I feel like my Direct Debit Check In is totally unfair, why has it increased?

Nah, no issues here, just stating that it’s impossible to lower a direct debit when there’s a minimum amount they’ll allow you to reduce to. Sometimes not below what you’re currently paying. :)

Thank you anyway :)

of course, you’re right about the tariff change but they’re not going get my permission to up my DD.

I’ve done calculations, it’s the kind of thing I do for a living - assuming I use similar amounts of electricity in 2023 and 2024 as I did in 2022, they will owe me £440 by the end of my contract at my current DD rate and I’ve taken into account standing charges and VAT which aren’t on the “usage” page.

If I let them take another £21 for 22 months, they’ll owe me £900.

OVO don't have to ask your permission to raise your DD, that is not how the process works. They will just raise it. 

You will need to try and call collections again and ask them to freeze your direct debit for 3 months at a lower level as we have said. 

0800 0699 831 

Then wait for the Future Annual Consumption Figure to gradually learn how much you use from your smart meter readings. Phone again if it is still not great after 3 months. 

The system is designed to leave you with a zero balance at the end of your fixed term, so will auto adjust your DD over time to do this, they won't owe you £900 at the end of your contract even if you don't call collections. 

As an alternative at any time you can call collections and ask for the return of any credit balance apart from the equivalent of one month direct debit. But just remember this will have a knock on impact on your direct debit. 

There are no other options, believe me, there is no way to manually change the Future Annual Consumption figure you will find on the plan page (on the website not the app) which drives the direct debit. 

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

Vote on the above idea if you feel strongly and post a comment. 

Myself and other regular posters have helped 100s of customers with the same issue on this forum. 1000s of customers have done the same thing and asked for a DD freeze.

A complaint doesn't result in any other outcome other than freezing the direct debit for a set period. So there is no point doing that.

I hope that helps. 

so the guy on collections is denying I can freeze dd for 3 months, currently on hold after I asked him to put me through to someone who does know the system. Since I started the call the recommendation has fallen to £78 as my credit balance has gone up by the £67 grant. I expect it will go back up to £81 in a few days when they pay that £67 back to my bank account 🙄

I also get 5% as I’ve been an OVO customer for years. I treat it as a savings account as that’s the best interest rate I’m getting anywhere.

I also get the interest reward as i have been a customer for some time. It is not available to newer customers or those switching from SSE. 

It is also tax free which is good so i tend to keep my credit balance around the maximum £1000 limit for earning interest. Easy way to save a few pounds a year.

The direct debit will get more accurate over time as the smart meter readings build up. I recommend everyone has 30min smart meter readings if they haven't already. 

Keep and eye out on the plan page for automatic adjustments to the Future Annual Consumption figure. Also keep an eye that it does actually freeze for 3 months. We have seen a few that haven't 

Bit miffed about this.  I don’t like to stir the pot as there’s enough grief going on around us in the world but…..

On 9th March I received an advisory email stating that even though I had a fairly considerable amount in credit, it was ‘advised’ that to ensure the account was kept on track for the year, I had the choice of either making a top-up payment OR increasing the direct debit.  On the information OVO supplied, I took their advice and chose the top-up payment - which was duly acknowledged within a matter of moments of receipt.

Ten days later (today) I’ve received another message stating ;

“We got in touch recently to ask you to increase your Direct Debit, so that your monthly

payments match your energy use and costs - and you won’t have to pay a lump sum if you were to leave OVO.

Because you haven’t increased your Direct Debit, we’re now doing it automatically for you.”

What the Hell are you lot playing at ?  You gave me a choice - which was duly accepted and  acknowledged.  I guess this is all bot driven but for goodness sake, why offer something - which is then acceded to, only to discover that you’re going to do exactly what you want to anyway ?  Does that now mean I can reclaim the lump sum I willingly paid back because your algorithms are working to some different agenda ?  

OVO aren’t doing themselves any favours in pumping out this kind of drivel if it isn’t going to stand by what they’re actually offering the customer.  You’d probably be better off just saying you’re going to do X or Y and then go ahead and do it.  Oh, wait……

Not impressed.

