Why is there a difference between the balances on my monthly bill and app / online account?

The part I’m not getting to grips with is if this is a daily live system and the first box at the start of the billing states you are in debit of X amount if you pay this debit of X amount during the billing period then why does this debit in the first box not then go to zero why does this box still show the debit. Note you should be made aware I don’t have smart meters only conventional meters   I’d expect despite which type of meters you have if it’s live system this first box in the billing period should go to zero a on the day you pay the debit so that the debit at the start of bill period should be gone 

It’s difficult to understand without seeing what you’re seeing. Perhaps it’s just the system catching up (banking delays?) unless it stays there for several days.

If you have conventional meters, then everything will be estimated until you send your readings in. 

This is the sort of thing I see on the account website, showing what I think you’re referring to as ‘the boxes in the billing period’:
  

This shows a snapshot of the period taken on the 23rd day, indicated by 7 days until end of billing period and the green bar.

The Opening figure doesn’t change; that was the state of the account on the 1st day. The Charges figure shows what has been charged to the account in the 23 days since then with a minus sign, and what has been paid with a plus sign under Payments. The last box shows the state of the account today. At the end of the period, the last box will show the balance on the account which will then be used for the bill (or ‘statement’, as it’s sometimes called).

If you make a payment between now and the end of the period, it will eventually show up under Payments (it might take a couple of days to clear through the banking system) and the Closing figure will change accordingly.

If you only ever pay the amount owing on the end-of-period statement, this page will always show you as being in debt. This is quite right: you have bought electricity since the start of the period that you haven’t yet paid for, so you’re in debt to OVO for the cost of it. 

The way to avoid being constantly in debt is to set up a Direct Debit. You might still be in debt sometimes (e.g. in the middle of winter), but you’d be in credit during the summer and autumn. And you could save tens or hundreds of pounds a year to boot. 

Because OVO insist on adding their own estimated number to my actual reading, even when I always send actual meter readings prior to paying, it enables OVO to continually add what appears to be random amounts to bills. I apparently have an outstanding unpaid bill, despite my paying for my ‘actual’ usage.  they are now threatening legal action for an unpaid bill. This prompted me to go back to the beginning when my account was switched from SSE (I so miss their very accurate billing system) to try to identify how & when, this bill had accumulated. I compared my ‘actual’ annual  usage for each year to the amount of monies I had paid to date, only to discover, that I could not find outstanding bills…. but….I did discover that I have paid OVO  £900.16 more than I needed to!!! I can’t believe they are threatening legal action based upon their estimate of what they think I owe. Their billing system is the worse I have ever encountered and can’t wait to change providers. I sent an email with supporting screenshots of usage & look forward to hearing from them. Oh, they also threatened to affect my credit rating, which has been more than excellent my whole adult life, should this happen, I will be taking legal advice.  

Unless you have a smart meter, OVO has to rely on manual meter readings to be able to compute what you owe. Those readings can be taken and submitted by the customer, or once in a while by a professional meter reader sent by the supplier. You’ve only mentioned ‘usage’, so I can only assume that you’re referring to the difference between timed meter readings.

You say that OVO add a number to your own actual reading. This will happen if you submit the (monthly) reading before the end of the period the bill refers to. Each customer has a ‘billing period’; for some, it’s the calendar month, while for others it’s a month from the same date each time, e.g. from 16 April to 15 May. In either case, to avoid estimates on your bills, submit a reading in the morning of the first day of the billing period. Then there will be no need to estimate your usage from the date of your reading to the end of the period the bill refers to.

Estimates like this will not affect your balance beyond the amount arising from usage between the date of the latest reading and the end of the last billing period. If you have noticed a bigger discrepancy, something else is causing it.

It sounds as if you’re paying for each month’s usage, often referred to as payment on demand. Apart from the fact that this is the most expensive way of paying, you may have been paying what you think you ought to pay and not what the monthly bill says you should pay. You normally have a couple of weeks to pay after the bill is issued, a few days after the end of the billing period. 

Have you managed to get a copy of the unpaid bill you’re being asked to settle? If so, are you disputing that you have to pay it? If not, have customer service not been able to send you a copy?

Hey ​@Lposchamber 

Sorry to hear about this, I’m glad to see one of our volunteers has already stopped by with some really helpful advice here.

