I have lots of credit in my OVO online account - why are you suggesting a large increase in my monthly Direct Debit payment?

From the page

Paying by direct debit is cheaper
While there are problems, there's one important fact in favour of setting up a monthly direct debit – it's usually about 6% cheaper than any other way of paying.

If you go into the tabs all suggestions are there. It is worth your time to go into everything, you can even make a complaint about your provider 

Hey @Daveandjack,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community.

I can see our community members have already given some really helpful advice here.

It’s cheaper to be on the Simpler Variable by direct debit, instead of on demand. 

Being on direct debit also ensures that you are paying an average throughout the year, which means you won’t have really large bills to pay over winter. The reason you have built up a credit balance is to offset your increased usage over the winter period.

We have a really great guide about how OVO calculates direct debits:

Check out this feature on your Online Account which will tell you exactly how we have calculated your direct debit including any credit balances:

Your direct debit increase would be because of the price increases in October which are in line with the Energy Price Guarantee. Which is in addition to the Energy Bills Support Scheme. 

Hope this helps. 

August 2022, OVO tried to increase my DD from £227 to £364 even though I am building up a credit of +£60 each month. I was fortunate to get this resolved and get my DD back to £227.

Today, I’ve received another email about my DD. They want to increase it from £227 to £339.

Currently, after my next bill I expect to be £250 in credit. My average monthly usage for the last 4 months has been £165.

How the hell can they justify a crazy increase of £112 a month? 

There’s Not a chance in hell am I going to allow them to increase my DD.

If you wish to request a Direct Debit Review Suspension, you can try calling 0800 069 9831 until 2pm today.

Please be advised that there’s a limit on how many times you can request one each year.

There’s also a support package available.

Details at https://www.ovoenergy.com/customer-support-package

Fastest sign up option at https://www.ovoenergy.com/winter-support-delivery/sign-up

Thanks for your reply, unfortunately I missed the 2pm deadline. I have logged a complaint online and will be calling them on Monday morning.

It's disgusting that they think they can dictate to us how much they can take out of our banks without our permission and without any sensible justification. I’m using nowhere near what they estimate. They need to fix this before anything else.

I don’t mind being in credit but being £355 in credit and demanding an increase of £112!!!

I don’t need a support package either, I am not struggling financially and can manage my bills quite well. It appears that Ovo want to use us all as a cashpoint, and I’m not having it.

Has anybody reported this activity to the Ombudsman and had any success?

Hi @daver66 

We would expect any account which hasn’t recently switched to OVO to be in credit at this point in the year. That’s because we try and calculate a payment that stays the same all year round. You pay more than you use in the summer, you build up credit, you use more than you pay in the winter, you eat into your credit. You end up with £0 by your contact end date. 

With higher prices this winter, those credit balances need to be higher than we’re all used to. £355 credit may end up not being enough. It sounds like that’s what our calculation is suggesting. Have a look a the monthly predictions here: https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments/direct-debit/calculator

As blastoise mentioned, if you think there’s been a mistake you are able to request a freeze to the payment review. 

Good news, I resolved my issue on the phone yesterday morning.

The main problem appears to be my estimated usage for the next 12 months is approx. double my actual usage. This would put me approx. £2000 in credit.

A ticket has been logged for someone to adjust my predicted usage to closely match my actual usage. Hope others find this helpful.

Since December 2022 I have been unable to alter the Direct Debit on my online account despite having a decent Credit.

I telephoned OVO and was told it would be reviewed in April and would decrease however the online Direct Debit function would STILL not work and I cannot get anyone to understand this

The ombudsman wrote to OVO on my behalf and yet the DD function still does not work.

I am not going to keep contacting OVO to wait on the phone and go through stressful conversations asking them to review my account every month.  I want to live peacefully with the option to alter the Direct Debit (as long as I am not owing). This is controlling my personal finances and affecting other suppliers that I have to pay and so I have had no other choice but to cancel the Direct Debit.  I prefer to pay more per year for personal autonomy than have OVO Big Brother tell me how much money I should give up front for service I have not yet received.

I now submit meter readings monthly and pay the amount due exactly a day later and keep the Credit in the account just in case.

I suspect I will receive a generic - ‘You can easily set up a Direct Debit by going to blah blah link’

I would prefer someone to fix the issue and allow the User to reduce their DD through their online account without having to wait over an hour on the phones (clearly OVO customer service are unable to handle all the calls) and then having a debate on how I should spend my own hard earned money with OVO instead of earning Interest on it in a bank!

Hi @MrM 

Sorry to hear about that

I am just a customer like you and no one on the forum can access your account.

Have you made the Ombudsman aware of your continuing issue?

What specifically did the Ombudsman ask ovo to do?

You may already know this.

If you cancel your DD you will end up paying more for your energy as the ofgem price cap is higher if you don't pay by DD. If you are happy paying more then that is fine.

At any time if you pay by DD you can request a refund of credit. You can request 100% if you are on a variable plan. You need to leave one month if on a fixed plan. Simply phone ovo collections 0800 069 9831

In case you haven't seen it 

As Jeffus says, it’s worth checking how much extra you’ll be paying after cancelling your Direct Debit. The standing charge alone for a dual fuel customer is around £45 a year more.

What do you see on the Change your Direct Debit amount page?

On the DD calculator page, how does the predicted balance at the end of March compare with your predicted monthly costs? 

On your Plan page, how does the Future Annual Consumption compare with your actual consumption over the past year? This is the basis for the DD calculation, so if it’s very inaccurate, you’ll have some persuading to do.

Thanks everyone for feedback and suggestions

It has been so stressful to deal with OVO that it made me ill at the time (Oct-Dec 22).  I was a SWALEC customer for over 20 years and they were fantastic.  Never a problem.

