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SSE to OVO customer- How does the billing work?

C
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I was recently moved over to OVO from SSE, and I’ve been pretty much confused ever since.

My account moved over pretty much at the same time I had bills due, I’ve never had an issue with SSE and was a very happy customer, I paid my bills quarterly, gave a meter reading when they emailed me to do so and a few days later went onto my account and paid for my accurate usage.

So when I moved over there was an outstanding balance of around £200, however when I logged onto OVO it said my balance was £160, so I paid this. I then received a bill about a week later for £112, but when I logged on a few days later to pay this, my balance to pay was £62. By this point I am thoroughly confused! There was no option to pay the £112 which was on my bill. I tried to work out this live billing system, but still struggling. So this has now happened a few more times, I get a bill, log on and get a different balance, I understood it as this ‘today’s balance’ was for the current billing period and I would be making a top up if chose to pay, but I can’t understand why I cannot pay the outstanding balance/amount that was on the bill emailed to me?

I emailed them and got a breakdown of all the charges so far, which did add up and was told the reason I can’t pay the outstanding balance is because I am not using the app?

This sounds completely ridiculous to me?

I managed to call last week and the lady was trying to explain the billing again and I still don't really get it, and I got yet another differing figure of my outstanding balance which is no where on any of my billing. She was saying the bill I got this month I don't pay till next month? Unless she meant the balance showing on my account I don’t pay till next month which would make sense?

She also confirmed I do need to have the app to pay my outstanding balance?! I expressed to her this seems very odd, what if I don't want an app, what if I don't have a smart phone, if I log into my account on my pc, why can’t I just use that, makes no sense.

Anyway, I downloaded the app, guess what, I still cant pay my outstanding balance, I can only pay the today’s balance. I also noticed on my online account on my pc that it has always said ‘today’s balance’ and now it is saying ‘amount to pay’ - this is what we have calculated you need to pay. So as it stands my bill says my closing balance for last period was £138 I can only pay £71 (according to the app) and £81 according to my account logged in on my pc, so again 2 different amounts!

Why is it this confusing?

I cannot call them easily as their lines are only open when I am working, plus the 2 times I have called the first time the guy said to pay the balance on the account and it will clear it, only for me to receive a bill the NEXT day for another £200 (which was the balance still rolling over from SSE, again log on cannot pay this amount). The second time I called the lady was just not making any sense to me when trying to explain the billing. 

I’m hoping for someone to give me some clear guidance here, cos I’m worried, even though I am paying some amounts there is clearly an outstanding balance that keeps rolling over and I am worried.

On a separate issue I am really not happy that I can no longer pay my bill quarterly, there was a reason I chose this method and signed up to a company that offered it, now through no choice of my own I have been moved mid contract to a company that refuse to provide this., and now I am facing all this confusion, time wasted making sure bills are correct and stress!

 

 

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Best answer by Emmanuelle_OVO 13 March 2023, 12:40

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19 replies

J
Rank

I also find the billing utterly confusing. Today I logged in to the website and it said I was £8 in credit. I logged in an hour later and it said was £88 in debit! I have been through every page on the site and everywhere there is a different amount, but nothing adds up to £88 which is what it says on the homepage. Judging by other comments it seems this is done deliberately to confuse you, so they can get away with their sleight of hands. My advice would be to move supplier, if they’ll allow you. Don’t believe Trustpilot reviews. All major companies have found ways around this and now post their own 5 star reviews. You can usually tell a fake review because it will say something like “I spoke to Mick today and he was the greatest person I have ever spoken to in fifty years of paying bills”, etc, etc.

juliamc
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Userlevel 7
Badge +2

I’m only another OVO customer, but I can tell you what I understand about ‘live billing’. 

You absolutely DON’T need the app. That’s just wrong. You get much clearer info using the website.

When you log in you’ll be on the Home page, and every day ‘Today’s Balance’ will update and show your running total of what’s in your account. That’s not the amount you need to pay. It’s updated with your usage driving the figure up, and your payments driving the figure down. 

On the same Home page you will see ‘Your Bills’. OVO generates a bill each month. Unless you have a direct debit set up this is the amount you need to pay each month*

This is what my Home screen looks like - I pay by direct debit.

