Yes and no. Officially, you’re still paying your bills on a monthly basis, just like you do with most suppliers. Unofficially, you get a daily update as to how much credit you’d have left if a bill was to be issued right now.

Hmmmmm, I’ll have to think about this!

thanks

@Jk62 it kind of makes sense, you’re using the energy on a daily basis after all (and unfortunately that standing charge just keeps racking up day after day). The actual money in and money out is reconciled monthly on your bill.

My mother is with Ovo Energy, changed from SSE. She’s noticed that her balance has been dropping my small amounts on regular basis and she is not on a smart meter. 
 

After going through her account have found that Ovo Energy are taking money for the gas and electric standing charges before the monthly bill is calculated, took nearly £14 for electric standing charge one day, another day took £8 for gas standing charge. Then they had even taken the vat amount £1.15 on the standing charges on a different day, don’t like the fact that they are just helping themselves to money from her balance before she has even received a bill… I did see noted on previous comments that Ovo Energy representative said that no money should be taking before the bill is calculated - but can tell you that they are taking money from my mother before she has even entered her meter reading for the bill to be calculated… This should not be allowed.. 

Will be getting intouch with Ovo Energy on her behalf - not happy.. 

I think they should inform people what they are/intending to do and not just presume customers know what they are doing, not what I would call good customer service!!  Still waiting for a call from them from about 3 weeks ago now no one has bothered!!! ‍♀️

@Diane T when you say OVO are taking money I assume you mean the Balance displayed on the online account is going down..? That doesn’t mean they are actually taking money, it’s just a running total to indicate the state of affairs. All is revealed when the bill is produced each month and it’s only then that money is taken by direct debit if that’s your agreed method of payment, or you are billed and asked for payment.

Hi - my mother is not in direct debit .. she puts money in her balance every month ready for when she gets her bill so that she doesn’t have to pay the full amount outright… she contacted Ovo through the online account and was told by their rep that the deductions that were taken out if her balance were for the standing charge fees and the vat… she told them that she would rather pay the full amount if the invoice once she had been actually invoiced … the fact that they are taken small amounts of her balance over a period of days - not in one go - was very confusing for her considering she had not been informed that they were taking it or that she had received an invoice before they took it… 

Hi @Diane T  I don’t work for OVO so can’t see any account details. Putting money into the account regularly ahead of the bill being produced sounds like a good idea if that works for your mother, and of course she is getting the energy down the line constantly in return! How are you seeing the money going out of the account? Do the bills look right at the end of the month? Are you submitting regular meter readings?

Hi @Diane T 

I understand all that you say.  Do you and your mother realise that the way she is running her account is costing her, if she is an average user, something around £150 per annum extra, because the prices she is charged are that much higher than those for standard fixed monthly direct debit?  While i can appreciate why your mother wants to do things as she does (we get more resistant to change as we get older) she has to accept that her way of doing things is costing her money, which few can afford to lose.

Hey @Diane T,

Sorry for the confusion.

Great to see our community members giving some tip-top advice here.

Your mother would be on a Simpler Variable on demand plan, if she doesn’t pay through direct debit. this means she can pay on receipt of her statement.

We have a live billing system on the Online Account, this means that customers can see what they are using throughout the month. 

It doesn’t mean the amount paid would be any more or less. The daily standing charge is a daily charge. When she gets her monthly bill it’ll be the amount of days in the month X that charge. 

We’d recommend she gets a smart meter installed, it is free of charge but means her readings will be sent in automatically so her bills will never be estimated. Find out more about this topic here:

Hope this helps. 

Please see my account Billing Details page screen grab ( fig2 ).

I have had a lot of trouble over the last week in relation to gross over estimation, and eventually you have altered my account to be in line with the ‘actual’ meter reading - not over £742 over.

On the attached screen grab ( fig 2 ) you can see an entry - Total charges “£196.58 out”
And you have updated the Today's balance 29 Sep to £339.25 in credit.

I had previously calculated that you had over charged me by £742.24 -
( see the calculation screen grab ( fig1 below ) from conversation via chat )

Also ( in fig 2 ), note the starting balance of £535.83 in credit, and that £535.83 + £196.58 = £734.41

So it would appear that after you accepted my meter reading, and compared it to your estimate ( which took over 5 days of me complaining ), and that you have refunded me £196.58 ?