I received Ombudsman help with some of the issues resolved by OVO however they still did not address that the Direct Debit function (where you turn up or down the amount you wish to pay) does not work on my online account.  The Ombudsman can only do so much to help.

I checked how much more I am paying for manual payments and prefer to offset the small increase in comparison and earn interest on the amount saved instead.

My spend over the year was calculated and taken into consideration, (Customer Service advised it would decrease in April 23 - I still could not adjust it online).  I have kept the account in credit every month by £300 and my average monthly bills are £150.  The Direct Debit was set at £200 since Oct 22.

I am scared to return to Direct Debit as I will lose control again.  I prefer to save the money up front and earn interest for it especially if they cannot sort it out (or do they want to?)

All I want is to control the Direct Debit function up and down as it says you can ‘easily’ do.  But I kept getting a message that ‘this cannot be done at this time’

Thanks for listening.

@MrM if you are really are not happy then perhaps switch to a supplier that allows direct debits to be paid off in full each period. You simply pay for what you use.

That way you don't pay the significant penalty by not paying by direct debit.

For illustration for a typical dual fuel customer nationally

£1928 vs £2058 so £130 annually more expensive from 1st Jan

Obviously this varies based on usage and where you live.

You are never going to earn enough interest to cover the extra cost with ovo.

For example EON Next

https://www.eonnext.com/blog/135-How-Direct-Debits-are-calculated#:~:text=Variable%20Direct%20Debit.,and%20lower%20in%20the%20summer

Thanks Jeffus for the EON information - I am looking at this and the options as we speak.

Yes this looks like a much easier and cheaper option that trying to get OVO technicians to resolve the Direct Debit online system.

Thanks again everyone for your help.  Much appreciated.

There should have been four quarterly DD reviews since then. Did they not happen? If they did, what was the outcome?

I was very concerned to receive "confirmation" e-mails from OVO this morning announcing my direct debit will increase automatically next month by £16 per month. This is a 25% increase! I only use roughly 50% electricity and so am roughly 50% in credit at the start of each new period. When I go into comparison with other similar properties, my usage is vastly less. Given we have been and are now in the coldest period and I am still in great credit, I'm furious to see such an increase especially as we start to enter milder conditions as this increase comes into place. 

This is something we have seen on the forum several times relating to payments by Direct Debit. As OVO along with most energy providers does not allow whole bill by Direct Debit it is based on annual estimated usage. The year starts when the warmer days are coming along and energy usage tends to fall. This builds up a credit balance ready for the winter period and is of course to the advantage of the energy provider. This is why this method of payment is pushed by many businesses and service providers. As always there is one way to avoid this, pay by another method. Customer services may be able to explain why your individual bill has increased in this way.

Thank you. I am very ready to speak to someone tomorrow. OVO set the direct debit in October, presumably aware of colder weather imminent. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for my direct debit to increase when half of it has carried over as credit since. There is also no excuse for automatic increases of 25% on this basis. It's not a good look! 

I do hope you can get it sorted with customer services. They can usually resolve most issues and explain the reason for changes to Direct Debits. Its one of the main reasons I do not pay by Direct Debit. While this does mean paying a little more it is offset by the fact during the summer months I can save money and earn interest on it. 

Thank you. I vaguely recall having a similar experience with OVO in the past. It was "ironed out" over the phone and I ended up having nothing extra to pay. I may have suggested that I would be more than happy to clear any excess on a monthly basis should it arise....which it never did.

It’s been some time since OVO updated the way it counts the annual. On the 31st March of each year, OVO expects to see no less than one month of credit balance. Doesn’t matter when your joined OVO, set up DD or signed up the new tariff. 

It’s always good to contact the customer service. If you are in credit, there shouldn’t be a problem to reduce your DD.

OVO energy are calculating direct debit amounts based upon having one month's worth of credit half way through the March to April billing period, the 31st of March. This will lead to excessively holding on to customer's money as this demands a large credit balance at a time of year when your credit amount will be lower and a time of month in between billing periods where they will have deducted 2 weeks of usage from your credit balance as well. Not sure if this can be challenged? They are calculating a £300 a month direct debit on my account, £3,600 a year which is £1,700 more than the energy I used in Jan 25 to Jan 26. My average monthly usage for Jan 25 to Jan 26 was £160 a month. What point is a direct debit to smooth payments across the year if it’s higher than your monthly winter usage?! My usage in the winter is approximately £240 per month then around £80 in the summer! I was £150 in credit at the end of the last billing period, this will probably drop to around £80 at the mid March billing point then only increase from there and be around £400 at the end of the summer on my current direct debit amount of £198 a month. If they charge £300 a month I’ll be almost £1,000 in credit at the end of the summer!

Thanks, everyone. I eventually got through today and my direct debit has been adjusted by £3 increase, not £16! Apparently, direct debits are reviewed every three months and the extremely helpful chap I spoke to recommended speaking directly with Customer Services if there are ever any concerns. He also reminded me that direct debits can also be reduced in OVO's quarterly account/usage review process. Am very impressed with the efficiency experienced today. Some very positive feedback is on its way!

You can always contact Customer Service and they will be able to reduce your DD. The reason behind that is that to have one month credit of your balance at the 31st March of each year. Also, keep in mind that the energy price increased in January, and probably will increase again in April. 

Morning ​@Technophobe, I hope you’re well.

I can see you’ve received some really helpful answers here, and I’m happy you had good service when you contacted our Support Team.

I’m assuming the advisor may have put a three month hold on your Direct Debit being reviewed, which will mean that’ll take you into the Spring, when it’s a good idea to check the amount again. You can find some handy Direct Debit / billing articles in our Forum Library section here.