How often are you submitting manual readings? Having a smart meter fitted would also help avoid estimated billing with smart meters having the ability to send us daily readings.

Have you raised a complaint with the Support Team about this already? If the meter readings being used are out of line then the team can look into this if it’s causing an out of line bill. They’d raise a dispute like Firedog mentioned.

Have they sent a bill with the breakdown of these charges The bill sent with the amount should have those, or the Support Team should be able to send this to you if you get in touch with them.

I’ve linked below to some topics which may also be helpful:

Keep us updated with how you get on.

In an age of AI, dynamic pricing, smart meters and tariffs being based on the wholesale 30 minute pricing, the OVO direct debit calc seems stuck in the 1990's.

I'm on the variable tariff, not a heavy user, and always pay by direct debit. In August 2024 we removed the storage heaters, installed air 2 air ASHP, smart meter installed and came off the THTC tariff. Sep 24 to Mar 25 average bill for cold months was £69, April 25 to Aug 25 average bill for warmer months is £34. 

Contract renews 31st Mar each year, this year my DD was increased to £92, current balance is £476 and predicted balance end Mar 26 is now £604. I reckon my DD should be around £58 to leave me with one month's credit at the end of Mar 26, I’ve now reduced my DD to £70.

I know how the calc is working, but by me reducing my energy consumption by installing new heating in August 2024, without me intervening and manually estimating and changing the DD I don't see the benefit until the end of Mar 26, assuming the calc does what it's supposed to!

Also for some reason I can't request a refund via my online account or the app?

Yes I can phone and presumably sort a refund, but I really don't believe I should need to waste my time and the time of the OVO customer support, a quick scan of my data by some basic analysis tool would show something isn't right. 

I also have an account with Octopus and they seem to have some sort of tools that adjust the DD on a more dynamic basis, OVO need to step up their game a bit, after all, you are the ones encouraging folk to move to DD.

This doesn’t help much. Direct Debit amounts depend on the Future Annual Consumption in kWh, current tariff prices and the current balance. The size of previous bills has no bearing on it.
    

That’s not very helpful, either. The balance on your account changes daily, usually from a high point just after the DD is taken to a low one just before the next is taken. Here’s mine from August, where it increased 10-fold overnight: 
  

If you’re on a Standard Variable Tariff (in OVO-speak, Simpler energy), there’s no specific contract determination. It just keeps rollin’ along. However, when calculating Direct Debits, OVO use the end of the winter semester - nominally 31 March - as a point of reference, when account balances will normally be at their lowest. This year, they have decided to introduce a buffer to make it less likely that accounts will sink into debt. The buffer is nominally the cost of one month’s fuel; in practice, it’s 1/12 of the calculated annual cost.  

You may find within the next few weeks that the reference point suddenly shifts from 31 March 2026 to 31 March 2027. This makes it easier for those in debt to pay off their arrears, since they will have 12 more months to do it in. Those in credit have either to grin and bear the prospect of maintaining a substantial, non-interest-bearing credit balance, or request a refund of some of it. 
  

The online process requires that the account will have a credit balance amounting to three months’ DD amounts after the refund. If the current balance is less than three months’-worth, Computer says No. 

Support agents can override this requirement, but they’ll take the opportunity to tell you at length why it may not be a good idea. And, of course, the DD amount will increase again afterwards to take the reduced balance into account.

There are plenty of us who feel that the current DD mechanism is deeply flawed. I’m hopeful that repeated complaints in these forums will chip away at a system that appears to be set in stone.

Thanks for your help here ​@Firedog and apologies for the difficulties you’re experiencing ​@Infiltrator.

​@Infiltrator are you seeing an error message when you apply for a refund? You can find the refund policy on our website here.

Here's the error msg, and if I click on the 'submit reading' it tells me it has today's reading from the smart meter and I don't need to submit a reading. Only thing I've tried is reducing the DD from £92 to £70 to try to stop the balance going into orbit by the end of march next year. Support on Friday suggested leaving it a day and trying again.. Needless to say no difference now.

I've also added a screenshot showing the monthly consumption, ignore the 2024 data as it's only correct from Sep 24 onwards when the smart meter was installed, there was a billing rerun to sort out the bills to shift from THTC to the standard variable tariff.