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

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.