Anyone else being forced to change their direct debit due to 'impending debt'?
Apparently OVO don't think my current direct debit level will cover the final amount owing for the year, so they've already sent me two letters from their Collections Department, talking about 'how much debt' they think I will have if I don't rectify my payment. Bear in mind I haven't missed a payment and have been pretty good at giving monthly readings, so I'm not in 'debt', as they so succinctly put it, they just think I will be, despite the 'shortfall' being quite manageable.
OK, so I acquiesce to this veiled threat from Collections and attempt to increase my direct debit payment. But it turns out I can't choose what that level is, they decide based on what they think I'm going to owe.
This would be great, however their projections for what they think my overall useage will be have been found to be wildly inaccurate.
OVO, I'm a grown-ass man, I think I should be allowed to decide whether I think I need to change my direct debit payment and to which level - or, conversely, receive a bill at the end of the year to cover any shortfall - it should be my choice.
Undoubtedly you will come back and regale us with the usual corporate flannel - 'well we do this to protect the customer form big bills', 'we've only got your best interests at heart', 'some people don't like being surprised by a big bill at the end of the year'.
I've got to say, I switched from British Gas for a similar reason (and received a massive payment at the end for their continued incompetence regarding estimated bills), but my experience thus far has not been much better, which is a damning endictment given the corporate ineptitude that British Gas display daily.
As an aside, the app is still rubbish. You've been trying to fix the thing for months now, to no avail. Maybe funnel some resources in to interface management as opposed to haranguing customers for mythical debt.
Why am I being forced to change my Direct Debit?
Best answer by Lucy_OVO
Updated 04/11/24 by Abby_OVO
How do Direct Debits work?
A Direct Debit is an automatic monthly payment set up with your bank or building society. It means you can choose which day you want the payment to go out each month, and your bank will sort the rest.
Once a Direct Debit is set up, you don’t need to do anything else.
It’s often the best way to make regular payments, such as your energy bill.
Why paying by Direct Debit is the best way to pay
Direct Debit is usually the best way to pay bills because:
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you get a cheaper rate if you’re on our variable Simpler Energy plan
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you don’t have to think about it – it’s all done automatically each month
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you don’t need to worry about forgetting or missing a payment
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it can help you budget as you know how much is going out of your account each month and when
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it spreads your energy costs evenly
My Direct Debit has changed recently. Will it change again because of the price cap?
Yes, it could change – but it depends. Your Direct Debit will be based on your new prices, as well as the energy your home has used over the past year. If the Direct Debit looks too high or too low, we'll let you know and it might be changed automatically.
This is to make sure you don’t build up unexpected debt by 31 March 2026. We always want to avoid that happening to you.
How does OVO work out my monthly Direct Debit?
To work out your monthly Direct Debit amount, we:
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look at your energy use so far and estimate how much you’re likely to use by 31 March 2026. This includes any costs, such as standing charges and add-ons
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take away your current balance, factoring in any credit or debt
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divide the result by the number of payments left until 31 March 2026, which gives us your monthly amount
We aim to bring your balance to £0 by 31 March 2026. This way, you won't owe us anything, and we won't owe you anything, making it easier to manage your energy costs.
We regularly check your Direct Debit to make sure your balance is on track.
Why is my Direct Debit increasing when my balance is in credit?
This could be down to a few reasons. Sometimes, even if your balance is in credit, your monthly payments still need to go up.
Usually, this happens if it looks like your balance is going to drop below £0 by 31 March 2026. We want you to avoid building up any unexpected debt – we never want that to happen to you. So we work out if that’s likely by predicting how much energy your home will use, then checking if your payments will cover it.
It’s also useful for your balance to be in credit. It can act like a pot of money to cover those times when your energy use might be higher. For example, you’re likely to build up credit in the summer months when energy use is lower. But you might need to use this credit in the winter months when it’s colder and darker – and your energy use is usually much higher.
We regularly check your Direct Debit to make sure you’re paying the right amount.
