Increase to Direct Debit - new way of calculating Direct Debit amount?

Hey Nukecad,

thanks for a detailed and comprehensive reply.

It seems from what you say that once again Ofgem are on the side of the companies and not the consumers although that last line:

Our new rules make sure that suppliers put their own capital at risk and that they are not overly relying on their customers’ money to fund their business. 

does seem to put us in the right…

PhilipJ

Thanks for your in-depth answers here ​@Nukecad.

They have put my DD up to £180 off from £140 and they suddenly think I need to have 1 month minimum of my money in their account come next March. I also saw a thing today that OVO are in the shit a bit and need to raise capital. Having a load of customers cash in their bank will make them look better than they are I think. It’s probably getting time to move or at least go to paying for what’s used even if it costs a bit more. Better money sitting in my account rather than propping up someone’s big Christmas bonus this year. They have never been as good as when it was SSE and now they seem to be getting even more greedy. 

So my inevitable e-mail just arrived, my DD is increasing from £102 to £117. Interestingly it was only a couple of days ago I got the e-mail to say the price cap change means my annual usage is expected to be £1,054. My account is already £289 in credit. Over the next 12 months I’ll pay £1,404 (12 x £117) therefore my projected balance this time next year is £639! Even at £102 x 12 that is £1,224 which is more than the expected usage!

Now I know the reason will be given back to me…. “but you need to have 1 month of credit on 31st March” and it will be spun it’s in my interest. My main issue is the date Ovo use to calculate this. 31st March knowing fine well the vast majority of people pay their DD on 1st of the month. On the 1st April (the day after the low point) I’ll be £234 in credit!

Ovo are taking too short a view of this. They should be pricing to a balance as at March 2027 not March 2026. I believe based on Ovo’s projected usage (£1,054) if anything my payments are too high at £102 (£1,224 pa) with a significant positive balance.

Any way I’ve enjoyed being a customer of Ovo over the years (I like your portal) but it’s time to say goodbye and hopefully find a company with a better ability to price!

I have read up on the change in calculations, but our new direct debit makes no sense.

We have £358 credit. We had a DD of £115. We usually have 65-85 usage per month between April and September, and £135-140 a month when the heating goes on.

With the existing DD of £115, that means we would be at a generously rounded £220 credit come April 2026.

Our DD was now set to £153, which exceeds our actual maximum usage of the last few years. That would bring us to a whopping £420 credit at the end of March.

I tried to change it back to £115, but the system insists we will not have a month’s worth of credit.

Can someone please manually change the direct debit back to the old amount? If not, what are my options other than cancelling the DD entirely and paying bills on demand, even taking a potential tariff increase into account? I would prefer to stay on DD, but not with forced overpayments that build unnecessary credit balances. I know OVO is currently having trouble proving that it’s crisis proof, but bleeding your customers to use them as a piggy bank is not the way to go at it.

Perhaps the first thing to do would be to find out why it makes no sense. Once you can see where the numbers come from, you can probably either learn to live with them or look for steps to take to change them.

This means very little. OVO’s live billing system means that the account balance changes daily, so a £358 credit could easily drop to £228 later in the month. The current balance is taken into account by the Direct Debit calculator, though, so a credit is deducted from the future costs to find out what the monthly payment should be. 

The size of earlier bills is not particularly relevant, either - there are just too many factors involved. What does count are the estimates of Future Annual Consumption (FAC) and the current tariff prices. If your FACs are very inaccurate, so will the DD calculation be. You can see them on the Plan page (in a browser, not the app). How do yours compare with actual usage? 

The Home Page of your OVO online account gives you access to this neat little tool. My balance today is just over £350 but today is only the second day of my billing cycle, so each day this balance will reduce until the 28th December when my next DD is due. I actually choose to keep my balance at a particular level and resist attempts to reduce it as I have a fixed income and like to be able to choose to be warm in winter! Perhaps, playing with this feature may help to explain the Direct Debit that has been calculated for you. If it doesn’t, I suggest you contact OVO. I find that I get my best response by using the Messenger function on OVO’s Facebook page. 

Hi ​@Graeme,

Sorry to hear you’re considering leaving because of this. I’d recommend getting in touch with our Support Team who’ll be able to calculate things manually for you. If anything is incorrect, they’ll be able to put your Direct Debit down to what it needs to be, and halt any further Direct Debit reviews whilst the issue is fixed.

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

I’m gad to see Firedog and Bendog have come by with some really helpful responses here. How long have you been with us as a customer? Will this be your first winter on supply with us? If so, we won’t know what your winter usage will look like.

When I shop at the supermarket, or buy diesel for my car, or buy a latte, I don’t get billed for that a month in advance, “for my convenience”. 
 

It’s pure and simply bankrolling of OVO.  Especially when the email informing me of the change comes after the email about the automatic DD increase. 
 

Complaint on the way, but I know it’s a waste of time.  I would love to move…. But they all seem to follow themselves ultimately in how badly they treat customers. Race to the bottom.