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

You can usually alter the direct debit amount in your bank account.  Have a look at what your annual cost is.  It could, perhaps, be a computer (mis)calculation.

Thanks for the replies. I might inquire about paying my actual monthly bill without using D/D. On a yearly basis I know the payments I make cover my bills. I just disagree with now having to leave an extra months payment in my OVO account when I know it’s not needed. And OVO wanting to up my payments as a penalty for wanting my own credit back. As well as knowing the extra amount they want to add monthly will add up to another credit I again have to argue for back. 

I used to pay my OVO bill quarterly in arrears (with 28 days to pay); I know this wasn't the cheapest tariff, but I paid by credit card, so I got up to 6 weeks before I actually had to pay the money, and also got points on my credit card.  That suited me fine, because I was in complete control of the amount paid.  I don’t really trust anybody (other than the local council, and the bank itself) with variable direct debits!!!   

BT, British Gas, and even Thames Water are (still) quite happy with this quarterly arrangement.   But, OVO changed it to monthly billing (and only 14 days to pay), without adequate warning.  I hit the roof!!!  And, I took it as far as the ombudsman.   I actually got an apology and some financial compensation from OVO, because they didn’t communicate the changes to me as well as they should have, or deal with my official complaint, as well as you could have!!!  

What I learnt is that suppliers are allowed to change their conditions of business, without the customer’s explicit agreement, as long as the changes are “reasonable”, and communicated in a timely manner!!!   Interestingly, the only contract I ever signed for my electricity supply was with Southern Electricity (even before SSE)!!!

I hope that’s a fair summary of what happened, if not I’m quite happy to apologise to OVO.

How changes to OVO’s core terms and conditions are made is clearly laid out, and it’s even more draconian than you say; see here: Read Terms and Conditions. Only if the change puts you at a disadvantage are they obliged to notify you beforehand, giving you time to avoid the change should you want to.  

Interesting - I wonder if the ombudsman would think this contract is reasonable - anybody like to take it to them???

I now think the reason that OVO didn’t inform me properly in advance of the change to monthly billing may well be that they (genuinely) thought it was not to my disadvantage, which I quickly told them was incorrect.  I told them that I’d much rather have the cost of up to 2 months electricity sitting in my Cash ISA, and that I did not appreciate having to receive a bill, check it, and then pay it, 12 times a year, rather than just 4.  I think the ombudsman agreed with me, but they couldn’t say that the new arrangement was actually unfair, just worse for me than the previous one.

Morning ​@moragj and welcome to the OVO Forum.

Have you only recently switched to OVO this year? If so, we won’t have any previous winter usage data to base the calculations on, and will estimate this based upon summer usage since you joined. 

The Direct Debit review procedure aims to see you through the winter without ending up in debt, and the calculations are based on estimated annual usage, your rates and your current balance. By now, we’d expect you to have a few months’ worth of credit on the account to see you through the winter, when your usage will be substantially higher. If there’s not a lot of credit on the account, or the account is in debt, then the Direct Debit will be increased to avoid falling into debt during the winter, and can be lowered again as we head into the spring.

It’s important to note here that the calculations could be wrong if the figures we hold for your annual consumption are incorrect. I suggest, if you haven’t been with us for a year yet, that you get a previous reading from your old supplier for a year ago today or as near to that as possible. Send this previous reading to our Support Team and request that they calculate your EAC (annual electricity consumption) and AQ (annual gas consumption, if you have gas). They’ll be able to use this usage to ascertain what your average monthly spend is on your current rates, and use this to calculate the Direct Debit.

If the figures we hold in our systems for your annual usage are incorrect compared to what they’ve manually calculated, then they should be able to lower the Direct Debit to something more sensible. Please note that we don’t have access to customer accounts on the Forum, so I can only speculate as to what’s happened here. If the account does not have much credit, or is in debt, then the Direct Debit will certainly need to be increased to avoid falling into further arrears in winter.

I hope this helps.

I have been with OVO since they took over from SSE approximately 20 months ago.

They have more than 12 months consumption usage.

Last winter we had storage heaters, this winter we don’t as they were removed.

 I am not willing to pay an extra £200 a month for a heating system we don’t have.

OVO has very poor listening ability and kept referring to last winters consumption despite being told repeatedly that we no longer have that system and my average consumption is now consistent over the year

​@moragj if you’ve been with us nearly two years then we should have more than enough usage data to base the direct debit calculations from. Our computer systems will be assuming that you’re going to use the same amount of energy this winter as you did last winter. The algorithms we use won’t take note of the fact your storage heaters have been removed.

If you had the storage heaters removed, this may reduce your usage, but that’ll remain to be seen over the winter. Have another chat with the Support Team and hopefully you’ll have more luck. To confirm though - if the account is in debt they’re probably not going to be forthcoming about reducing the Direct Debit. You say your consumption is now consistent, but we won’t know that until well into the winter.

If you can’t afford the increase it may be worth speaking to our Collections team, who’ll be able to set up a payment plan for you. You can find out more about this here.

Without seeing your account I can’t confirm that your average usage is £250 per month but, bare in mind, if this is the case and the account is in arrears, then paying £280 per month over the winter won’t see the account go back into credit. 

I hope this helps, and let us know if you get back in touch with Support about this.

Hi and thank you for your patience in trying to resolve this.

 I am in credit so there’s no question that I have a debt to clear.

My usage is consistent, EV, work from home, gaming systems and appliances. 
We have also removed the electric hob and have calor gas now so I am absolutely confident that my usage is correct and will not change over the winter.

I believe that if OVO doesn’t start listening better then despite the best efforts of people like yourself they will continue to lose customers.

 I have switched to Octopus from tomorrow.

​@moragj good morning,

I’m sorry that there was no flexibility offered when you spoke to customer services about this. That’s a real shame from a customer experience perspective, and more so now that its caused you to switch away.

I hope everything goes trouble-free for you with Octopus.

All the best,

Ben