Check out our Direct Debit “check in” process here or watch the video below for more info on the direct debit review process for fixed plans:
You can check your current Direct Debit amount and adjust this if needed on the ‘Payments’ page of your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS) -
There’s also some really helpful advice here in understanding the calculation we carry out when checking your Direct Debit amount -
We’ve got lots of handy topics all about Direct Debits so check those out too:
Is there any support available if I’m struggling to pay for my energy?
There is help available if you’re struggling to pay your energy bills – both from us here at OVO Energy and from government schemes and charities as well. There are many ways we can help – such as setting up a payment plan for you, which spreads the cost of your energy to make it more manageable. If you want to find out about payment plans, you can request one online here – we’ll take you through what you need to do, and ask you for some details. Our dedicated team is also specially trained to support you. They can make sure you’re receiving any financial assistance from the government that you’re eligible for, and take you through payment support schemes that are available.
You can find out more about these schemes and where to seek free, independent advice right here.
+3- Carbon Catcher***
- 1257 replies
Have you been an OVO customer for long
I was switched from SSE to OVO last year. Thanks for the heads-up re Customer Services. I think I'll write. My receptive language is not so great with the reactivity of the phone. I hope they respond to letters. The snail mail address is provided as a method of contact. Thanks again.
I find the section where I get to choose a new monthly direct debit of between £155 and £2000 (!) disturbing. It cannot be less than £155 and I presume isn't set up to accept less. Does OVO really have to hit me with this TWO DAYS after I've only just increased again? I really am not worried about any excess come the end of my current plan as a) I don't think there will be one after the Spring and Summer and b) I'm happy to clear any excess should it arise. I truly don't believe it will be what it is projected as being at the moment. I need my finances tight right now, as everyone does and not have to be paying out extra on vague projections which have already HALVED in recent weeks. I have written to Customer Services by snail mail sending it "Sign For", an additional outlay I could have done without, but I hope they see from this that I am taking the situation seriously, that it is important to me.
+2- Plan Zero Hero
- 2561 replies
0800 0699 831
They can freeze your direct debit for 3 months
+1- Plan Zero Hero
- 7965 replies
Hey
That shouldn’t happen! You should always get advance notice 10 days in advance. Did you maybe miss the email/letter or lose it in your junk folder perhaps?
+1- Plan Zero Hero
- 7965 replies
Hmm… That’s unusual. I’ll keep an eye out on the forum in case anyone else reports the same issue. If they do, I’ll ask for it to be investigated.
In the meantime, if you wish to discuss your payments, the Support Team via https://help.ovoenergy.com for Live Chat or on 0330 303 5063, or the Collections Team on 0800 069 9831 might be able to help.
I have tried to contact OVO without success, both by phone and chat, told I am number in the queue but after 30 minutes still no response, how about OVO contacts me to discuss?
Hey
Sorry for the issues you’re having,
Every customer should receive two direct debit review communications. Do you get other emails from OVO? I’m wondering if we have the correct email address on your account.
I’ll get someone from Forum_Support to reach out to you, they can take a look into it. Please keep an eye on your private messages.
Hope this helps.
JohnM (OVO) has apparently fixed the issue my account was set not to receive them, I am surprised that this capability is available to turn off all notifications, especially something as important as account changes.
+4- Carbon Catcher***
- 413 replies
OVO shouldn't be able to switch off direct debit notifications as the direct debit guarantee states that a company must notify you of changes to your direct debit.
Hey
I’m really glad to hear this has been rectified for you,
Now I have had some time to think about this the words from your agent were
“Firstly I wanted to apologise sincerely If you have not received communications advising of the direct debit review. I can see that email communications have been attempted several time but on each occasion they have failed. After investigation I can see that you were not set up on the account to receive emails so I have implemented this feature so that future attempts will now be successful. Please allow 24/48 hours to take effect.”
From the above there is a communication success or failure status recorded. If sending these notifications is a regulatory requirement that has to be met this status should be checked and appropriate action taken to rectify the situation if the message fails. Should OVO be reporting itself to the regulator to say they have failed in this respect?
