Why did OVO Energy not collect my Direct Debit on my usual payment date?

The direct debit may sometimes vary by a day or two as the transaction is processed. The £103 bill will have been calculated from your usage over 12 months giving you an estimated annual usage of £1,236. OVO will vary your payment amount if your usage changes.

When a new account is opened and the account holder decides to pay by Direct Debit, based on the information you have supplied, OVO has to make an estimate of what your usage will be over the next year and how much this will cost (including daily standing charge(s) and 5% VAT). They then divide this amount by 12 and this is what your initial Direct Debit will be set as. Have you registered for an on-line account? This will allow you to keep track of your usage over your billing period. A billing period may not be a calendar month. For instance, my billing period runs from the start of the 4th of the month to the end of the 3rd of the following month. So, my present billing period is 4th October to 3rd November, but I pay my Direct Debit on the 28th of each month. As OVO get to know your usage over time, your Direct Debit amount may be adjusted up or down to make sure that your payments will cover your future usage.

Why do they use an estimate when you have a smart meter? You are only billed after youve used the leccy so why would they guess on your first month, or any other?

When I switched from payg to paym my usage was between £35 and £80 a month (summer vs winter)

The estimates were £126 monthly when I switched, my meter hasnt changed, my compnay hasnt changed, my tarrif hasnt changed, PAYM is supposed to be more cost effective.

Annual PAYG actual £690
Their Anual PAYM estimate from my actual, £1512 lmfao

When you opt to pay via Pay Monthly, then you do just that - you use the energy and, when you receive your bill, you pay exactly that amount. You pay more for your standing charges and more for your unit rates when you opt to pay in this way.

Do you mean that you have now changed to paying via a Monthly Direct Debit? Have you received a statement of account from OVO for your PAYG usage? Was there any credit left that has now been applied to your account? In general, based on the information you give them, OVO makes an estimate of what your energy costs (including standing charges and 5% VAT) will be over the next year and divides that cost by 12. After a few months of paying this amount, OVO’s system will understand your usage better and the Direct Debit amount may be revised to reflect this usage. Using my estimated usage for the next year, my total should be £1351.12. Dividing that by 12 gives £112.60 per month. I have been paying £100 per month since January 2004 and this has allowed me, today, to have a credit balance of around £300. As a result, OVO say that, at the moment, I could pay £88 per month. I have chosen to remain in credit to allow me not to worry about keeping warm this winter, so I will not be reducing my Direct Debit. If you set up and look, regularly, at your online account, you will see that OVO actually takes your total daily costs from your account balance at the end of each day. Energy companies are obligated to try to make sure that customers do not get into debt. Direct Debits actually work in a similar way to PAYG. You pay in advance and what you use each day is taken from your account balance. The biggest difference is that, if your account reaches £0, you will not be cut off automatically. 

Hey ​@ptr_crisostomo, 

Welcome to the community!

We’re so glad you’re here! If you could share a bit more about your billing question, that would be really helpful. It’s not entirely clear what you need from your initial message. Are you curious about the billing date or the amount of your first payment? 

The more details you provide, the better we can assist you. Looking forward to helping you out!

I pay d/d monthly and atm on variable as my fixed rate finished few weeks ago I don’t really see any fix rate that inspired me to change atm. I may start looking at comparison sites if they have much worth changing for. I’m abit of s dinosaur when it comes to switches but I don’t see much on offer for loyalty atm. Not just on OVO other sites the same Infact many agreements I enter into don’t seem to value loyalty they all offer new customer deals to hook people but they won’t stay long if not beneficial in this day and financial position you really need to watch the pennies. 
A saying my mum would always tell us 

“look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves

There were many others bug I Wong bore everyone now

Morning ​@ptr_crisostomo and welcome to the OVO Forum.

Now that you’re paying by Direct Debit, we’ll take a set amount each month. The Direct Debit isn’t variable, in the sense that we don’t take the exact amount of your bill each month.

The idea is that the Direct Debit covers your average monthly cost, based upon Summer and Winter usage combined. The aim is that you build up enough credit during the Spring and the Summer to cover the higher Winter bills, so that you pay more or less the same amount each month throughout the year. 

If your Direct Debit seems too high at the moment, this may be because the pay monthly account has been recently set up just before the Winter. Because of this, the Direct Debit will need to be set higher than your average usage, to compensate for the higher usage in the Winter. If the Direct Debit ends up being too high, you can lower it. On the other hand, if we notice your Direct Debit isn’t covering your average usage, we’ll let you know it needs to go up.

​@Ben_OVO 

The DD isnt variable?

​@Bendog 

Hopefully that links to the correct post on that thread, my DD was opened in 2023.
 

You mention this 
“ You pay more for your standing charges and more for your unit rates when you opt to pay in this way.  “

Isnt that the other way round?
 

OVO Energy, the main difference is that Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers have higher standing charges compared to those who pay monthly by Direct Debit. This means you'll pay more per day to be connected to the energy network, even if you use no energy at all.

Theres also this 

My payments were worked out at £126 a month in 2023, the year prior my annual usage was around £680. Same company.
I have a smart meter
I live alone and work full days Mon-Fri. Other than sleeping Im at home a max of 45 hours a week.

I paid my first month, then got that insane estimate (the first bill was £40 on my DD in 2023 lmao)

Does this need updating?  I mean it does match my actual online tariff on my account but I though it had gone up to 58p standing charge and 25p a unit?

I got this email during september

Im on Simpler Energy Direct Debit 

Beware of the VAT!

Rates on the Our prices page are exclusive of VAT, but vendors are required by law to include taxes in prices when they are quoted to you, like in the email you show. Did the email not include a remark to the effect that the figures given include VAT, but the ones you see on bills may be different?

That’ll be it!

...I shouldve paid more attention for sure

My Gas is the same too, the 5% works out. Thanks ​@Firedog! 
 

Paying monthly On demand (also known as On receipt of bill) is the most expensive way of paying, reflecting I expect the greater risk of default by those who elect not to pay by Direct Debit. You can see the difference in Ofgem’s tables: Get energy price cap standing charges and unit rates by region | Ofgem 

You’ll see from those tables that there is now no appreciable difference between the standing charges paid by those on prepayment meters and Direct Debit customers. If you snoop around at the Ofgem site, you may be able to find the point a year or two ago when DD customers found their standing charges increase to subsidize PAYG customers. Look for an abomination called Levelization. Try here, for example (no guarantees that the link will work, I’m afraid).

Morning ​@thereturn, I hope you’re well.

The DD isnt variable?

When I say this, I mean that OVO don’t offer a flexible Direct Debit, in that we don’t take the amount of the bill each month. Some companies to take Direct Debits in this way, whereas OVO take a set amount based on average usage. 

Thanks ​@Firedog for your answers 🙂.