable DD for you to pay off any debt over a reasonable time.
If you have put in a complaint, you don't take it to Ofgem after 8 weeks if you are not happy. Ofgem don't look at individual complaints, you take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.
The cost of energy is very likely to go up again on 1st April before falling hopefully on 1st July. Fingers crossed things will get easy for us all then.
Please do ask any questions and we will see if we can help.
I don't work for OVO, i am just a customer like you
+3- Carbon Catcher***
I think all you can do now is speak to the Collections team who can set you up a payment plan that you can manage. I’m afraid that will mean another phone call. I’ll find the collection team number…
+2- Plan Zero Hero
- Answer
Hi
I am afraid by cancelling your Direct Debit, you were then put on a higher rate automatically.
I suggest you call the OVO Collections team and see if they can work out a payment plan that you can afford on direct debit. By getting back on a Direct Debit plan they should put you back on the lower direct debit rate.
0800 0699 831
The Collections team should work with you to come up with a payment plan you can hopefully afford.
Don't use the normal phone number, chat or WhatsApp, use the OVO Collections number in this situation.
Unfortunately the OFGEM rule say suppliers can charge more if you don't pay by Direct Debit. You are simply being charged the higher rate that Ofgem themselves set. So you can't complain about the higher unit rate if you cancelled the DD.
See if the Collections team can come up with a reasonable DD for you to pay off any debt over a reasonable time.
If you have put in a complaint, you don't take it to Ofgem after 8 weeks if you are not happy. Ofgem don't look at individual complaints, you take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.
The cost of energy is very likely to go up again on 1st April before falling hopefully on 1st July. Fingers crossed things will get easy for us all then.
Please do ask any questions and we will see if we can help.
I don't work for OVO, i am just a customer like you
Hi
Very many thanks for your help. I'll ring the collections team and see what can be arranged.
Hi @juliamc
Thank you for your help. I havevthe number for the collections team now and will give them a call to try and sort this out.
+2- Plan Zero Hero
Hi
Very many thanks for your help. I'll ring the collections team and see what can be arranged.
They are legally obliged to help and work with you on a payment plan, which will spread your payments out and ideally make them more affordable now until the cost of energy hopefully starts to fall.
It may not be perfect obviously but worth chatting to them to get a Direct Debit going again if at all possible.
Monday will be very busy i am sure just to warn you.
Good luck
- Plan Zero Hero
There is another possibility, especially for those determined to live within their means. Despite what you may have read recently about the evils of pre-payment, you may find that this would be appropriate for you; the rate per kWh of electricity is currently about 3% lower on average than that for Direct Debit customers - and getting on for 12½% lower than your current tariff. The standing charge is a bit higher, but the point at which it begins to make financial sense for a Direct Debit customer is around 1850 kWh per year; anything above that and pre-payment should be the cheaper option. Since you have a smart meter, it shouldn’t be difficult to make the switch, and it ought to be relatively simple to manage.
You can compare the maximum (EPG) rates on this page: Energy Price Guarantee: regional rates, January to March 2023 - GOV.UK. If you’re not sure which region you belong to, the table on this page will help.
Once you’ve digested this, you may find it worthwhile to explore this option when you eventually manage to get through to OVO. It would be helpful to us and other users in a similar situation if you could come back here and tell us what you found out.
+2- Plan Zero Hero
There is another possibility, especially for those determined to live within their means. Despite what you may have read recently about the evils of pre-payment, you may find that this would be appropriate for you; the rate per kWh of electricity is currently about 3% lower on average than that for Direct Debit customers - and getting on for 12½% lower than your current tariff. The standing charge is a bit higher, but the point at which it begins to make financial sense for a Direct Debit customer is around 1850 kWh per year; anything above that and pre-payment should be the cheaper option. Since you have a smart meter, it shouldn’t be difficult to make the switch, and it ought to be relatively simple to manage.
You can compare the maximum (EPG) rates on this page: Energy Price Guarantee: regional rates, January to March 2023 - GOV.UK. If you’re not sure which region you belong to, the table on this page will help.
