The Direct Debit calculator is a valuable tool, but it is far from perfect. One major drawback is its attempt to mislead by fudging the graphic representation of the account balance. Here is today’s for my account, a fixed-rate plan ending in May next year:
This looks quite reasonable: the current DD takes account of my current balance and shows it coming down to not much by the end of the fixed term, with a recommendation to reduce the DD a bit to make the end result closer to zero. I might be tempted to leave things as they are, to be on the safe side.
… until, that is, I notice the disgraceful shift in the y-axis that distorts the picture significantly. By shifting the origin to some arbitrary figure over £40, it leads me up the garden path. In fact, the average balance over the next nine months would be about £77, 2½ times the recommended DD.
This could be regarded as a gross manipulation of the data to the customer’s detriment and ought IMNSHO to be corrected. This is what I think the chart should look like:
In cases like this, where a substantial credit balance has accumulated by virtue of a too-high DD over a long period, the calculator should perhaps recommend taking a refund of some of the credit as an alternative to (or as well as) reducing the monthly DD.
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Interesting.
As you know I have issues with the accuracy of that DD graphic anyway, but I had not really noticed before that the Y-axis origin line shifts about like that.
Here are examples of mine (which is in debit) from April, May, and today which clearly show how it changed from 0, to somewhere about -50, to somewhere about -30
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Off topic, but you might also notice the variation in predicted usage/recommended DD between the first 2 and the current one. From £112 is’the right amount’ to £153 is needed. I’m on the 1-year fixed loyalty plan and so the only reason for that to change is one that we know well, incorrect FAC being used. I had yet another phantom FAC doubling last month. (Because of that incorrect FAC I’m currently having to pay £134 when my own calculations say that £125 is actually sufficient to meet zero at plan end. Ah well, paying more just clears the debit more quickly, it should be well cleared by the end of October).
Yep. This is a typical example of a ‘deceptive visualization’, much frowned upon by academics around the world but warmly embraced by politicians and news outlets.
I wonder why OVO designers choose to emulate Fox News rather than New York University’s experts, unless it’s their intention deliberately to deceive.
Hey @Firedog & @Nukecad,
I’m going to share this topic internally if you’re happy for me to do so?
LOL, Not a problem @Emmanuelle_OVO - but I’ll swear that someone has already read it and acted upon it. Thank You, whoever that was.
(I’ve suspected that in the past too, when posts I have made here have resulted in changes showing in the DD calculator/chart the next day or two. My first 2 screenshots above were an example of that, the first one has the overall debit balance wrong and circled in red, after posting about that it had been corrected 2-days later).
In contrast to the chart from yesterday, the bottom one of the 3 which I posted above, todays has been adjusted to now show:
The difference is entirely because my incorrect FAC for gas has been adjusted overnight, nothing else has changed (apart from yesterdays usage/SCs which wouldn’t make that much difference). My incorrect gas FAC has been adjusted downwards overnight by -3426 kWh to now stand at 10023 kWh. That’s still around 12% higher than my actual gas use from the past 12 months - but it does very conveniently make it that my current DD of £134 now results in a zero balance at plan end. That seems too neat to be anything other than a manual intervention.
PS. Also note that the £ axis is back at zero, where it should be. I’m not sure though if that is a general change or just a consequence of having to show that zero balance?
I’m going to share this topic internally if you’re happy for me to do so?
That’s what I was rather hoping for I wonder if it’s possible to extract a reason for the deception from those responsible - I doubt it, somehow.
I expect the reason will simply be: “Because we think it looks better like that”.
‘Looks better’ being subjective of course.
One way of ‘fixing’ it yourself would be to request back some or all of your credit balance (or reduce your DDs, if the computer will let you) to get a zero or negative balance at plan end. Then the chart would have to show you the zero balance line.
… request back some or all of your credit balance (or reduce your DDs, if the computer will let you) to get a zero or negative balance at plan end.
I’ve been wondering about that. With all your experience of tweaking your DD, i wonder if you could comment on these two scenarios:
Wait until this month’s DD has been taken, then
Request a refund of all but one DD, (here £89 - £37 = £52). This would bring the final balance to -£5.
Reduce the DD as far as the bot will allow (in this case from £37 to £32), then Request a refund of all but one DD, (now £89 - £32 = £57). This would bring the balance to zero by the end of December and to -£45 by the end of the contract.
The point I’m making is that I could get a bigger refund by reducing the DD first. Whether it makes sense or not remains to be seen, and I’m not sure the bot would allow it - do you know?
I’m confident that my actual consumption (as opposed to the fictitious FAC) wouldn’t be nearly so disastrous in the second scenario.
I don’t have any experience of requesting a refund. I’ve been in debit since transferring from SSE, no problem just that SSE hadn’t been taking enough which I knew before the transfer but SSE didn’t seem bothered about increasing it. (maybe because the transfer was coming?)
I’d think a refund request might be better after your monthly billing end date rather than the DD date, unless you have aligned them?
Although in this case all you really want/need is to get the chart showing the zero line and either of your scenarios should do that.
Adjusting your DD yourself is possible; but if you want to set it lower than the recommendation then I’ve found that it doesn’t quite work as suggested on the OVO FAQ webpage. - Although possibly that’s because I use a browser and not the app? (But personally I suspect that the FAQ is out of date). https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/app-direct-debit
Viewing you account in a browser it won’t let you set a DD below what is being recommended using the ‘Change amount’ box.
Whether you can reduce your DD yourself below the Amount being recommended depends on if you are being shown an additional ‘Reduce payments now’ option.
If it’s there then you can set/fix it 10% lower than recommended for the next 3 payments. I did that myself last month which is why mine is now pegged at £134, 10% reduced from the £148 it was recommending at the time.
If that option isn’t showing on the account then a support agent should be able to do it for you. (In fact I think that they can go down to -15% if necessary, or even put a DD payment hold on if it’s a short term issue).
If you want it reducing more than that the only option seems to be setting up a repayment plan.
PS. Now here is an oddity. (not that such oddities surprise me anymore). I’ve just logged into my online account and, despite the fact that I had already used that ‘Reduce by 10% for the next 3-months’ option and still have 2 of those reduced payments left, it is now offering to let me reduce it by another 10% for the next 3-months. ie from the £134 I had reduced it to last month it’s saying that I can now reduce it again by 10% to £121. Probably that has happened because my inflated FAC dropped by those 3426 kWh yesterday, which has brought the recommended DD down to what I had reduced it to anyway? £121 would be £4 too low by my calculations so I won’t be doing that, at least not till after my payment is taken next month.
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I wonder if it’s possible to extract a reason for the deception from those responsible - I doubt it, somehow.
