I have topped up £100 on the 5th December, paying back emergency credit leaving £76 on my meter.
Now today is the 8th December with only £9.87 left.
I live in a 2 bedroom flat with one child.
I have not used my cooker nor did any washing this week and my heating has been on low. What on earth is going on OVO?
when I call and ask for temporary credit, I have to pay it back putting me in more debt. Why? I do not need need this kind of stress.
OVO you have already sent an engineer out to test my meter and claim there is no faults on my meter but looking at my spending I believe there is.
I am fed up and frustrated. At this point, I'm lodging a complaint with my citizens advice bureau and I am demanding answers or my money back because this is ridiculous.
This is not the time to be playing with money during this winter season.
Best answer by Emmanuelle_OVO
Updated on 07/08/25 by Ben_OVO
Hey @Lovely Tam,
I’m really sorry to hear this,
I was going to suggest the same as Blastoise, there may be some other debt on the meter. Debt can still build up on Pay as you Go meters for a number of reasons.
This smart meter guide may have some helpful advice:
You can also check out this topic for more on traditional meters:
The Support Team should be able to confirm any ‘background’ debt. You can find the contact details here:
If it turns out that there’s no background debt, and there’s no fault with the meter, then one or more appliances could be using a lot more energy than you’d expect. This is often the case if a property has electric heating and hot water, or underfloor heating. If you think that any electrical appliances are using more than they should, you can contact an electrician to come and check everything. There are also many energy advice organisations and charities that can help you reduce your costs. A quick google search of ‘energy saving advice in (your local area)’ will show what support is available.
Many thanks for your response. Appreciate you taking the time to do this.
Will ask my daughter to check directly with OVO. I understand that t he Co will naturally seek to recover any debt but it from a consumer perspective, It would seem appropriate that they advise consumers that this is happening and on what basis as there will be people out there (my daughter included) who can’t afford to pay back amounts on a daily basis .
I hope you and your daughter have managed to get to the bottom of everything now, but I just wanted to pop on with some additional information.
If you have an outstanding balance on the account, it’ll be repaid through topping up your meter.
You don’t have to pay it all in one go – you can spread the cost to make it more manageable. If you’re worried or need financial support, please get in touch and we’ll work out an affordable repayment plan.
The repayment plan will mean you’ll pay a set amount daily until your balance is cleared. This is always made to suit what is manageable for you. It sounds like it’s a smart meter in pay as you go mode and not a traditional key/card meter? If it’s a key/card meter, the repayments would instead be taken each time the meter is topped up.
Once we’ve added the debt to your meter, your daily charges will include:
Payment towards the energy you’re using
Your daily standing charge
The daily debt repayment amount
Even if you’re not using any energy, you’ll be paying a daily standing charge and a repayment amount. Topping up regularly helps to cover these repayments and your energy use.
A good way to stay in the know is through the OVO Energy Top-up app which you can get from the Apple App Store or Google Play. If you choose “low balance notifications” when you sign up, you’ll get notifications when your balance is running low.
If you’ve used emergency credit
If you’ve used your emergency credit to keep the power on, you'll need to pay it back in full from your next top-up.
If you can, make sure you buy enough credit to pay back the emergency credit, and still have some left for your energy use.
If you need to pay this back slowly over a period of time, please contact us – we’re here to help. We can talk through the financial support that’s available, and we might be able to offer additional support credit over the phone.
Once you've repaid the debt or credit, your meter will automatically stop taking repayments.
Is Pay As You Go still right for me?
If you have a medical issue, young children living with you, or you need extra practical support managing your energy, Pay As You Go might not be right for you. If any of these apply, please get in touch as soon as possible to discuss other options.
Thanks - just to pass on that my daughter raise a “case” on Monday 16th June but hasn’t heard from OVO since then. Was advised would take 5 - 10 days .
Sorry to hear that there’s been no movement since the case was raised. Today would be the tenth working day since it was raised so, if you don’t hear anything today, I’d recommend that your daughter contacts our Pay As You Go Support Team. You can also contact them on her behalf, however you’d need to be with her, so that they can pass security with both of you over the phone. She can also add you as a named contact on her account if that’s what you’d both like.
When she speaks to them, she can ask what the progress is with the case, and I also suggest that she asks what the current repayment rate is for the debt. If she doesn’t already have a smart meter, she could ask for one to be installed free of charge, as they will allow her to keep track of the energy use more closely than she’ll be able to on a traditional key meter.
If the debt has been transferred over to a Pay As You Go meter from her previous Pay Monthly plan, then she’ll also be able to request that the Support Team have a double check to make sure the debt is accurate.
Let us know how you get on - it sounds like speaking to the Support Team again is definitely the best way to go with this, and best of luck to you both.
Lastly, I don’t know if there may be any vulnerabilities within your daughter’s household but, if so, I’d recommend that she signs up to the Priority Services Register. You can find more about this here.
Thanks for your response and your helpful suggestions.
I will do as you suggest. I can’t be with my daughter when she calls however as we live in different places.
I do really genuinely appreciate your advice and kindness but it is very difficult for customers when they need to default to be guided via a community forum when in difficult situations as opposed to receiving advice from OVO operatives direct and having to wait 10 days for a call.
I hope she gets some good help from the Support Team - in these sort of circumstances they should be able to help more than we can on the Forum, as we don’t have visibility of customer accounts on the Forum. However, we’ll always to try to help as much as possible of course!
If she has any more trouble, or you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
