Why such a large increase to my recommended Direct Debit?

From what I’ve been seeing though, Variable Direct Debits seem to be going the way of the Dodo. Not many suppliers are still offering them and there’s no guarantee they’ll stick around for the long run.

Looks like there are a few who offer variable dd, although I have to say that as I don’t have more income in winter, I prefer the equal monthly arrangement 

Thank you all. Yes, I had a variable direct debit at my old supplier. I don’t understand why they aren’t available with Ovo. It makes sense to me that customers only pay for what energy they use month by month or at least have the choice to. Or go back to paying customers interest on credit balances.

OVO used to do VDD, but removed them several years ago. You can still pay for only what you use each month via Pay On-Demand, but you lose the automatic payments and the rates are higher to reflect the extra costs and risks incurred by the supplier (this is the same with all suppliers). On average, it’s about £100-£200 a year more expensive to pay that way.

Ultimately, even on Direct Debit you only pay for what you actually use anyway - the rest just stays in the account as credit towards the next bill.

OVO Interest Reward was useful and still exists for anyone who already gets it (however, if you leave OVO and/or move house then you lose the reward and can never get it back). However, it was thing that OVO got special permission from Ofgem to do a long time ago, and that permission came with a recall clause - Ofgem had the power to revoke that permission at anytime. This is what happened in 2021, Ofgem asked OVO to bring the scheme to a close.

It’s unlikely Ofgem will ever allow any supplier to do credit interest ever again.

Honestly, if you really prefer paying by variable direct debit then I would consider switching.

A few ex SSE customers who were migrated to ovo have posted about doing that.

I fear you may end up getting very frustrated if you stay.

Who were you with before? Double check they still allow variable direct debits for new customers.....

Yet again OVO has decided that my DD is to be increased without any consultation.  My account is in credit, we are in a reduced charge for the next 3 months, I am not on any plan 

You need to talk to OVO about this.

https://ovoenergy.com/help

The Direct Debit (DD) system is designed to keep the account healthy over a whole year, not just until the next quarterly price change. When that change does happen, the DD will be recalculated for the next twelve months and so on. It is supposed to help avoid nasty shocks when winter bills are suddenly higher than summer ones. The calculator in use now aims to bring the balance to zero by the end of next March, the idea being that this date marks the end of winter after which bills should start to fall again.

It’s a fair system for most customers. If you know what your consumption has been for the past twelve months, you can compare this to the figures on your Plan page for Future annual consumption (FAC). Unless something has changed in the past year, there should be good correlation. 

Using the FAC and your current prices (also on the Plan page), it’s easy to make an estimate of the cost of fuel for the next year. Since your account’s in credit, you then subtract the current balance from the estimated annual cost to find out how much you could be expected to have to pay over the year. Divide this number by the number of DD payments left between now and 31 March 2025 to see what the monthly DD amount should be to bring the balance down to zero by then. 

This is just what the online DD calculator does, with a bit of refinement for seasonal variation. Since we’re only a couple of weeks into the ‘energy year’, this shouldn’t make any significant difference between your pen-and-pencil number and the one the robot arrives at. Then, in three months’ time, rinse and repeat to take into account changes in annual consumption, the price cap and the balance on the account. 

If you’re not happy with this arrangement, you can always elect to pay on demand - just pay for each month’s actual consumption as the bill arrives. The problem with this is that it’s a bit more expensive. Your choice.
  
  

I’m not quite sure what you mean by OVO has decided that my DD is to be increased without any consultation. If you’re not on the track OVO think you ought to be on, there will have been warnings for several weeks before any diktat is issued. There isn’t really anything to consult about unless there’s been a major change in your situation: either the DD is high enough to cover your projected costs, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, it has to be increased. ‘Major change’ might be taking a solar array or an EV into use, which would render your FAC inaccurate. In any such case, Support can help, e.g. by freezing the DD at its current level for a few weeks if you’re struggling with the proposed increase. 

Here’s a good story, my mother is currently hospitalised, it’s unlikely she will ever return home. She has storage heating, so her bill is around 350-450/mth during the winter.

The day she went into hospital (5 weeks ago), I switched off her heating.

Obviously her use has dropped to (inc standing charge) about £45/m.

I have PoA access to her account. I requested a refund of the credit that had built up, and asked to have the DD reduced to 50/m. The agent could only reduce it to 85/mth.  Good enough, I thought. Then yesterday an email arrives from OvO saying that her DD was going up to 281/mth !

I phoned this morning. The first agent simply didn’t understand that her heating is off, and the house is empty, and kept banging on about the Jan/Feb/Mar bills being circa 350/m.  In the end he gave up (thank god) and put me though to ‘Collections’. That was a struggle too, but it seems (after 50 mins talking) that I have to accept the 281/mth DD, and ask for a refund every month !  They did offer ‘On Demand’ but why should she pay 6p per day more for standing charge, because OVO can’t set a realistic DD ?!

Just nuts. Hopeless 

I would write a letter to the CEO and send it by recorded delivery or even write to the Sunday Times ‘A Question of Money’ lady.  Terrible treatment from customer services especially when you have the worry of your Mother being in hospital.