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

If you are successfully submitting meter readings every week your estimates should only vary very slightly from the actual amount that should be billed. My smart meter sends readings every half hour, so I know the bill will be for the exact amount each month. If you submit on a Monday and your bill is generated on a Friday then it would have to be estimated. How different is your bill from your meter reading @FRANK FARMER ?

nb if you can still edit your previous post can you delete all the blank lines please.

Every month I give readings on the day the app tells me to but my bill still shows an estimate for that date. I found a thread 5 years old which didn't answer this.

I'm fed up with having my readings ignored so please tell me why this happens?

If I'm giving an accurate reading on the day requested then it's not unreasonable to expect my bill to be based on reality is it?

Sorry I don't understand the reply. This just tells me the readings which I already know! The question is despite the manual readings being on this list it will still put another estimated reading on my bill for the same day - why?

Sorry… you’re quite right. My mistake.

I imagine the estimated figure makes the reading up to midnight of the day, ie 24th feb in your example. Did you submit the reading earlier in the day? 
A smart meter could submit the reading for you of course, they can be set to give readings every half hour so the bill is accurate.

That does look odd but it doesn't affect the amount you pay so unless the estimate is significantly different to the actual reading I wouldn't worry about it.

Guessing here, I’m afraid.

If you submit a reading on 24 February, it’s recorded as being for 24 February. But the latest reading you see - e.g. now, on 27 February, is the one last midnight. So the reading used to calculate this bill will be the one for midnight 23/24 February, i.e. before your manual reading was submitted. Since the latest manual reading at that stage was four days earlier, the consumption up to midnight 23/24 February will have been estimated - don’t ask me how, but it will have been based on historic usage. That’s why the instructions (which I can’t find, of course) advise submitting a reading a day (or two?) before the bill is due.

Hi @Crazygirl 

Sorry to hear about your issue. 

I don't have much to add to the good responses you have already had. 

Here is one example as you ask in the screenshot below. Perhaps it made a difference as i entered a few readings that month? It is a guess to be honest. You could try entering readings through the month and see if that has any effect for example. This is one when i had a traditional meter with OVO. I have a smart meter now which i personally find so much better

We do see users raising the same thing as you. Due to what OVO call "live billing" I don't personally think there is any way to guarantee it doesn't happen. I don't think we have ever worked out a fool proof way yet of stopping estimated readings sometimes being applied for some users. 

If it annoys you a lot i suspect your only options are to get a smart meter or switch suppliers. Obviously check with other suppliers how they handle their bills. Octopus get good reviews on Trustpilot so perhaps check with them. 

https://octopus.energy/

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/octopus.energy

The above screenshot is for gas, but electricity also didn't show an estimated reading on the bill that month. The next month i had a smart meter installed so didn't need to submit any readings since June 2021.

Let us know if you figure out a way of always stopping the estimated readings as i am sure it will be useful for other customers and we could ask OVO to update some of their help pages. 

I don't work for OVO, i am just a customer like you. 

Why ,when it states in the email received each month that to avoid an estimated bill end meter reading in the next 5 days, do I still receive an estimated bill. This estimate is always above my actual usage. I even send a reading in every day of the 5 days given just to try to avoid an estimated bill, this does not work. I telephoned customer service on 2 occations and both times I was promised it would be sorted ou and refund given, NOTHING still a estimated bill. I am on a very limited budget each month as an unpaid carer and this extra is really putting me under stress. If this is a strong armed way of forcing me to have a smart meter you can forget it, I DO NOT WANT ONE RIGHT NOW , GET THE MESSAGE. STOP SENDING ME ESTIMATED BILLS, I WILL PAY FOR WHAT I USE AND NO MORE. 

Great advice from @David Jefferies 

If you are providing readings, the only estimated amount should be from the date of the reading to the date of the bill. If this estimate is wrong it will be adjusted on your next bill. So unless you're seeing readings that are extremely incorrect they should even out across your bills.

If you pay by monthly direct debit these discrepancies will make no difference to your payments.

If the estimates on your bill are extremely incorrect this suggests that your readings aren't being recorded. Or there's something else going wrong. In this case you should contact customer service and ask them to investigate.

I am always in positive credit in my account. I send a meter reading each month so that my bills are accurate. From the point I send my reading until the date my direct debit comes out (around 10 days) my balance on my credit keeps going down. The breakdown shown for this is standing charges and estimated fuel consumption. If I'm sending monthly readings to gain an accurate bill, do these estimates get recalculated when I send my next reading in or are Ovo just taking more money than they should? 

Hey @RCummings,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

I can see @juliamc has already given a helpful answer here, just wanted to add we have a great FAQ which may be helpful to you:

It will depend on your plan rate and boiler of course but also don’t forget that the in home display will normally include the standing charge

Hey @Amerififer,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

@BPLightlog and @Jeffus have already given some helpful advice here. Just wanted to add, we calculate your billing from the meter reads received from the smart meter itself, not the IHD. If you feel the readings shown online are too high or there is a dramatic increase in usage but no changes in behaviors, it may be that there is a faulty meter in the property or that the meter is clocking too fast.