Building up large credit amount due to charge anytime credit not being included into direct debit

I've opted to pay my £100 by bank transfer now instead of the ridiculous £200+ they wanted. 60% of my usage each month is for charging my car.

I check my account every morning so I can see I'm still well in credit. It really is unacceptable that they can't calculate it properly. 

Anyone else having issues with their DD and charge anytime?  bit of a cross post this but it might be better here than in the DD section.

Just got off a VERY frustrating chat about my DD.  I’m currently over £440 in credit and my DD has been increased AGAIN to £161  My average bill per month over the last 12 months is £115!!!!!!!  According to the app I’ll be £148 in credit by the end of March 2026, RUBBISH I will be over £800 in credit at this rate!  But I did get the reason confirmed, (that I suspected) the EV usage isn’t taken in to account when calculating the DD.   This makes a MASSIVE difference if you’re using charge anytime.  So as an example our last bill was for £183, ex VAT but we actually paid £112 because of the charge anytime credit of £75.  But the DD calculation will be based on the Total cost and NOT the Total charges!  I’m not sure if I can remain a OVO customer as we’re about to get another EV so our total cost will be even higher with 2 EV’s and I’ll be spanked even more.  Its something that really need to be addressed its pretty simple!

Hey ​@fancyabrew 

I’m sorry to hear you’re impacted by this, you’re not the first to mention it, I’ve taken the advice below from a similar topic;

‘Charge Anytime credits can't be factored into our Direct Debit estimations - they're on separate systems. This affects a lot of customers but there's nothing we can do due to current technical limitations. We appreciate it's an inconvenience, but is outweighed by the savings made to ensure 7p/kwh charging and customers can always request a credit refund.’

We know it’s not ideal, hopefully it’s something the teams will be able to work on improving, but due to the technical limitations, it’s not something their able to consider in the calculations at this time.

If you’re starting to build up more credit than you’d like on the account, you can request a refund and the Support Team will be able to help process this for you.

I get the same problem, but not to that extent. So its not a major problem to me at present.

But if the system looks at the DD estimate using the total bill before CA reduction, then its an easy tweak to use the actual bill charge. Difficult to believe they can’t do this now. The numbers will be in the same database that generate the bill.

This will only make customers suspicious that OVO prefer to bank the higher amounts, which obviously work in their favour for earning interest and cashflow. 

That’s not the way it’s done, I’m afraid. Previous bills don’t come into it.

The basis is the Future Annual Consumption (FAC) projection, which is derived from the previous year’s consumption (so long as meter readings have been retrieved regularly). The annual cost of this consumption is worked out using current rates (which is why earlier bills aren’t involved). Add 1/12 for the extra month’s credit at the end of winter to find the projected cost for a whole year; divide that by 12 to get the required DD. It gets a bit more complicated during the months following 1 April, because the projected cost is reduced each month by a seasonally-adjusted amount. Nevertheless, it’s quite possible to reproduce the calculation precisely. 

To take regular credits into account, they could be added to the calculation as negative refunds. E.g. take the previous year’s total Charge Anytime credits, divide by 12 and apply the result as a negative refund each month. The Warm Home Discount could be applied in the same way as a negative £12.50 refund each month. The recommended DD changes each day as charges applied affect the account balance, so it’s an interesting quantity to keep track of. It all comes out in the wash eventually.  

It really shouldn't be beyond the whit of man to sort this! 

Does the charge anytime get taken into account with direct debit calculations?

My DD has gone up to £300 a month when my bills are c£110 per month.

first the whole Ohme saga now this. 🤦🏼‍♂️🤷‍♂️

I'm pretty cheesed off too. My DD has gone up 22%, I thought the cap went up by 2%. Account over £600 in credit. Just feels like we're being fleeced.

Thanks thought as much.

Will call them tomorrow as it’s utterly ridiculous in this day and age.

Happy to have a saving account with benefits though. 

mine has increased by 42%. 🤦🏼‍♂️🤷‍♂️