balance saying its still - but i’ve paid what ive used?

Hi ​@RS27 ,

Direct Debit based OVO accounts don’t quite work like a bank account. You don’t need to pay the full balance each month, just the agreed monthly payment but you can pay more in whenever you want without giving a reason.

It may take a day or two after a DD payment for your account to update - that’s normal! :)

If you think there’s still a problem, definitely chat with OVO Support and they’ll take a look!

What is your monthly billing period? Mine is from the start of the 4th of the month to the end of the 3rd on the following month. So my current billing period is 4th March - 3rd April. I pay my Direct Debit on the 26th of each month. So this is what my Total charges page looks like up to the end of March 22nd.

What OVO will have done is made an estimate of what energy you might use over the next 12 months and an estimate of what this might cost (using today’s prices including standing charge(s) and 5% VAT). They then set a Direct Debit using that estimate. They divide the estimated cost by 12 to set your monthly DD. As they learn more about your personal usage, that estimate will be refined, going up or down, as necessary. This will have an impact on your DD payment. This is a very simplified explanation for the calculations they actually make, but, hopefully, that may help you to understand how billing and Direct Debits work. You can choose, however, at any time to make an additional payment.

It takes a day (sometimes 2) for your DD payment to show up on the daily “live balance” that your online account shows.

eg. My DD is paid on the 20th and usually shows in the ‘live balance’ on the 21st, but sometimes not until the 22nd or 23rd.

As noted it's not that important what it says day to day as long as it's OK at the end of your monthly billing period.

​@RS27 good morning and a warm welcome to the community 😁.

I can see you’ve had some fantastic advice from some of our members - please do let us know if you have any further questions.

The billing structure takes a bit of getting used to, but hopefully you’ll find it very easy to manage soon. This article gives more info on how our billing structure works: