I find it hilarious that OVO advises me to increase my direct debit from £85 to £160+. A month on a two up two down townhouse when I switched because they were cheaper than my previous supplier. 
. Don’t they realise I will simply switch back 
. Lol
Best answer by Transparent
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I dont know mate, these companies will try to scam you out of pennies.
Ayone else have to phone up months in a row to stop the DD being changed, either higher or lower? I’ve had this so many times and just watched my balance get more and more into credit and yet I got told they wanted to put the amount of the DD up. This month there’s, for the first time, a comment, “We can’t show you a payment recommendation right now.” Even when they can see the info in front of them about the amount my account gets more and more into credit they still want to argue that their system is right and all I want is to leave the DD as it is, yes, I’m not even asking for it to be lowered. I’m £1066 in credit and even in January when I was £832 in credit they said I’m not paying enough and yet by leaving it the same I’ve gone even more into credit. Blimey, I’d be able to put in a takeover bid as a major shareholder if they’d have put it up back then to nearly another £50 a month more. Anyone else getting fobbed off on the phone with nonsesnse by peope who can’t add up?
Hey
Really sorry to hear this,
Our Support Team should be able to put your account on a direct debit review hold for three months, to stop theses communications. You can request a refund via your Online Account, we have a great tutorial on this topic:
It might be worth checking if your Estimated Annual Consumption is correct as that seems like a very high surplus credit!
Hope this helps.
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Hi
Welcome back to the customer forum, i am just a customer like you.
If you call collections rather than the regular OVO number you can ask for your direct debit to be frozen at a lower level for 3 months, once that is elapsed you can ask for another 3 month freeze if needed.
You can also ask collections for a refund of your credit. If you are on the default variable rate plan you can ask for 100% of your credit to be returned. I wouldn't recommend that much, also worth bearing in mind it may well impact your recommended Direct Debit when you ask for credit to be returned.
0800 0699 831
If you have any further questions, you may well find one of the regular posters can offer some useful insight.
If you post what you decide to do and how you get on i am sure it will help other customers.
Thanks for the replies. I don’t want a refund I just dont want to be patronized by people who cant add up telling me that even though i’m in credit and that amout is rising that it’s still not enough and they want to put my DD up even more. I’m a big boy and if i think the level needs adjusting I am capable of doing it. I’m happy to be recieving 5% (and that’s nett!) on my credit balance, hence why its around the level it is (its capped at £1000 for the 5% interest payment) but we shouldn’t be told to pay even more. I’ll still have to go to the expense of taking the time to ring them and ask for the freeze, then again in 3 month, then again 3 months after that, then….. Frozen shoud stay frozen until we wish to unfreeze it, or, the account goes into debt even by 1 pence and it should auto unfreeze then.
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There is a related Idea that was raised some time ago.
I have added a link to your thread to the Idea.
Perhaps add further Ideas customers can vote on.
+2
Perhaps put in a complaint if you are not happy.
https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback
This is same issue. Their future annual comsumption is not accurate. They forecast I wil use 600 Kwh in April in a teo bedroom house with two people where heating is gas. Not sure how they come up with this but its is wrong.
I have put an e mail as they suggested me to increase my DD, I cimplaint them and they said they not intended to do it right now and they will inform if they want to do it.
Sulakshana
Hi everyone and thanks for flagging what appears to be inaccurate predictions of usage and inaccurate direct debits. I’m sorry to hear about them.
There are many account specifics and variables in each example, so I can’t comment on individual accounts. However, if you are confident we’ve got something wrong in our figures, you can request that direct debit reviews are paused by calling our Collections team: 0800 0699 831. The figures should be adjusting to your actual usage so that can cause a correction.
I’m raising these examples, and the forum Idea that Jeffus mentioned, to the technology company Kaluza that maintain the billing platform we use. I can’t offer to help your account situation, but please know that these reports are getting fed back and if I can get more insight to share, I will!
+2
This is same issue. Their future annual comsumption is not accurate. They forecast I wil use 600 Kwh in April in a teo bedroom house with two people where heating is gas. Not sure how they come up with this but its is wrong.
I have put an e mail as they suggested me to increase my DD, I cimplaint them and they said they not intended to do it right now and they will inform if they want to do it.
Sulakshana
Hi
Welcome to the customer forum, i am just a customer like you.
If you could add as much detail as possible on the following Idea, i am sure that would help any overall improvements in the future regard the estimating tool than OVO use.
If you also post here any further updates on your particular case, i am sure it will help other customers in a similar situation.
Perhaps put in a complaint if you are not happy.
Perhaps not. When you starting complaining about the way your current complaint is handled its time to give in. Any company has lost it when they get complaints about how they handle complaints. I’ve got 20 years left to live if I’m lucky and I’ll spend it more wisely than that.
+2
Perhaps not. When you starting complaining about the way your current complaint is handled its time to give in. Any company has lost it when they get complaints about how they handle complaints. I’ve got 20 years left to live if I’m lucky and I’ll spend it more wisely than that.
Have you decided who you are switching to?
+2
Perhaps not. When you starting complaining about the way your current complaint is handled its time to give in. Any company has lost it when they get complaints about how they handle complaints. I’ve got 20 years left to live if I’m lucky and I’ll spend it more wisely than that.
Are you going to take your current complaint to the Energy Ombudsman?
How close are you to the 8 week time limit?
Are you going to take your current complaint to the Energy Ombudsman?
How close are you to the 8 week time limit?
No. I’ve successfuly frozen the DD review for 3 months and hopefully energy prices will fall further and the market might open up a bit more and so my choices could widen.
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No. I’ve successfuly frozen the DD review for 3 months and hopefully energy prices will fall further and the market might open up a bit more and so my choices could widen.
One thing you might want to do in the meantime is look at the approach each company offers in terms of DDs and how they modify them. There are lots of approaches. This isn't a recommendation for British Gas, just an example.
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-support/bills-and-payments/setting-up-a-direct-debit
They have variable and fixed DDs.
Each supplier is slightly different in terms of DDs and also in terms of reviews
British Gas doesn't get great reviews generally
One thing you might want to do in the meantime is look at the approach each company offers in terms of DDs and how they modify them. There are lots of approaches. This isn't a recommendation for British Gas, just an example.
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-support/bills-and-payments/setting-up-a-direct-debit
They have variable and fixed DDs.
Each supplier is slightly different in terms of DDs and also in terms of reviews
British Gas doesn't get great reviews generally
Thanks but I look at far more things when chosing a company than just their DD policy. Whilst BG was an example it’s one company I’ve used once and never would again. They tranfered the wrong closing meter readings across to my new provider due to an eror in their spreadsheet. We were over £800 in credit and instead were shown to be in massive debt which was someone elses reading. The phone calls we got off companies chasing us and the language used to my wife, very threatening and of course we temporarily had a bad credit rating as well. It took me weeks to sort out but I had taken timestamped photos of the meters when I read them but for all the work involved, again as with all these companies you get nothing for it, they employ our time for nothing which is illegal in England and Wales. I should have let them take me to court and then counter sued them for, well I could have named my price really, but again how do I want to spend the last less than a quarter of my life thats left?
Just received an email saying my direct debit is going up from £110 to £228 has anyone else had an increase worst thing it says to phone if you need to speak about it been ringing all morning and the phone lines are just saying error. Spoke on the chat and there asking me to pay £220 now if I want I'm £33 in credit.
+2
Hi
You could try calling OVO Collections. They have more flexibility than the usual Support Number.
Try asking them to freeze your Direct Debit at a lower level for 3 months.
You can then repeat the process in 3 months.
0800 0699 831
That is an unusually large increase coming out of winter given you are in credit, albeit a small amount. Have you just come off a fixed tariff?
Do you have a smart meter?
If you look on this page on the website not the app you will see Future Annual Consumption.
https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan
This is what OVO estimate you will use in a year. See if it looks reasonable
There is a bit more about the Future Annual Consumption, Estimated Annual Consumption on this page
If you post how things progress i am sure it will help other customers.
If you have any follow up questions i am sure the ovo moderators and ovo customers on the forum will be able to offer some useful input.
Yes my fixed tariff finished February and I've got a smart meter I know my usage is gonna be higher than they were but their way overestimating my usage but they were asking me to pay £220 today so I don't get into debt I told em no chance I'm in credit I've got solar panels as well so I save on having them, gonna cancel my direct debit anyway tried every number and they just keep saying error.
+2
Yes my fixed tariff finished February and I've got a smart meter I know my usage is gonna be higher than they were but their way overestimating my usage but they were asking me to pay £220 today so I don't get into debt I told em no chance I'm in credit I've got solar panels as well so I save on having them, gonna cancel my direct debit anyway tried every number and they just keep saying error.
Up to you, if you cancel your Direct Debit you will definitely pay more as the rates for electricity and gas will then increase automatically.
So you will then be worse off financially.
I'm only cancelling it so they'll phone me and I can speak to them.
+2
I'm only cancelling it so they'll phone me and I can speak to them.
They may not call you.
You may simply get automated emails and an automated increase in rates.
Just agreed to pay £193 but will look around for another supplier the attitude on the phone was shocking can't be dealing with that.
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