I am concerned that I have tried to watch what I use to keep costs down on both gas and electric and managed to keep with my monthly D/debit amount with a good surplus

i up my monthly payment myself hoping this would cover my expenditure

i was surprised that £370.56 was deducted in my March to April bill. This was without any explanation. Why was this?

What words are against the 370.56 figure on the bill? 

Cost of gas.    £370.56.     This is on bill March to April

Review the breakdown of the gas cost on your bill to see if there is anything unusual. 

Here is mine for example. For example, i have a smart meter and both the final opening on 26th March and closing reading on 25th April are not estimated. 

My direct debit is £110 and my usage last month was £74.74 so I was £36.74 credit I've just received my quarterly bill and I'm £19 in debit I really find this billing system totally confusing I've read all the threads and find it so hard to understand.

Hi @Stevie1827 it might be worth checking if the usage you mention includes standing charges and/or vat. They appear in a different section of the bill 

So my charges would have been the £33 credit and the £19 debit so around £50 for charges time to look else where knew where I was with SSE this ovo I ain't got a jar.

Can someone explain why I log into the app and there's a different crazy price for my energy everyday? I cleared a balance less than 7 days ago and it's now back at 88 quid in 6 days. I live in a small eco house with solar panels. They seem to be just pulling amounts from thin air? I was also sent a warrant letter over a week ago saying they would cut me off???

Hi @chubsterpug

I am just a customer like you. 

Has this been going on since you joined ovo or did it start later? 

Hey @chubsterpug,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

Can you upload some screenshots of your meter readings?

Do you have a smart meter?

If you’ve recently joined OVO it may be due to a incorrect opening meter reading. This topic may be helpful: 

We have a live billing system so whenever you submit a meter reading the account balance should update:

No that's not the case

I have decided to move away from OVO. I paid my bill in full yesterday and I've logged on today and it's asking me for another £60?????

Hey @chubsterpug?

Sorry to hear this,

Were you on a fixed tariff? Could that be an exit fee? Without any extra account information or screenshots I’m unable to give any more advice on this. We don’t have access to your account on the Forum, I’m afraid. So can only cast assumptions based on the information provided. 

Only paid my balance of 100 odd pound a few weeks ago 2 days ago noticed my bill was £700 odd pound checked today its £848.94 what is going on?

However when i look at my billing history it says a owe £181

please help

thanks

If you think your bill is wrong, please contact OVO Support. It’s a Bank Holiday today however, so please wait until tomorrow.

Might be a daft question…

I pay £188.00 DD per month for electricity and use less than this (average cost per month is around the £100) I give weekly meter readings. However my credit balance keeps going down...which is the bit I'm confused about. If I'm not even using £188 per month...how does it work that my credit is going down?. Many thanks in advance if anyone could explain this

It’s dificult to answer that @Bex without seeing what’s happening.

There are things to check;

You pay a standing charge as well as your energy usage.

You should check that they are using your readings and not using estimates.

If your bill for the month is less than your DD then how do the maths work to show your credit reducing?

If it's your online balance then it's simply a what it says online, with the daily balance reducing as you use electricity (and the standing charge) and then when a DD payment is made each month the credit balance goes up again.

Ie. A credit balance online will go down daily but then shoot up again when a monthly payment is made.

I am noticing quite routinely that there is a dramatic drop in my balance in the day or two before my next direct debit is paid. Rightly or wrongly, I feel suspicious about this! I follow my usage forensically and feel confident the month is covered until just before the next payment. I'm starting to get quite disheartened by this!

Is your balance based on estimated readings? It shouldn’t be if you have a smart meter and your account is set to at least a daily reading schedule. Do you see daily readings, e.g. on this page: Meter readings history - OVO Energy? 

Yes, everything is in order, smart meter, daily readings etc but, routinely, every month, a.day or two before the direct debit is due, the balance falls sharply down. Just wonder if anyone else finds the same?

Not me. Can you show us what is happening?

The daily balance is calculated from consumption since the start of the billing period as reported by the meter, so the only way that the balance can fall by an unexpected amount is if consumption increases by an equally unusual amount (another possibility is that the cost of gas used has been recalculated in response to a revised calorific value, but this isn’t likely to be at all regular.) 

If you shared screenshots of your readings page(s) covering the last time this happened, we may be able to spot something. 

Why does my credit balance decrease after the billing period has ended?

Hi @LWHAMPTON ,

That’ll be because OVO’s system runs on something called Live Billing. Rather than having to wait for a bill to arrive to see what you spent, you can see it in near real-time as the account balance updates every day to reflect what you’ve spent so far in the current cycle.

The monthly bills you get sent however, do not change and will show the final cost for any particular cycle.

OK I hear what you say however it does not make sense.

It’s just a bit of a different way of showing you your balance daily rather than only telling you monthly/3-monthly like most other energy providers currently do.

So it is a bit different to what you may be used to with other energy suppliers, but it’s actually a better way of doing it; once you understand it.

I expect that most, if not all, energy providers will start to do it eventually.

Think of it as working more like your bank statement and bank balance do.

• There is a Statement at the end of your last billing period, which shows the Closing balance for that period, which is also your Opening balance for the next period.
• Then there is a 'live' balance that changes daily to reflect what energy* and standing charge* you have used each day (what you have spent). That usage will decrease your ‘live’ balance.
• It also changes to reflect any payments that you have put in (say a Direct Debit if that’s how you pay).. That payment will increase your ‘live’ balance.
• Then at the end of your billing period you get a new statement for the month just gone showing your new Closing balance, Which is also the Opening balance to start the next period.

Just like with your bank, - you get a statement once a month, but if you want to then you can also see your (live) balance of what is going out/in daily.

In both cases, your bank and OVO, that 'live balance' is just extra information so that you can see how your account stands day-by-day rather than having to wait until the end of each month for a statement..

*PS. If you don’t have a Smart Meter, or aren’t sending daily usage readings, then the ‘live’ balance will still change by the daily standing charge.