If you change electricity provider, ie from OVO to another company, do you take your credit with you?

If there’s credit on your account when you switch supplier, it doesn’t matter where it came from - you’ll have it refunded anyway: Leaving OVO: A step-by-step Guide on What Happens Next

That’s great, ​@Firedog.  Thank you for letting me know.

Cate

Hi ​@Ben_OVO and thanks for your message.

I’ve had some poor advice from Ovo customer service since I had the heat pump / solar panels installed, but I wouldn’t say that this kind of thing is particular to this company.  The reason is prices - the deals that I’ve found on Ovo have a daily standing charge of 72p whereas most other companies offer prices within 60 - 67p limits.  

The best thing about Ovo by far is this forum.  Earlier in the year, when I was having huge difficulties getting questions answered quickly and correctly, my brother suggested that there might be an online forum which could help me out.  This is when I found this place and wow - every question I’ve had has been answered - kindly, helpfully and speedily.

I’m don’t know how it’s funded but this forum was the single reasons that made me think carefully about leaving Ovo!  

Many thanks

Cate

Glad to hear the Forum helps ya!

As for how it’s funded? I can answer that. The Forum itself is paid for by OVO out of its own pocket and has dedicated Forum Moderators like Ben. They’re all OVO Staff like any other - they just spend ~99% of their time hanging out on here keeping an eye on things.

There’s also the Forum Volunteers such as myself and Firedog - we’re unpaid volunteers who help out because we like to do a cool thing. OVO sometimes rewards us in a small way like giving us sneak previews of upcoming stuff - but the most important thing is that money never changes hands between us and OVO.

It’s a clever model because the money OVO spends on the Forum results in absolutely bonkers savings elsewhere - it literally pays for itself! :D

Even if you leave OVO, feel free to stick around on the Forum - you’re ALWAYS welcome here!

Hi ​@Blastoise186 for your really interesting and helpful reply.

I’m left wondering if other energy suppliers look at this model and consider implementing it themselves.

Many thanks, Cate

Gotcha - there are only two known suppliers that run a Forum of this type these days - OVO and E.On Next.

Scottish Power used to have one, but it became a toxic pit and got terminated. The other one we knew of was with Pure Planet, which sadly got terminated with PP went bust. Shame really, as their community manager was amazing…

I don’t think any other supplier is likely to do this anytime soon - it requires commitment and that’s hard to justify.