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I have just noticed an unexplained 45% increase in my minimum direct debit payment caused by today's change to the calculation in the Direct Debit Calculator (now calculating through to end of March 2026, rather than the end of March 2025).

The impact of that change, if it is intentional, is that a lot of people (like myself) who already have a significant credit balance and are on course for a very healthy credit balance come 31st March 2025 are potentially still going to have to increase our direct debit payments and build up even bigger, and wholly unnecessary, credit balances (and further increase our direct debits if we want our credit balances refunded at the end of winter).

Are any of the OVO staff who monitor the forum able to share the full details of the changes and the logic behind them?

Also flagging that the changes don't seem to be compliant with the T&Cs.

Are any of the OVO staff who monitor the forum able to share the full details of the changes and the logic behind them?

 

I’m sure they will after the weekend, although I’ve a feeling they’ll struggle to explain the logic. 

I understand the change wasn’t supposed to happen until Monday, so it looks like somebody jumped the gun. 

 

I understand the change wasn’t supposed to happen until Monday, so it looks like somebody jumped the gun. 

It went live first thing this morning, Friday.

Updated on 04/11/24 by Emmanuelle_OVO: 

How we work out your Direct Debit amount

To work out your monthly Direct Debit amount, we:

  • look at your energy use so far and estimate how much you’re likely to use by 31 March 2026. This includes any costs, such as standing charges and add-ons
  • take away your current balance, factoring in any credit or debt
  • divide the result by the number of payments left until 31 March 2026, which gives us your monthly amount

We aim to bring your balance to £0 by 31 March 2026. This way, you won't owe us anything, and we won't owe you anything, making it easier to manage your energy costs.

We regularly check your Direct Debit to make sure your balance is on track.

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO

See the discussion in ‘Updates and news from OVO to PZHs’ topic in the PZH forum .

@Emmanuelle_OVO

See the discussion in ‘Updates and news from OVO to PZHs’ topic in the PZH forum .

 

I wasn’t in last week, my apologies. I’m chasing an official update for this internally. Once we have confirmation we can update all relevant topics. 

No worries, all of us at the forum were caught on the hop by this one on Friday.

I guess that you will be busy updating those tutorials today.

Updated on 04/11/24 by Emmanuelle_OVO: 

How we work out your Direct Debit amount

To work out your monthly Direct Debit amount, we:

  • look at your energy use so far and estimate how much you’re likely to use by 31 March 2026. This includes any costs, such as standing charges and add-ons
  • take away your current balance, factoring in any credit or debt
  • divide the result by the number of payments left until 31 March 2026, which gives us your monthly amount

We aim to bring your balance to £0 by 31 March 2026. This way, you won't owe us anything, and we won't owe you anything, making it easier to manage your energy costs.

We regularly check your Direct Debit to make sure your balance is on track.

 

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO That's really taking the proverbial .... and a very definite final straw and "Hasta nunca" from me to OVO to draw the curtains on two years of enduring unconscionable incompetence on the part of OVO 🤦🏻‍♂️

The supposed explanation is also self-evident BS, because it doesn't take a great intellect to see that it is a scheme to designed to force direct debit customers to build up excessive and wholly unnecessary credit balances (to cover a summer and TWO whole winters in advance) for OVO to take advantage of.

Speaking as a billing professional, it is an insult to our intelligence, it is disingenuous and it is shameful - as things stand it is also a very clear breach of OVO's own terms - and the manner in which OVO has tried to introduce it, on the sly, is wholly unethical.

This is being referred to Ofgem.

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