Bob
+1- Plan Zero Hero
- 7965 replies
They do have to be sent, but delivery is beyond OVO’s reasonable control. If your email provider chokes on them or spits them out and refuses to deliver such emails, there’s nothing OVO can do about that.
Whilst I agree with your synopsis, this was not the case, mine was not enabled, hence in the above statement “After investigation I can see that you were not set up on the account to receive emails” I did not get a postal notification either, this is why I made the above statement.
As an aside I get email from all sorts of other providers with no issues, especially as I use a professional paid for email service.
If emails fail for regulatory either OVO should consider moving to a mailbox system where I get an email telling me there is something awaiting my review or as previously suggested they should be investigated or re-sent, or a postal letter sent..
+1- Plan Zero Hero
- 7965 replies
It already is set up that way. As far as I can tell, the emails with your bills etc are sent via AWS SNS aka Amazon Web Services Simple Notification Service. That’s already a professional system, albeit probably not exactly a cheap option.
OVO also pays for a pretty expensive internal email system. I know what they use, but I don’t reveal that information. You cannot use stuff like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to send out several million emails a day from a single account though - you’d get banned if you did that for breaching Terms of Service.
As for having an In-App Mailbox feature, while that would be really nice to have on the forum, I can’t see that happening for MyOVO. You’d be welcome to suggest it though. However, given that not everyone wants to log into MyOVO just to check a bill and given that it’d duplicate functionality that already exists… I’m not too sure I’d be keen to support such an idea myself.
I had my DD set at £158 per calender month, back in September. I got a notification from the app saying we're paying too much and so they recommend a new monthly payment of £152. So I changed it to the recommended amount.
Less than 10 days later I open up the app and well I'm blowed it tells me that unless I don't increase my DD to £163 a month I'll end up owing £114 at the end of my 12 month period.
I'm sorry but this time I'm ignoring the stupid recommended figure. It's obvious that at the moment with the current cold snap that were consuming some of our built up credit at a faster rate than two weeks ago. However rest assured once the weather warms up our energy usage will decline again.
It is unacceptable to keep messing about with DD figures on a monthly basis just to keep OVO happy with the credit on the account. We never had this issue when we were with SSE.
Hey
Sorry to hear this,
Direct Debit reviews are triggered once every 3 months, this is where we’ll contact you to advise if we think you need to increase your direct debit. If the direct debit isn’t increased manually by the customer, we do so automatically.
The Online Account and direct debit calculator will constantly monitor your direct debit and give suggestions based on your usage.
Unless you’re receiving emails from us advising you need to increase your direct debit, it won’t be automictically increased. It is just a suggestion online and can be ignored.
If the Online Account has been showing varying figures recently it may be as you said, because of the cold weather recently, or, if you’re on the Variable Tariff your rates might be increasing in January.
Hope this helps.
It’s a mess ! I spend £20.00 a month
I’m in credit £55.00
my bill will double as going off contract
OVO demanding £125.00 a month : I’m unable to contact anyone to correct this. The lowest figure the computer accepts is £110.00
all on a smart meter. What to do ?
+1- Plan Zero Hero
- 7965 replies
For that one… Best thing to do is wait until the New Year and then call 0800 069 9831. The Collections Team can modify your payments down to more closely match your actual costs.
At 8:18 this morning (Boxing Day) OVO emailed to say they are increasing our direct debit (despite us being in credit) to £431! Not only can we not afford this but we got no warning and it is way more than the electricity we are using (we’ve recently got solar panels and a battery). They’ve obviously done this when their communications lines are closed for the next few days so is there anything I can do about this?
+1- Plan Zero Hero
- 7965 replies
This was an automated action that you’d always get 10 working days notice for. It wasn’t deliberately targeted to trigger today i.e. wasn’t deliberately made to happen on Boxing Day. It is more likely that you got the 10 day advance warning today instead.
Call 0800 069 9831 from Wednesday onwards. The Collections Team can revert this for you if you have a valid reason.
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