OVO Energy Live billing platform and monthly summaries - What do I need to know?
Updated on 01/09/23 by Abby_OVO
Here at OVO, we’re always on the lookout for ways to make managing your energy account easier. This is why we developed a new billing system in-house and have now moved the vast majority of OVO customer accounts over to this new platform. As part of this we’re changing the way that we calculate your energy costs and the frequency this is displayed on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS). This means that when you login, you can now see your account balance update daily, based on the most recent reading you’ve submitted manually or we’ve received automatically from your smart meter.
Traditional Energy billing model
Traditionally energy companies would receive meter reads either
From customers reading their own meters and submitting a read.
From smart meters directly.
On a specific date each month or each quarter, they’d look at the latest meter read they had received to bill you and generate a statement. This might have been based on the latest smart meter read, it might have been based on the last read you submitted manually or it might be based on an estimated meter reading if there was no meter reading received for that day.
This model makes anticipating and budgeting your energy costs harder as you’re only able to see how much your usage is costing at certain intervals throughout the year.
So how does live-billing help?
We started developing this up-to-date billing solution as OVO customers told us that the traditional model of issuing a monthly or quarterly statement can make it difficult for them to feel in control of their energy costs. Particularly at times of increased usage, having to wait until the next statement was issued can cause increased anxiety and may result in customers restricting energy usage or worrying about the next payment due. With up-to-date billing you now get a clearer idea of how much your energy use has cost every day and keep track of your balance throughout the month.
This means that the balance shown on your online account is always an accurate reflection taking into account
The cost of your energy usage, as calculated and billed with each time your smart meter sends us a reading or you submit a reading manually.
Daily standing charges.
Payments and refunds.
Monthly Summaries
Along with the way your charges are shown on your online account, you’ll also notice a difference to the statement that’s emailed or sent to you each month. We’ve streamlined the information we give you into a monthly summary. This will be emailed or posted depending on your communication preferences. All previous monthly summaries can also be downloaded on the ‘’Billing History’ page of your online account:
How to get the best out of the new online account
As we’re able to calculate your charges whenever we receive a reading, the live-billing platform is ideal if you’ve got a smart meter set to send us readings either daily or half-hourly. We’ll then adjust your balance based on actual usage figures each day at midnight. If you’ve not yet got a smart meter installed this might be the perfect time to take the leap.
If you’ve already got one installed but it’s currently sending us monthly readings, we’d recommend contacting our Support Team to request an update to your smart meter reading schedule.
Got any more question about how your account billing works? Comment below, we’re happy to help.
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What is the 57 charge though? They said when my bill comes in that would be taken into account, I'm hoping so
Let’s break this down based on the screenshots provided.
You started with £1706.27 migrated into the OVO account from SSE - this would have been your final SSE balance after the SSE Final Bill was paid off.
You then made a £50 card payment into the OVO account, we will ignore what kind of card and any fees incurred by OVO etc as we don’t need to worry about that here. This took the balance up to £1756.27 as a result (ignoring the live billing here just to make this post easier to write).
You then paid a £224 Direct Debit into the OVO account, making it £1980.27 total incoming funds for the period.
OVO withdrew £74.53 recently to contribute to bills (most likely via the Live Billing model), making the final balance £1905.74.
If you hadn’t made that card payment, I think your balance would have instead been £1855.74 .
The £57 was what I pulled from your live chat screenshot, which was probably from a few days ago.
THANK YOU! I understand better now
It looks like this is another example of the ‘live billing’ that OVO use being misunderstood. There is a charge against electricity and a credit (showing as -) on the gas so it looks like all is ok and the debits per day are showing as live billing does
Thanks so much
Your previous screenshot showing the consumption charge is made up from gas and electricity unit charges, standing charges and vat, these are itemised in your monthly bill. You can download your bill to view or save it. That will show how your charges are made up (the most recent bill charges will be £74.53), also on the bill you’ll see your running balance, ie the amount brought forward from the previous bill plus your payments in (ie direct debit and that £50). The amount carried over to your next billing period. OVO use a ‘live billing’ system so when you look online it’ll show the amount in your account in real time (so to speak).
Hello. I tend not to use forums like this, but I wonder if this might be the only way to solve my problem. Before the move from SSE I was receiving really massive electricity bills which made no sense, and I spent hours trying to sort it out (including many queries to the call centre in Cape Town, etc.). Nothing ever came of it. After the switch to OVO the bills have gone down again (although - to be honest - I’m still having trouble understanding the bills I receive from OVO now). It would be great if somebody could help, please! Is it just that SSE were in trouble generally (and hence the buy-out from OVO?)?
Hi @cejgreen , not sure about your question or SSE in particular. OVO call centres are UK based and they use a ‘live billing’ system so that you can see your costs daily.
This forum is mainly other customers trying to help as so isn’t a direct route to OVO but has hits lots of information which you can search and find
Can someone tell me assuming that your Today’s Balance was Zero the previous day. When Today’s balance shows the day after is this the daily standing charge plus vat on that standing charge which puts the balance into negative from the previous day’s zero
Hey @Pilgrim2
We use a live billing system at OVO to provide as much information on usage and billing throughout the month. If you have a smart meter that sends regular reads, we’ll use these to update the balance daily.
With up-to-date billing you now get a clearer idea of how much your energy use has cost every day and keep track of your balance throughout the month.
This means that the balance shown on your online account is always an accurate reflection taking into account
The cost of your energy usage, as calculated and billed with each time your smart meter sends us a reading or you submit a reading manually.
Daily standing charges.
Payments and refunds.
Recently needed a copy of my electricity bill. We only get a very brief total sent out once a year anyway but even to get a copy of this i had to put in a subject access request. Absolutrly bonkers. is there no better way?
Hi @gordonash
I am just a customer like you
Have you ever logged onto your account to get previously bills?
As a PAYG customer, you don’t get bills - you only get annual statements. That’s been the same across pretty much all suppliers for something like 30 years now.
If you want to be getting monthly bills, you’ll need to come off of PAYG.
Last month after the investigation into my large bill, I was told I was £350 in credit. Now when i check my app im -£350. You people are giving me an aneurism. The app just seems to say whatever it wants. I overpayed you a few months back thinking i had accrued massive debt and it turned out I hadn’t. This is either gross incompetence or a calculated move to say that I owe money so I can’t switch providers.
Sorry, but forum volunteers can’t access your account from here.
Hey @Daryl1234,
Sorry for the issues you’re having,
Do you have a smart meter installed? It means you won’t have over or underestimated bills in future, which should prevent these issues and mean your direct debit is more accurate.
If you have a smart meter but don’t think it’s working as it should, this topic may be helpful:
Can anyone explain to me ,
Online account on the 9th was showing Opening of £22.39 in credit and today 9days later it is showing £585.37 in debit , has anyone else had this problem I'm going out of my mind as to why this has happened . But closing says £65.51 in credit. Maybe I'm very stupid but I can't make sense of it , I was on the chat line and the agent just said it takes 48hrs to update and never gave me any answer to why a debit was showing
It’s one of the strange parts of their system @NewHome . If you look at the charges, they are negative and so actually a credit (2 negatives make a positive ) - must be an adjustment of some sort. So with your payment shown, the account will be in credit as you say
Thanks for the information, I'm just hoping this is the case , it's just so confusing. X
Hi all, looking to see if this has happened to anyone else, and what to do:
electricity only
smart meter
pay the amount owed when I get the bill.
November - 51p in credit - bill was zero said not to pay anything, so didn’t
December -1.24 in debit - over christmas - fogot to pay
January - 119.05 in debit (reads 57.62 in debit)
I’m so confused. the bills don’t add up?
thanks
Hey @mrs e,
Sorry for the issues you’re having,
My advice would be to contact the support team, who’ll have access to your account and be able to look into this for you.
Now OVO keep telling me my billing cycle is from the 13th off each month to the 12th off the next month. So why do they not show this on there app, i can see what i have used from the 1st off said month to the 30/31st off same month , then i have to to an indivual add up off days to see what i paid from the 12th off month to the 30/31st off same month . Why not just show u what u have really used over the billing period .
Hi @Chic64 ,
Sorry, but this isn’t a valid suggestion because the feature already exists. It sounds like you’re in the Usage tab - which isn’t the right place to find what you’re after.
Head into the app and go to Payments > See Charges and Payments > select a month > Scroll down > See Daily Consumption Charges. It’s all there.
If you still cannot see it, your app is probably massively outdated and you’ll need to update it from the Google Play Store/iOS App Store.
I know the whole month is in usage tab so why can't ovo start it from the start off billing cycle ie start from 13th to 12th next month rather than jimping through hoops to find it in payments . To me thats a rather simple request but i guess it't diffcult for Ovo
In that case, the suggestion you desire has already been completed - use the instructions I previously mentioned.
The USAGE Tab uses data directly from the meters and - in-line with basically every supplier ever - OVO just presents it as-is in a normal monthly calendar basis. Making it start mid-month satisfies the desire of only a handful of people to the detriment of everyone else.
It’s not that it’s too difficult to do, more that it’d just become worthless feature bloat.
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