There is probably another debt on the meter. Please show us photos of it and we’ll help you check.

The temporary credit you refer to is known as Discretionary Credit aka Additional Support Credit. This is credit you borrow to get you over a tight spot, but you do have to pay it back and can’t always ask for more while still paying back a previous request.

It gets added to the meter as a credit (available immediately) and a debt (repaid slowly over time). If the repayment rate is too high for you, the Support Team can talk to you about slowing it down a bit.

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.

How to get in contact about my OVO Pay As You Go account

• The best way to get in touch with us is via chat here. Just click the green chat icon on the bottom right of your screen. We’re here to help anytime from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturday.
• Or call us on 0330 175 9669 during the same times.

If you’re with Boost

• Find answers or chat with Boost at boostpower.co.uk/help
• Or call them on 0330 102 7517.

Ovo smart meter had £43 credit on leaving the home on returning its all gone what on earth is going on 

Hi @mattyb73 ,

Probably best to call 0330 175 9669 about this one in the morning.

Thanks

I dunno what happened for £43 pound to go missing when no ones at home that is a joke above all jokes i aint having that 

Hey @mattyb73,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

Blastoise is right, the support team should be able to let you know what’s going on. Sometimes there can be debt on the meters but this would either be built up standing charge. For example in winter when the gas hasn’t been put on for a number of months. Or an agreed repayment plan of ‘backscreen debt’. As you were out of the property & nothing was being used this does seem unusual. 

How to get in touch about my OVO Pay As You Go account

The best way to get in touch with us is via chat here. Just click the green chat icon on the bottom right of your screen. We’re here to help anytime from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturday. Or call us on 0330 175 9669 during the same times.

If you’re with Boost

Find answers or chat with Boost at boostpower.co.uk/help. Or call them on 0330 102 7517.

Please pop back if you have any issues. 

Despite putting 50 pounds in my smart meter hours ago I only have eight pounds emergency left it’s a new meter.i am 72 years old and freezing as if I put heating on I will run out of credit

Hi @Lyndalow,

I’m really sorry to hear this. 

Did you have a debt on the meter that used up the credit you put on? It may be worth contacting the Pay As You Go team about this to see if there’s anything they can do to help. 

If you haven’t already, it may also be worth signing up to the Extra Support Package. 

Hope this helps.

Hello all

When I used to top up my old meter with SSE, the full amount I bought was transferred to the meter as credit. However, now that I have a smart meter with Ovo, the amount being shown as credit is 10% less than I paid (i.e. purchase £50 credit and £45 is registered on the smart meter).

This can’t be normal, is it?

Are you reguarly going into emergency credit, or perhaps paying off a debit balance?

eg. Maybe there was a debit balance calculated (rightly or wrongly) when you moved from SSE to OVO?

If/when you use emergency credit they you have to pay for what you have used from the next top up, plus it hasn’t been taking a daily standing charge while in emergency credit mode and so any accumulated standing charges are also taken all at once from your next top up.

Of course the amount taken will vary depending on how long you were in emergency mode and how much power you used.

If you have a debit balance then you may have agreed for a set amount to be taken from each top up to pay that debit back.

If it’s always a fixed amount or percentage (£5 or 10%) less than what you top up then the second one sounds the more likely.
Does your account online or in the app show any signs of a debit?

See also:
 

Hello Nukecad

Thanks for your response, it’s appreciated.

I’ve never used emergency credit.

I’ve also never been made aware of any debt as a result of the handover from SSE to Ovo or otherwise.

To compound matters, I can’t create an online Ovo account - the page keeps reporting an error and to try again later. I employed Ovo customer services to help but all they could do was register me on the payment portal, which doesn’t give any account details.

I’m not happy at paying a 10% premium every time I top up so I suppose the only option is to go back to customer services? 

Online Services are not available for PAYG Customers, other than the OVO Top-Up App and PAYG Payment Portal. If you desire more access, you'll need to migrate to PAYM

Difficult to tell what may be going on here, but Is it a percentage or is it a set £5 amount?

ie If you top up say £30 then is it still £5 or only £3?

Which one it is may give someone a clue as to what may be causing it.

(An off the wall thought that is unlikely but just possible - how are you making the payments, and is it possible that your bank/card/service is taking a transaction charge each time?)

Hello Blastoise186

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Please forgive my ignorance but what is ‘PAYM’ please?

Hello Nukecad

Thanks for following up.

I’ve only ever topped up by £50 at a time. I’ll try an experiment later by topping up with different amounts, and over shorter periods, logging the results. At least then I will have clear evidence to present when the inevitable phone call takes place.

Please forgive my ignorance but what is ‘PAYM’ please?

PAY Monthly - in other words have the meter changed from a top-up account to a credit account where you either pay by direct debit or on demand as you get billed.

With smart meters that change can be done remotely without having to physically change the meter, which make it much faster to change your account type with just a phone call.

Thanks for clarifying Nukcad.

I have no intention of paying by direct debit, as I do not trust energy companies’ methods. Paying as billed is an option I hadn’t considered, so that is valuable advice.

After I have exhausted my experiments and consulted customer services on the same, it may be my only viable option, if I’m to keep abreast of my account.

Both you and Blastoise186 have been very helpful. Thank you.

I’ve never really had a problem with DD’s other than:

SSE were always setting them too low so you could get into debit balance if not careful.

OVO’s computer does sometimes tend to set them higher than needed, but if/when that happens then you can often put them down by 10% for 3-months yourself on your online account, or failing that phone support to get the DD amount reduced.

In the end though even if it is set a bit too high it’s still your money and just builds a credit on your account. (Yes, I know some people don’t like that either).

PS. Getting a bit technical here:
Why the recommended DD can sometimes be set higher than needed gets complicated, betwen us we have identified a few reasons why it can happen and what to do to fix them.
eg. Mine can currently be too high because of an error in my Future Assessed Consumption (FAC) for gas. (My electricity FAC is correct, it’s just the gas one that’s wrong).
I know why that FAC error started happening and have been sucessfully working on getting it down to where it should be simply by sending in more frequent meter readings. (A few weeks ago I got a new gas smart meter fitted and once OVO start getting daily readings from it the FAC should soon be correct again).

Hey ​@KBH 

Could it be that there’s an arrears balance being paid off?

The support team will be able to help with this. They’ll have access to your account.
 

How to get in contact about my OVO Pay As You Go account
 

• The best way to get in touch with us is via chat here. Just click the green chat icon on the bottom right of your screen. We’re here to help anytime from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Or call us on 0330 175 9669 - Opening hours: Mon-Thu 8am to 8pm, Friday 8am to 6pm, Sat-Sun 8am to 5pm.

Got a question about your Pay As You Go energy use, top-ups, keys, cards, or anything else? Why not see if you can find the answers in our dedicated PAYG Forum category.

There are also tons of helpful resources and information available on our OVO Help pages.