Once you’ve digested this, you may find it worthwhile to explore this option when you eventually manage to get through to OVO. It would be helpful to us and other users in a similar situation if you could come back here and tell us what you found out.
You would still have to work out a plan with OVO to pay off any current debt so allow for that in anything you work out. You need to make sure you would have money to put in the meter as well as pay off the outstanding OVO debt. This may be very difficult for you now in winter.
Also be very careful with pre payment meters that you save up enough money to get through the winter months. There are a lot of people going cold on pre payment meters as they didn't. That is my biggest worry if you go on a pre payment meter, that you go cold in winter or end up borrowing money at high interest rates to be able to put money into pre payment meters. This does happen unfortunately.
Just be very careful you don't get into high interest loan debt to put money in a pre payment meter which isn't unusual.
Hope it all works out for you
- Plan Zero Hero
… You need to make sure you would have money to put in the meter as well as pay off the outstanding OVO debt.
This is where having a smart meter can really help. The online account will give a good idea of how much energy is being used each month, so armed with this, and the cost per day and per kWh, it should be possible to work out how much to top up by to cover the coming period.
+2- Plan Zero Hero
… You need to make sure you would have money to put in the meter as well as pay off the outstanding OVO debt.
This is where having a smart meter can really help. The online account will give a good idea of how much energy is being used each month, so armed with this, and the cost per day and per kWh, it should be possible to work out how much to top up by to cover the coming period.
I suspect the credit may already be gone by now or shortly. I did see it.
If they go on a pre payment meter they need to be careful about missing out on fixed rate deals when they are reintroduced. It is just not as easy to switch.
I am just not convinced a pre payment meter is the right choice personally.
hi i really dont know where to start !!our bill is £5,000 reason is we was paying our direct debit and it suddenly shot up with no warning ovo kept saying its the usage on the house well we got ovo to check useage and guess what everything is fine had a smart meter and this is where is suddenly went wrong have switched it off now .aslo my husband has heart failure and is in last stages of it today i contacted ovo told them we can not afford £650 per month but we can afford £ 300 guess what told us all they could do is hold account for 7 days i send you have a dying man here and they came back with go to stepchange cant do that as have iva against us aslo they said letters will keep coming out i said they have no compassion or repect please any thoughts on this
Hi
I’m sorry to hear of what’s happened here and what you’re going through with your husband. We don’t have access to customer accounts here on the Forum so we can only give our advice on what to do. Ultimately it’s our Support Team that you’ll need to speak to get this resolved. If the account is in debt you’re potentially being re-routed to our Collections team if you’re calling. My advice would be to use Webchat, or to email hello@ovoenergy.com, as you’ll then get through to Customer Services who’ll be able to fully diagnose the situation. If you’re not getting the help you need you can ask to log a complaint.
When you contact Support ask them to check over your readings, and to make sure that we have a photo of the closing reading from your old meter. It may be that something is wrong here, but it could also be that we didn’t receive readings for a long time, and underestimated the usage. If the latter is the case then the debt on the account will stand and, in this scenario, you’d need to contact our Collections team to request a payment plan. They’ll ensure that you’re only paying an amount which you can afford, irrespective of the amount of debt on the account. From what you’ve said it sounds like these conversations haven’t been had.
To sum up:
- Contact Support via email or webchat and ask if the billing is correct, and if they have billed you to removal reads from your old meter(s)
- If the billing is incorrect you can then request to make a complaint, which should expedite things
- If the billing and debt is correct you’ll need to speak to Collections to get a payment plan set up. They’ll also advise what other support can be given
I’d also highly recommend signing up to our Priority Services Register if you haven’t already. Best of luck with this, I hope you get some answers quickly. Please be reassured that, if the debt is correct, our Collections team will be able to set up a payment amount based upon your circumstances and what you can afford. If there are any billing issues that need to be fixed, our Support team will put all billing on hold whilst everything gets resolved.
Best wishes to you and your husband, and please do reach out if you have any further questions.
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