Does OVO offer a change from monthly to quarterly billing?

I could only find one reference to “Quarterly” in the Core Terms & Conditions for migrated SSE customers. It doesn’t match what you mentioned here.

5.7 If you do not provide or you withdraw a direct debit instruction we will bill you quarterly and alter your Charges accordingly.

OVO has never directly offered quarterly billing and in fact, most of the industry has opted to withdraw quarterly bills for anyone who isn’t already on them. Monthly is better for everyone’s cashflow. That article appears to be outdated, but I can ask @Tim_OVO and @Jess_OVO to review it and get it updated if needed.

For a short time, some SSE customers were offered quarterly bills on OVO if memory serves, but the stance appears to have changed since.

The references (and instructions on exactly where to view the information on the OVO website) quoted were taken today. (See the link below...)

Quarterly bills are therefore subject to customers account settings. I see no reason for the conflict of telling customers they cannot have this service when they clearly state the service is available to them!

Here is the link done today Wed June 29th 2022 :

https://help.ovoenergy.com/article/b3258d11-ae37-47dc-8ead-df7e68a7a82c-web

I see. There is however, also https://help.ovoenergy.com/article/bd6404cc-4046-45fa-878c-d15f0cc1cd24-web which only references Monthly Billing. My sweep of all related articles so far hasn’t turned up anything else referencing Quarterly Billing.

I’ve set a flag on this thread asking for further help. You may not be able to see it, but it’s been set.

Exact same here…was originally an SSE customer paying quarterly cash for my bills for all my years with them. Was told they were merging with OVO and I was getting transferred over to them. Was assured nothing would change with my account…what a load of lies…First bill in from OVO is for a month. When I phoned and ask why ..I was told this is what’s happening now…No consultation..nothing !!!…if this is my first encounter with OVO let me tell you it’s not good (there will be no marriage made in heaven between myself and them rest assured)…If I wanted to pay monthly I would but obviously it doesn’t suit me to pay this way !!…As previously stated by other OVO customers… it is still saying you can pay quarterly on their website…(30/06/2022)..is this not false advertising ??…They did offer me a £25 good will payment off my bill which I REFUSED…SORRY OVO…but that SMALL gesture doesn’t make it right..give me back my option to pay quarterly and have a little bit of decent customer service !!!…

Hi and welcome to the OVO online community @IJARD and @iantommo.

Firstly I’m sorry for any confusion caused by the information you’ve seen on our Help pages, relating to our quarterly billing policy. Just to clarify if you’re joining from another supplier and pay on receipt of your bill your welcome pack will outline the change in your billing schedule. 

As advised in this similar thread:

We know from our existing members that monthly billing can help them with budgeting as it spreads their usage costs through-out the year. You’ll still be able to request these as postal statements and make payments in the same way, albeit on a more regular basis. If you’d like to discuss this change further we’d encourage you to reach out to our dedicated Migration Support Team on 0345 0260 712.

Same, here i was originally an SSE customer paying quarterly  for my bills for all the years i was with them. When i was transferred to ovo i notice that my bills are every month which for me are very hard to pay. I try today to contact the customer service by live chat not only that i wait 3 hours for someone but also i was told that they dont offer the quarterly bill, which for me was so shocking, because on the website it clearly said that you pay quartely, obviously if i will be able to pay montly i will do it, however i cant aword to pay every month. Also i pay this week the bill for the last 3 months nearly £600 and the next month another bill!!! Unbelievably!

I’m so sorry to hear about the extended wait you had when using our webchat last week, @Arturb.

As we’d usually expect you to be connected within a few minutes I’m wondering whether a technical issue may have affected things in your case. Did you manage to speak to the team by calling 0330 303 5063?

As mentioned above if you’ve joined us and pay on receipt of the bill your OVO welcome pack should have outlined the reasoning behind this change to your billing frequency. By issuing your bills more regularly we’ll breakdown the amount you need to pay each month, spreading out the cost of your energy more evenly throughout the year.

It’s worth mentioning that if you're struggling to may a payment there are ways we can help so we’d recommend checking out the advice we’ve given here.

I hope this helps.

I can honestly say I'm disgusted  with ovo, I too will have difficulty paying monthly,  you have said to contact you for help if this is the xase but this will affect my impeccable  credit rating, you are discriminating against people, please, please give them the option! We were forced onto ovo so it's very unfair,  we didn't look at price comparison  sites because they are as clear as mud too us.

My husband is a pensioner, I'm fed up with being punished because we wish to do things the old way.

Ovo should be ashamed with themselves for causing distress to customers, if we wanted to pay monthly we would have asked. 

I find it difficult to read my gas meter too as I have to get kn my ha ds and knees, the thought of doing this monthly  fills me with dread, and before you get onto smart meters, I've heard too many horror stories. 

I thought ovo were a caring company, I don't think so, I'm also speaking on behalf of the thousands of others who have been transferred  from sse to you.

D

I’m afraid that’s the way the entire market is going @Whizzy . Quarterly billing is basically dead these days and hardly any supplier does it anymore for anyone who doesn’t already have it active. Given that the transfer from SSE to OVO is treated as a Change of Supplier like any other, OVO doesn’t have to honour the quarterly billing that SSE used to offer. However, everything else about your contract will be honoured including the tariff rates and payment method.

You would have been notified well in advance and I wouldn’t recommend trying to use a price comparison site - a LOT of them are using outdated data right now anyway.

There is a workaround however, in the form of the Priority Services Register. You can use that to arrange an engineer visit to read your meters on your behalf every month.