Hey @KevinJH,

Really sorry to hear this,

I’d advise checking your direct debit review calculator to see if it’s taken into account your current credit balance including the top up payment you’ve made:

If you feel that your direct debit review is unfair or inaccurate please contact our payment support team who can put your direct debit on a 3 month review suspension. Please ensure there is an up to date meter reading on your account or the calculations for the direct debit will be based on estimated usage. 

Hope this helps. 

i was on the forum in november after ovo wanted to make a big increase to my direct debit i disagreed but it went up i was away for 3 months and told them by the time i returned they would owe me over £1000 but it fell on deaf ears. i returned on 27/03/2023 and surprize surprize i am in credit by almost £1200 got in touch and they have now reduced direct debit to £40 also had to tell them i have not had a gas bill since smart metre fitted on 21/11/2022.i should have tried to buy ovo as my grandson wants a coyboy outfit for his birthday

Hi @taxijim33 and thanks for flagging this again. Sorry to hear about the lack of progress with that gas bill. 

We won’t be able to advise or offer much help here as this is a customer forum. I’d recommend you don’t initiate an online refund till your gas usage is billed up to date. Did OVO’s Support team offer any next steps or timeframes for this?

no time frame but i know from my readings i am owe them about £220 so have plenty of credit on my account its just that the whole point of getting smart metres was to save any hassle thanks for getting in touch

I have an issue related to the recent direct debit review. You have suggested increasing my direct debit to 334 based on your projections. But your projections on electricity seem to be less accurate as per my usage.

For example, you have suggested that I have an electricity bill of over 200 pounds per month. But for the last three months, I have recorded less than 100 pounds in my electricity bills. My heating is happening with gas, and I only use electricity for domestic appliances. I live in a two-bedroom house with my wife. I started to use OVO in January and before that, I was in Sri Lanka. following are the actual usage details for the first 3 months.

But from April you are projecting by the electricity bill will be more than 200 pounds per month. And it will increase to even 300 in the winter months. This does not have a slight reflection of my usage in the last 3 months when it comes to electricity. But gas projections are more accurate comparatively.

I am not sure how this rationale work. As per the projection I am expected to use more than 500Khw per month for a 2-bedroom house. My average monthly electricity is around 200 Kwh and since I am using gas heating. This should not vary a lot even in winter months. And my previous usage cannot provide such insight to you. Hence, you need to review this automated projection without making me pay an unreasonable direct debit amount. I checked a quote with Octopus and they projected only 143-pound bill per month for me (for both gas and electricity). I have attached their quote also. I am ok with 207 GBP direct debit and I do not wish to increase it under any circumstance.

This does not seem to be a question for other OVO customers (on this forum) but something that needs directing to OVO staff to respond to. They may not find it on here.

Hi @Sulakshana88

Welcome to the customer forum, i am just a customer like you.

This forum is basically customers helping each other out, and a couple of OVO moderators who post on some but not all threads.

No one here can access you account, including OVO, so posting here won't result in any changes to your DD. 

You need to contact the OVO Support team for that.

https://help.ovoenergy.com/#contact_us_container

Or via the OVO Twitter or Facebook pages where the OVO  staff can access your account.

https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy

Some background on what you are talking about here which has been raised many times by others. Feel free to vote on this and add any comments you see fit

Your Direct Debit is driven by the Future Annual Consumption which you can see on this page on the website not the app. It updates automatically and can't be updated manually. 

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

There is a bit more information in this tutorial

If you think your Direct Debit is too high you can call collections and ask them to freeze it at a lower level for 3 months. 

0800 0699 831

If your credit gets to high you can also request a refund of some of your credit balance. The collections team can give you up to 100% of any credit balance if you are on a variable rate plan, but wouldn’t recommend asking for that much. Obviously it may impact the size of future DDs depending on how much you ask to be refunded.

If you post how you get on i am sure it will help other customers. 

Thanks you, I have lodge a complaint. And my april bill also stand at 140. :) and they ask for 324, I think you gave good suggestion I will ask a refund every month. :D which get me back to 207.

Thanks for the update, if you post how you get on i am sure it will help other customers in the future. 

