Refunds of credit from your OVO account

Thank you ​@Blastoise186. It really shouldn't be this hard to get a refund!

Hi ​@Rhiwil1987,

I’m sorry to hear this.

It seems that our forum volunteer has already answered your question here. Hope you’re able to get this sorted.

Please let us know if you’re still having issues.

Hi, I'm looking at the possibility of getting a refund. Currently my account is over 800.00 in credit and I have a standing order in place for 175.00pm. However the value of the refund maximum is only 269.00. Can any one please help with the reason/maths please? Everything I've found talks about the fact you must have at least enough in the account to cover 1 months dd and that the most refund you can ask for is 500.00.

Thanks

The rules are pretty clearly laid out, but you will notice two clauses that are probably hindering your efforts to get a refund:

• “We recommend keeping at least 3 months’ worth of Direct Debit payments as credit.”
• “If you request a refund online, sometimes we need to confirm this over the phone to make sure you have the details of how it’ll affect your energy account.”

The figure you quote is presumably your current credit balance less the recommended three months’ Direct Debits. If you’d like to take more than this, you’ll have to speak to a support agent. If you’re on a fixed-rate tariff, you’ll have to leave an amount equal to one month’s DD in the account. 

Hey ​@Linzi Cooper,

Welcome to the community! 

​@Firedog's advice is spot on. The refund amount and process determine the next steps. For refunds exceeding £599, Support Agents will review billing accuracy and may request a meter photo. Below are helpful articles detailing our refund process. Contact our support team here for further assistance.

Hopefully this helps! 

Ive got an account credit of over £3700 and am seriously struggling to get any refund. I didn’t have a Direct Debit set up until today. Are you seriously telling me that OVO have to wait until my Direct Debit has been in place for 90 days?

Hi ​@Overpaidchasingrefund ,

You MIGHT be able to get an override on that if you have a word with OVO Support. Can’t make any promises, but it’s worth asking them.

Morning ​@Overpaidchasingrefund and welcome to the Forum.

As ​@Blastoise186 has said, our Support Team might be able to get something sorted for you, and we can always send a cheque as well. That said, are you sure that the balance on the account is accurate? I only ask because a lot of the time, when we see such big balances, this is due to bills being reversed, normally because of some sort of technical / meter reading issue.

I’m not saying this is definitely the case, but its well worth getting our Support Team to check that everything is correct before they refund you.

Let us know how you get on when you speak to them.

I chatted with support who were polite but said they can’t do anything. They suggested that I use 

my registered email with the Subject: Validate my photo and send me a refund please.

Add DOB, mobile number, address, postcode and sign off with your full name, just say "Sending my meter photo as I aware there's a large balance change and would like my refund of : however much you want." Add last two digits (only!) of your bank account number.

I have done this as requested. I threw my full billing history into ChatGPT and the comments as follows...

• Despite being “billed” each month, your account wasn’t being debited (i.e. they weren’t taking the bill total out of your credit).

So essentially: You’ve been paying in far more than your energy cost each month.

Even created some pretty charts and diagrams to understand whats happened.

I let you know how they respond to the email

I posted a reply/update yesterday but it’s not showing?

It’s probably been swallowed by AutoMod. You’ll need to wait until Monday so a Forum Moderator can review it manually.

​@Overpaidchasingrefund good morning, I hope you had a good weekend.

To confirm, we don’t have access to your account on the Forum so, whilst we can look at the graphs and discuss things in general, we can’t see if there’s any account / billing issue that’s prevented a refund. Our Support team will be able to check everything over properly though - have they got back to you at all yet?

Not yet, had an email saying they’d respond within 48 hours on Friday 24th

​@Overpaidchasingrefund you should have had an email back by now - I assume you should receive a reply today if you haven’t already.

You could also try calling in on 0330 303 5063. When you get through to an advisor and they open your account, they should be able to see your email.

Let us know how you get on.

I have had an email where they say...

“a colleague is concerned that your readings may have been transposed (round the wrong way) as the off peak usage is much higher than is expected in a household. We would like to ensure the credit on your account is correct when we process the refund as the last thing we want to do is process the refund then discover something was incorrect on the account putting you into debt at a later date.

Therefore, to investigate further, and ensure we are billing you correctly we would really appreciate if you could perform a load test….”

So i’ll do that. I am obviously left wondering how this hasn’t been picked up since 2021? It appears very poor practise.

Morning ​@Overpaidchasingrefund,

Hopefully they’re just being over-cautious, and the readings aren’t transposed (being billed the wrong way round).

In case you haven’t received the instructions from our Support Team, a ‘load test’ means taking two sets of readings, both during the peak hours, on the same day. Only one of the meter registers will have recorded usage, so that register will be the peak (daytime) reading.

Here’s an example template for the load test you can copy and paste into your email to Support:

• Meter Serial Number: ***********

• Date you took the meter readings: **/**/**

• Morning meter readings: 

• The time you took them: **am

• The day register ID and reading: R* - *****

• The night register ID and reading: R* - *****

• Afternoon or evening meter readings: 

• The time you took them: **pm.

• The day register ID and reading: R* - *****

• The night register ID and reading: R* - *****

You can find these instructions, and further info, on our website here.

To confirm, the meter serial number will be displayed on the front of your meter, usually near the barcode. You can also find it by logging into your app, selecting ‘Usage’, and then selecting ‘view and submit meter readings’:

The day / night registers will be displayed alongside the readings themselves. They might be labelled as ‘day’ and ‘night’, ‘1’ and ‘2’, or ‘R1 and ‘R2’ etc.

I’d definitely recommend taking photos of all the readings too and including them in your email.

Please let us know how you get on with this - hopefully the load test will prove that the balance is accurate, and the refund can then be initiated.

Was informed that a refund was on its way 9/12/2025. This will be in your chosen bank account in 10 working days or less. It’s now 15/01/2026 and still no refund. 

You will need to contact Customer Services to find out why a refund has not been issued. It is likely to be an account issue which should be easy to resolve.

No help but to date I didn't have a problem getting my refund and have just requested another one!

No help but to date I didn't have a problem getting my refund and have just requested another one!

Hey ​@Scally197 

Sorry to hear this, though I’m glad to see a couple of community members have already stopped by. 

DavidWSR left some really helpful advice about contacting the Support Team. I’d recommend doing this so they can check the status of that refund, we don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum to check this.

They’ll be able to let you know if it’s on it’s way or if a new one needs to be requested.

Do let us know how you get on.

Reading the replies on this thread highlights to me why I do not pay by Direct Debit. Having £800.00 of your money tied up with an energy provider earning no interest does not seem a sensible idea. However, this is the very reason we are encouraged to pay this way so like people on pre-payment meters we are always in credit. This is by 3 months by the sounds of it! At this time of year for some that can be an incredible amount of money sitting there doing nothing for you but earning interest for the energy provider.

I believe that we all are have to going to change our thinking on how we pay for our home energy use.

The advent of electric vehicles has changed things.

For many households the cost of EV charging is now going to be a large part of their electricity cost.

Think about it - You have to pay upfront for petrol/diesel that you put in a tank to run your vehicle.

With EVs can you reasonably expect the electricity suppliers to also want paying upfront for the electricity that you put in your vehicles battery.

If you don't have an EV that change may seem unfair - but it's just yet another change to how things used to be in the past.