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I just wanted to share a cautionary tale with the community. I set up my 2 year fixed rate account at the beginning of the year and somehow managed to amass credit of £255 which is ridiculous in of itself but hey ho.

Anyway I got an email yesterday suggesting that my DD would in fact be increasing by another £17 per month from the next payment. But I’ve got an excess I thought. Ok, if they’re going to increase the payment I’ll just withdraw the excess and offset it that way. Not so fast sunny boy, you have to “apply” for a refund of your credit. What about if I tried to switch to a different rate? Sorry no. 
 

So I went over to USWITCH and surprise surprise, I managed to lock in a fixed deal, With OVO and based on my consumption year to date of £120 per month, not £167. How odd. So I signed up for it, but OVO have somehow decided that they’ll charge an exit fee of £190 or £95 twice. This is despite the contract that I signed stating that the exit fee is £90. So the £255 credit has now dropped to just £60 in credit. Day light robbery if you ask me.

So what’s my point ? Check around to make sure you’re on the right deal. If OVO don’t offer you one try one of the comparison website. And, finally, don’t think that credit balance that you’re sitting on is actually yours.This company will do everything that they can to keep it in their account and away from you.

Just saying.

The more I hear of these stories the more I think will stick to paying my energy bill monthly (or quarterly) on demand. It used to be this way by Direct Debit in the SSE days but now has to be a manual payment although that’s not a big problem.

These payment plans it appears works for some but as Pumchdrunk has found not for all. Some end up with a big credit and its not always easy to get this back. Changing tariffs can also mean you get stung by an exit penalty.

The idea of an Exit Fee is to help cover the costs/losses the Supplier incurs as a result of you breaking the contract early. It makes sense given the Supplier would have purchased all of the anticipated energy in advance and can no longer sell it to you.

In the case of a Dual-Fuel customer where you early-exit on both fuels, it is correct that you incur two early exit fees - one for each fuel. As such £190 is correct if the fee is £95 per fuel.

I set up my 2 year fixed rate account at the beginning of the year …
I managed to lock in a fixed deal, With OVO  ... 
OVO have somehow decided that they’ll charge an exit fee of £190 or £95 twice.

  

 

Have a look at the confirmation message you got when you signed up for the 2-year fixed rate plan. The wording changed sometime in the first half of the year; my own, in May, included this: 
  

The exit fee is higher for 2-year contracts, but the salient point here is it’s only payable if you change supplier. You can even tell from the screenshot that this was added to the template later, inexpertly.

Is this what your confirmation message said? If so, and since your switch didn’t involve a change of supplier, I would say you’re not liable to pay the exit fee.

The new Direct Debit calculation method is bizarre, but no-one has been able to explain the reasoning behind it as far as I can see. The refund procedure is byzantine and often unfair. Your cautionary tale is timely, so thank you for posting it. 

Hi ​@Pumchdrunk,

 

I’m really sorry to hear this. It seems that our forum volunteers have already stopped by with some advice.

 

It might be worth noting that the prices you see on comparison websites are usually based on estimates. You’ll always be charged on your actual usage.

 

Were you still within your cool-off period when you cancelled the plan? If so, these exit fees may have been charged in error. It may be worth reaching out to our Support team so they can look into this further for you.

 

These threads may be helpful:

 

 

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