Can I lower Direct Debit if I'm in enough credit?

Hi ​@Ayeffell ,

Yep. That's possible if you leave it in the account and wait for the next review. 

Thank you. I’m nervous to just leave it as this happened a couple of years ago and OVO decided to just take it. The explanation was jargon and didn’t make sense to me. 
When would the review be?

Every three months 

Is it possible to pay each month for the usage only? I’m £640 in credit and when I click on the app for a refund, I’m only allowed to request £15

I’ve also taken some money out over the last two months via refunds as the balance is so high, and my monthly payment is £206 and of if I try to reduce it, I’m only allowed to reduce it by £1!

​@Helenward11 if you’re on the variable (Simpler Energy) tariff you can do this. You could have all money refunded, cancel your Direct Debit, and then pay manually each month for the exact amount of your bill.

If you’re currently on a fixed tariff then you’d need to pay exit fees to move onto the Simpler Energy plan, and it might be more expensive than your current fixed tariff.

Bear in mind, the above solution would mean you’d be able to pay the amount of your bill however, over the course of a whole year, this could mean that you’d pay a fair amount more than if you had a Direct Debit set up on a fixed plan.

I hope this helps.

There are several limits built in to the online refund function. One of them is that there must be an amount equivalent to three months’ Direct Debits left in the account after the refund. You should be able to ask for a bigger refund by talking to Support; you will still have to leave one months’ DD behind.

You can elect to pay for each month’s usage only (‘Payment On Demand’, or ‘on receipt of bill’). However, you will lose the price advantage that paying by DD endows (from 1 January 2026, £90 p.a. for a typical all-electric household), so it probably won’t be worth it.