I give meter readings each month, why is my bill still based on estimates?

Periodically actual meter readings are issued in time for the billing period to accurately reflect usage (Monthly charges). When estimated readings are used in the charging calculation , there may be a meter reading that is a reduced amount from the estimated reading used the month before. That may mean a “credit” is due to be taken into account in the calculations. Why would the prior months’ estimated usage be used as the starting point in the following month, and not the actual reading issue.

If a bill has been issued (and not updated), then I would have thought it necessary to use the same reading to start the following bill, otherwise there would be a problem in the process (and an incorrect bill).

Example

Month 1 - Estimated use 100

Month 1 - Actual use 90

Charges - 100

Month 2- Estimated use 100

Month 2 - Estimated use 90

Charges - 100

Month 3 - Actual use 90

Charges - 90

Charges for three months 290.

Charges should be 270.

The billing presented is so unclear as to make calculating , and explaining these differentials quite difficult.

Apologies Month 2 Actual use 90.

Assuming this relates to a non- smart meter (or possibly a 3 phase AMR?), as far as I understand, if a reading is supplied to the account, it is updated at that point. If estimates are often higher than actual, regular manual updates can help to adjust the system

It is a while since I had non smart meters, but when I did, I discovered a couple of things. First of all OVO only deals with billing of completed 24 hour periods. My billing period ends on the 3rd of the month. My intuition was to (when I remembered) to give my reading on the 3rd of the month. However, this meant that OVO “estimated” what the reading would be at the END of the 3rd of the month. The illustration that I include here shows how, in one of the months shown here, I sent my reading on the 4th of the month (i.e. the first day of the next billing period) and OVO used this as both the closing reading of the month and the opening reading of the next month, so no estimated reading was used. I discovered, therefore, that the best day to send my reading to avoid an estimated value being used was to send my reading on the 4th of the month (the first rather than the last day of my billing periods). 

(P.S Thank heavens for smart meters so that I do not have to worry about this now!)

Probably need to see screen shots of the three bills to be able to comment ​@3Phasesupplies

Obviously take out any personal information. 

Make sure they are all pulled from the website at the same time rather than using any old copies in case OVO have updated the bills.

It is quite difficult to comment otherwise 

So in the last couple of months my bill appears to go up very quickly for reasons I don't quite understand

I have attached a couple of screenshot to illustrate this in the first 1 you should see an average of £7-£8.per day,but a couple of days later it shows an average of £16ish,granted its been colder so my heating has been on much more but the change makes budgeting for my bill very difficult,this has been happening for the last 2 or 3 months

Any tips or pointers on how to keep better watch on what's happening would be much appreciated 

Those look suspiciously like estimated figures. First thing to check is that your meter is set to send data for every half-hour (touch the little rubber stamp in the top right-hand corner of the home page and scroll down to Settings - it’s the first item there).   

Above Settings, you should see Meter readings near the top. Touch it, then the View reading history button. Do you see your recent daily readings? Or only monthly? What is in the Type column? 

Hi ​@AnythingGood, and welcome to the OVO Forum. I hope you’re well.

I agree with ​@Firedog here - it does look like this usage data could be based on estimates. Please could you check if the reading schedule of your smart meters is set to monthly? If so, we’d recommend changing it to half-hourly. This’ll give you the most accurate usage data, and will show you a half-hourly breakdown of each day’s usage. You can find out how to change the reading schedule online or on the app here: