Recently signed up to a new fixed contract- Will my prices be affected by the Energy Price Guarantee?

Started it back in June, so I’ll wait and see how this pans out

I get regular updates from the Martin Lewis forum so will wait a bit longer and see how things pan out with info from himself or OVO.

Also I need to check if my current fixed rate is cheaper than the current variable rate, which will help decide on how soon to take any action

government_energy_price_guarantee_prices._standard_variable_deemed_and_welcome._credit_meters.pdf (edfenergy.com)

It's an excellent table and answers lots of questions - why not publish an OVO version?

Still waiting to see what will happen, I do like ovo generally but I can't see why we can't be told in advanced what the pricing per unit will be. Or credited back to, I've fixed on 62p/18p electric/gas.

The direct debt calculator is definitely not taking into accounts any discounts from government for me 

If you’re paying via Direct Debit, the £400 EBSS rebate won’t be paid to your OVO account, it’ll actually go back to your bank account instead, so that’s why the calculator isn’t going to factor it in.

Feel free to pay it back into your OVO account though - if you do, the calculator will definitely include that with the number crunching!

Hey @stead,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community.

If you’re on the Simpler Variable Plan your prices will be going up in October, in line with the Energy Price Guarantee. So, if you’ve seen an increase in your recommended direct debit this will be why.

As @Blastoise186 has advised the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme will be refunded to your bank, so this won’t be taken into account in direct debit reviews.

If you are going to be affected by the Energy Price Guarantee OVO will be in touch shortly, if we haven’t already. Please keep an eye on your emails. There is more advice in this similar thread:

• What’s happening with energy prices? Let’s take a look. Blog

Hope this helps. 

Emmanuelle_OVO wrote:

Hey @stead,

 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community.

 

If you’re on the Simpler Variable Plan your prices will be going up in October, in line with the Energy Price Guarantee. So, if you’ve seen an increase in your recommended direct debit this will be why.

 

As @Blastoise186 has advised the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme will be refunded to your bank, so this won’t be taken into account in direct debit reviews.

 

If you are going to be affected by the Energy Price Guarantee OVO will be in touch shortly, if we haven’t already. Please keep an eye on your emails. There is more advice in this similar thread:

 

• What’s happening with energy prices? Let’s take a look. Blog

 

Hope this helps. 

Hi, Thanks for the reply but I'm on the Drive plan, today the cap comes into place and I'm still none the wiser on how this government scheme is being done, I’m assuming we shall get credit like the anytime addon works so my direct debit won’t actually go down but I'll have a massive surplus, I’ve already got a 4 digit figure in credit on my plan as apparently I'll be in debt if I lower it, which I completely understand the logic behind. But it is going to cause some trouble for me if its not balanced out over the next few months.

I’m sure you probably don’t have the information yourself but I’d just l like to have a bit more reassurance that I'll be able to lower the direct debit amount and a bit of clarity on how this scheme is going to be implemented, if its credit based to the account it just means myself and others will be having to apply for refunds every few months, if the DD takes into account the government scheme I'm happy knowing in a couple of months it should balance out to something a bit more realistic, I don’t mind applying for refunds as long as it doesn’t go against me as a customer, I'm sure applying for a refund of a £1,000 every 3/4 months will bring up some kind of review or count as some kind of abuse trying to get % on my balance

My energy price per kw hasn’t lowered to the government guaranteed price just wondering why ,I am on a 2 year fix from july this year

Join the club 

aye there phones will be on fire to-morrow lol

OVO will be in touch soon with an update. You do NOT need to get in touch as your account will be adjusted automatically.

Hi @Blastoise186, I've seen you responding to several posts on different subjects across this forum, you seem to be speaking on behalf of OVO, but dont appear to be doing so in any official capacity.  Who do you represent and what is your function within this forum?  Should we take it that your advice is given with OVO's tacit approval and they therefore accept liability for the accuracy of your advice or otherwise?

You’re right. I don’t act in an official capacity. Usually if I’m doing more than a quick one-liner, I chuck in a disclaimer to let people know I’m a forum volunteer, but I don’t always add one if I don’t feel it’s needed.

I represent myself as one of the trusted forum volunteers and my functions here involve various tasks:

• Content creation - I’ve written quite a few community guides!
• Running the show - I’m part of a group of forum volunteers who answer many of the questions posted here and we also help curate the place
• Moderation - I’m a super duper spam blaster for starters! I don’t have ModPowers myself, but I’m heavily integrated with the process!
• Technical advisor - all of us have our specialities, but mine is for Smart Meters and IHDs
• Mentor - we help new forum volunteers learn the ropes
• And whatever else the community needs from us

Over 99% of my content is moderated on a post-moderation or reactive moderation basis. I have an exemption from the spam filter and almost all automated moderation tools on the basis of being trusted, but I’m still subject to manual moderation by the Forum Moderators and the House Rules still apply to me just like they do everyone else. OVO doesn’t vet my content (except my guides which is mainly for moderation reasons) but we do get early notice of big changes so we can help out more easily.

As for liability? That remains with me essentially, but only for content that I post myself. I do have an obligation to try and make sure my advice is accurate, but there are tolerances for cases where old info simply got outdated over time. I’d only get in trouble if I was to deliberately mislead you.

But if the advice you get here comes from anyone with the Carbon Catcher, Plan Zero Hero ranks, Community Moderator, Community Manager or anyone with a forum title containing OVO e.g. OVO Engineer, OVO Employee, OVO Staff, OVO Team or OVO Product Team, then chances are it’s pretty accurate anyway.

And usually, if I’m reposting an official answer provided by OVO, I’ll quote it and mark it in some way that lets you know it’s an official answer.

You can often spot us all by our forum signatures as well. Many volunteers and staff here have energy related jokes somewhere in our signatures and it’s become a running joke!

Hi @Blastoise186, thank you for the guidance.  In yoir capacity as a Forum volumteer do you have any back channel communication to relevant OVO staff?  I ask as OVO could themselves a big favour by sending out a customer bulletin on what they are doing to manage these Energy Price Guarantee changes.  They said everything will happen automatically and they said they would communicate to customers in 2 weeks.  That was over 3 weeks ago.  By doing this they could save a fair proportion of their customers continued uncertainty and reduce the demand on their customer service teams.  If you (or any of your fellow forum volunteers) do have any inside track to OVO, I and from what I see on this forum, would welcome your support in this respect.

Yes very good idea. I still have not heard anything . Which I imagine is the same as a lot of other people.

In yoir capacity as a Forum volumteer do you have any back channel communication to relevant OVO staff?

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/groups :)

One of those Groups does exactly that.

 I ask as OVO could themselves a big favour by sending out a customer bulletin on what they are doing to manage these Energy Price Guarantee changes

Everything publicly available can be found at https://www.ovoenergy.com/pricecap .

 If you (or any of your fellow forum volunteers) do have any inside track to OVO, I and from what I see on this forum, would welcome your support in this respect.

Already done. Someone will probably stop by this thread sooner or later. There are two amazing OVO staff who patrol this forum constantly and we’re in constant contact with them. I can also tell you that they read basically everything that gets posted as well. They don’t always reply, but you can be sure that they’ll definitely see this thread!

Hey @stead,

Thanks for a great question!

If you have the OVO Drive + Anytime Add On, you will still benefit from the add on. Even if you are changed to the Simpler Variable Tariff.

If you are affected by the Energy Price Guarantee, OVO will contact you directly about your prices. 

Hope this helps. 

Once again we end up with More Questions than answers.

How many people have paid the over estimated and over inflated direct debit request from OVO? if you concentrate too much on the £3900 price cap then an increase of £1200 a year to say £2000 is easy to swallow………..seems a ploy to guarantee a bank full of credits from OVO customers.

I still cannot find any link to changing my over inflated fixed plan(Took out in March 2022) or see any variable tariffs..

Hey @rodblue,

Thank you for a great question! 

If you are affected by the Energy Price Guarantee, OVO will be in touch. Please see this similar thread for more advice:

Hope this helps. 

I’ve had an update back from the forum moderators @Jacko6625 @Corgimajor @Aljowi .

OVO has agreed to automatically refund all erroneous exit fees and this is being done in the background starting this afternoon. If you were charged an exit fee by mistake, OVO will apply an account correction to undo it and refund you appropriately. You will probably also receive an email to let you know that this has been done.

Please allow a few days for the billing platform to re-run the numbers. Your existing bills will not be modified but it will show up in your online account that the exit fees got refunded or cancelled.

Hey @Aljowi,

Thank you for your question.

I can see @Blastoise186 has already given some helpful advice here. 

If you’re on a fixed rate contract and you are affected by the Energy Price Guarantee, OVO will be in touch with your new prices. Please keep an eye on your emails.

It is worth noting that for some people on fixed rate plans, it won’t be beneficial for them to change tariffs. They will remain on the plans they are on currently and OVO won’t be contacting them.

Hope this helps. 

all fixed now cheers

Hey @coco34ymail.com,

As you signed into your contract in March, before the April price cap increase, it may be that the fixed prices you signed into are lower than the Energy Price Guarantee cap.

When the cap refers to £2500 this is for an average home. If you are a higher user or your monthly direct debit X 12 months comes to higher than that amount, this doesn’t mean you’ll be better off on the Simpler Variable plan. Or that your prices will be changing. 

OVO will be in contact directly with all customers affected by the recent government announcement.

If your direct debit is too high, or you are building up a large credit balance you can reduce your direct debit and request a refund through your Online Account:

• How to request a refund on the OVO app Tutorial

Here is more information about how OVO calculates your direct debit:

• How does OVO Energy calculate my Direct Debit? Tutorial

• Getting to grips with the Direct Debit Calculator on your online account Tutorial

Hope this helps. 

the price i got in March is more than todays current prices but OVO are not helping me on that one.

If  i let OVO put my direct debit up £190 to £368 then i would have to use over 100% more gas and electric just to spend it lol. 

I pay for what i use and am in credit again so your Direct debit calculations are wrong. 

I am dumbfounded by how stupid OVO are coming across but then again their bank balance is rising and profits per share are also.