This would be great, but you have not credited it to my bank account. ( which is what I expect ‘out’ to imply ).

1. Am I correct that you are refunding £196.58 to my bank account and that is what ‘out’ refers to? 
    
2. It’s not been refunded - so is this just delayed, or have you sent a cheque or what ?
    

Please answer questions 1 and 2 above.
Apologies for having a didactic manner,
but I have lost faith in your system after the last week’s events.

I need to have that money in my account to pay my mortgage.
 

Hi @gman70 ,

Just so you know, I’m a forum volunteer here.

For the purposes of your OVO account, IN means payments made into your OVO account balance, and OUT means payments made from your OVO account balance, mostly to pay off your bills but other reasons exist too which will always be shown.

1. Am I correct that you are refunding £196.58 to my bank account and that is what ‘out’ refers to? 
   Not in this case by the looks of things. That money would have never actually left your bank account as it came out of your OVO account balance.
2. It’s not been refunded - so is this just delayed, or have you sent a cheque or what ?

You weren’t entitled to a refund as this was a bill payment, so no refund is due.

Please be advised that I can’t access your account, so this is all based on the screenshots you’ve posted here.

If you’re struggling with payments, the Collections Team can help if you call them on 0800 069 9831

Hey @gman70,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community.

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

We have a live billing system, so whenever you submit a meter reading your account balance will update accordingly.

So if we over-estimate a reading, the best thing to do is to submit one online. You will then see an amount credited back to your account balance. This means you don’t have to wait for your next statement for your billing to be corrected.

If you’d like a refund you can request one through your Online Account. For more information about this topic:

Hope this helps. 

The meter reading was not accepted  - I had to fight the CS crew to get this updated - showing photos. 

Also - This ( below ) was also true at the same time.

Also - the ‘READING HISTORY’ with estimated turned reported a completely different meter reading to both of the above ( no photo of that - sorry ).

I think there are more confusing reading amounts in my web chat ( which is closed at night ) 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Hi @gman70 and thanks for the reply. 

I can see the issue here with submitting readings: your manual meter reading IS bigger than your last manual reading, but the online account isn’t letting you submit it. So frustrating, I’m assuming it must be related to the recent changes our teams have done last week that you mention in your first comment. I would usually recommend you reach out to our Support team so they can submit the reading for you on their system, and fix any remaining issues. With it being ‘meter reading day’, response times have been affected. So I’d recommend you jot down the reading for today and contact our team next week so we can get this account billed up to date. 

If this drags on beyond next week I’ll ask our Forum_Support A-Team crew to step in and help.  

Why am I paying £130 more a month thar what I'm using but my credit figure has gone down. If anything my credit should be going up each month. I have screenshot of my credit figure as proof from every month. I want to cancel my direct debit & only pay monthly  what I use because  you have control of my money at the moment & I should have more in credit. 

You can cancel your direct debit and just pay each month as the bill comes in, but this will put you on a higher rate per kWh unit, it’ll cost on average about £200 more a year. If you can stomach OVO keeping your credit balance with OVO then it’ll be worth it in the end. Your bills will be averaged out over the year, even though you are paying more in the warmer months than you feel you should. 

However, you may feel that you’ve done the right thing to change now and cash in that credit, then curse yourself in the winter when you get a big bill. The choice is yours.

You can see all of your bills, all credit balance changes, everything in and out each month, here, @Andyscapp: https://account.ovoenergy.com/billing-history

Does this show why your balance is changing downwards? 

Hi new on here.   My question is my account seems wrong it’s short of £16+ the old total is right plus my DD then minus the usage and the figures don’t add up ??

plus no way of phoning on a Saturday ??? Phoned said office closed

Hi @Disappointed 1 ,

Try the Live Chat at https://help.ovoenergy.com . It’s open for another 30 minutes.

Tried twice today just keeps say someone will be with you soon thanks 

Why does it say solved ? It’s not at all 

I’m afraid this is an account specific issue, so it’s not really possible for us to do much here. I can’t access your account as a forum volunteer, so you’ll still need to talk to the support team.

Thanks how do I delete this account please 

If you don’t want to keep the forum account, you can erase it by sending an email to forum@ovoenergy.com to request account deletion. If you want this thread gone as well, you can do that in the same email.

Forum moderators will delete your account on request, but this thread might stay. Just so you know, it may take up to 30 days to fully complete.