I took over my sister's house a year ago when she moved abroad to take care of our father and I'm trying to get the gas account changed over to my name. It was originally with SSE which has now been taken over by OVO, I have asked her to call to do this but it won't allow her to make the call from abroad.

This is now getting urgent as without the account being in my name, I am unable to top up the prepayment meter. If this continues to go unresolved, I will not be able to top up therefore have no heating or hot water.

Can anyone help with this? 

Hi @Damo616 , I think it might take a call as there needs to be contact with the legal account owner for any change. If your sister is using the 0330 number, that won’t work from outside the UK. 
She might try the chat function which should work from wherever but I’m not sure if that will be good enough for a change of ‘ownership’. 

Hi @Damo616, it sounds like a really frustrating situation. 

@BPLightlog I’m curious as to why 03 numbers can’t be called from outside the UK. This resource indicates it can. 

@Damo616 make sure your sister adds you to the account as a non financially liable contact at the very least, which doesn’t require verbal confirmation, so webchat, or OVO’s social channels can make this change if she reaches out (you can access OVO’s Facebook Messenger team on the forum’s bottom right corner). Once that’s been done we may need verbal confirmation from her, and then from you that you should be added as a financially liable contact: 0330 303 5063. 

The alternative is to perform a change of tenancy so you can take over responsibility for the supply. She can do a move out, and you can do a move in, online here. 

Because you are both sort of right.

It MAY be possible to ring non-geographic numbers (08 and 03 numbers) in the UK from abroad; but there is no guarantee it will work and it depends entirely on the age and  configuration of the equipment used by the foreign host network from which you are making the call.  

In theory there is no longer any reason why you can’t call 03 and/or 08 numbers from abroad; but more often than not the reality of it is that you can’t.

Even if they do work it is important to note that they will be charged as any other geographic +44 call.

Non- geographic numbers normally can’t. If it’s possible, it would generally need the +44 in front and also remove the leading zero

There is one known workaround - use a VoIP service to make that call. That’s worked for me many times to call toll-free numbers in Canada before…

Such services tunnel the connection over their infrastructure and force the call to pop out into the local telephone infrastructure on the other end, where it can then be connected just like any other call in that country.

Thanks for the community powered advice, all. 

Thoughts @Damo616?

@Tim_OVO that's great, very helpful. Thanks everyone!

She's going to try and get through on messenger as work and taking care of our dad takes up a lot of her time but I can use the change of tenancy as a last resort. 

@Damo616

@Blastoise186’s VoIP suggestion is solid.

The other way of getting around it is for your sister to ask the local operator to place the call … but they will charge extra for doing that (which could be a fixed charge and/or an additional charge for every billable second), so I’d suggest you try @Blastoise186’s solution first.

I should also emphasise that it is generally easier to get a call to a UK non-geographic number to connect if you ring it from a mobile phone, because mobile networks generally tend to have more modern equipment and systems than the legacy landline providers. 

@Tim_OVO I have tried to do the change of tenancy online but because I'm on a pre-payment meter, I have to call for a quote, which is massively inconvenient because I work when the customer service line is open. Is there another way to do this?

I don't really need a quote as I'm just trying to get my meter changed from prepayment to credit so I can switch providers which it seems I am unable to do while the meter is prepayment, but I can't do this because I am unable to get the account switched over to my name because my sister who is now living abroad can't get through to the customer service line.

It just seems deliberately complicated. 

Hey @Damo616,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

You can get the name changed over to yours by calling customers support. This will automatically change the account out of your sisters name. 

You wouldn’t be able to change the meter to credit without contacting support over the phone as you’ll need to verbally agree to the new contractual rates from a credit plan. 

How to get in contact about my OVO Pay As You Go account

• The best way to get in touch with us is via chat here. Just click the green chat icon on the bottom right of your screen. We’re here to help anytime from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturday.
• Or call us on 0330 175 9669 during the same times.

If you’re with Boost

• Find answers or chat with Boost at boostpower.co.uk/help
• Or call them on 0330 102 7517.

Hope this helps.