I am incensed that  OVO have set a minimum direct debit calculation on figures with increased Electric future consumption by 10% and gas future consumption by about 17%.  On current rates for electric that is approximately £25 per month and gas is £32.   The fact that this is set as a minimum means I have no choice in the matter, even though this is my money OVO energy are accumulating in advance.  I keep a spread sheet of my usage and have kept in credit with SSE until OVO took over my account.   Furthermore, the practice of calculating the direct debit amount for the whole year  in spring and before the summer months means that OVO energy are accumulating my money, unnecessarily for a period of six months.  At current interest rates it seems to me that this practice is rather dubious and estimate they will be sitting on £1000- £1500 of my money by the end of August.

I can’t help, I’m afraid: I’m just a user like you with no affiliation to OVO. However, I’d be interested to see:

• How long is it since you were migrated from SSE to OVO.
• Whether you have a smart meter.
• How much your current Direct Debit (DD) is.
• What the ‘recommended’ DD is now.
• What kind of plan you’re on:
  • Dual-fuel, electricity and gas
  • Electricity only: single-rate
  • Electricity only: dual-rate
  • Something else
• What your new Future Annual Consumption (FAC) figures are.
  You can see these details on the Plan page.

My own FAC jumped alarmingly last week, a few weeks after an account reset. We have a theory, and your answers might help us work out what’s happening.

Hey @DataCalcExpert,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

An out of line Estimated Annual Consumption is usually the result of an out of line meter reading. I’d advise checking your meter readings to see if you’ve been billed to an incorrect opening and closing reading. Your account may be eligible for a read dispute, The following topics and FAQs might be helpful to you:

Hope this helps. 

Hi @DataCalcExpert

Welcome to the customer forum, i am just a customer like you. 

If you call collections rather than the regular OVO number you can ask for your direct debit to be frozen at a lower level for 3 months, once that is elapsed you can ask for another 3 month freeze if  needed. 

You can also ask collections for a refund of your credit. If you are on the default variable rate plan you can ask for 100% of your credit to be returned. I wouldn't recommend that much, also worth bearing in mind it may well impact your recommended Direct Debit when you ask for credit to be returned. 

0800 0699 831

If you have any further questions, you may well find one of the regular posters can offer some useful insight.

If you post what you decide to do and how you get on i am sure it will help other customers. 

I thank you all for trying to answer a rhetorical question.  New to the forum, I apologise that I have asked a question when I am actually giving a statement of fact, complaining of the bad practice of accumulating money from customers through direct debit during periods of low usage based on projected usage for the whole year.  By setting this exaggerated rate at a minimum, it does not allow me to easily stop this payment being made before it is due at the beginning of May.  I have work to do to earn money and will take some time to accurately get the figures together to argue a case to freeze my direct debit at a lower level.  It is also true that even though I have a smart meter, hugely inaccurate estimates appeared on one bill during the transition, even though data should have been available.  A years bills form SSE are also available on my account to calculate a more reasonable estimated usage.  When I do get time to compare my usage against these transition bills I will be looking into a 3 month freeze.  OVO energy do not want to force me into being a campaigner for fair billing.  Once I get my teeth into something like this, I tend to be relentless.

Thanks for the update. 

Keep an eye on the Future Annual Consumption on this page on the website not the app.

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

It is this that is updated automatically and drives your DD.

There is no manual intervention on the Future Annual Consumption. There are no plans currently to change the process

Feel free to add to this Idea as part of anything you do. The DD topic generally has been discussed for many years and picked up by many people, including complaints. So there is nothing new in the subjects you mentioned. 

If you feel strongly it would help to add to the Idea or add new ideas that customers can contribute to.

Just FYI, you don't need detailed calculations to call collections as they freeze DD for a variety of reasons. Don't feel you need to spend a lot of time on calculations. Someone who recently froze their DD

If you post your progress i am sure it will help others.

Ultimately if you are really unhappy with the DD calculation process, you might find an alternative supplier is better for you.

i have been arguing with ovo since new smart metres fitted  21/11/22 not paid for any gas since  and hopeless at sorting out problems

Did you ever put in a formal complaint, as you then only have to wait 8 weeks before asking the Energy Ombudsman to sort out this issue with OVO?

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

not yet