I’ve been with OVO for years and I am lucky enough to get the old interest reward on my balance, so I’m happy having a high balance.

If I was paying ‘On Demand’ (ie not direct debit) I’d be receiving a bill for £273.65 any day now, then I’d have to pay it, either online via the ‘Make a Payment’ button, or I think the bill has a Giro slip to take to a bank or post office. I’m paperless so don’t see that.

*re monthly v quarterly payments I understand that SSE customers were able to request quarterly payment arrangements via customer services.

Do let me know if any of that helps at all !!

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 6

Hey @ConfusedCustomer,

 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

 

It can be quite confusing when moving to a new supplier and adjusting to how their billing works. You should get a statement each month, the balance shown on the statement is what you are expected to pay. However, we have a live billing system which means you can keep an eye on your usage throughout the month in between statements. Whenever you submit a meter reading your account balance will update accordingly within 24-48 hours. We have a great FAQ on this topic here:

 

 

There are a number of different ways to pay OVO listed on our website, The easiest would be through the Online Account:

 

 

Hope this helps. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
C
Rank

Thanks @juliamc for the detailed explanation, my account looks exactly the same, however my bills at the bottom are not the same amount that is on my actual bill, plus there is no option to pay this (I don’t have a direct debit set up) 

I can only pay the ‘today’s balance’/’amount you need to pay’

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO could you please explain further. I understand the today’s balance is a live to total, but it the only option I have to pay.

My last bill sent for period 28/01-27/02 had closing balance of £138. However as you can see below the bill for that period is showing £72.71 which are the charges for the period. I’m desperately trying to figure out how to pay the £138?!

 

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
Badge +1

To pay a bill off, simply use the Card Payment/Top-Up Payment option in MyOVO under Payments. You don’t need to explicitly pay towards the bill as any payments made will go towards outstanding bills automatically first. If there’s any credit left after those are paid, it’ll automatically go towards future bills.

If you make payments in the middle of a billing cycle, that payment will be automatically credited to the next bill as long as there’s nothing else outstanding.

You can see the balance that needs to be paid on the home page of MyOVO.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
C
Rank

To pay a bill off, simply use the Card Payment/Top-Up Payment option in MyOVO under Payments. You don’t need to explicitly pay towards the bill as any payments made will go towards outstanding bills automatically first. If there’s any credit left after those are paid, it’ll automatically go towards future bills.

If you make payments in the middle of a billing cycle, that payment will be automatically credited to the next bill as long as there’s nothing else outstanding.

You can see the balance that needs to be paid on the home page of MyOVO.

The balance that needs to be paid,

       1. is two different amounts depending on whether I am on my online account or the app. 

  1. I just tried to pay more than the £71 today’s balance on the app, but when I type in a higher amount it tells me I will be in credit… so how do I pay the £138 that was in the bill sent to me?

This is becoming highly frustrating

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Easy. Just pay in £138 and it's definitely going to clear the bill in question 

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
C
Rank

@Blastoise186 if I override the £71, its showing I will be £66 in credit? That’s not right

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
Badge +1

That is correct. I’ve discussed this at length with several other forum volunteers today. We believe that paying in £138 now will clear the bill and put you in credit by about £66 or £67 and that the bill you asked about will almost certainly be paid off at the same time.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
C
Rank

What do you mean the bill I asked about will almost certainly be paid off at the same time? £138 is the outstanding amount for the Jan-Feb bill, so if I paid it I would hope it would pay it off,  don’t know why it would put me in credit though, actually I do know, its because it would be a ‘top up’ payment that is it showing me of £71 (the live billing for this period), and would take the £71 (off my next bill), minus 138 = 67 in credit, so I am still not clearing the previous bill.

Come on, this IS confusing…….🤔

Jeffus
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Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Thanks @juliamc for the detailed explanation, my account looks exactly the same, however my bills at the bottom are not the same amount that is on my actual bill, plus there is no option to pay this (I don’t have a direct debit set up) 

I can only pay the ‘today’s balance’/’amount you need to pay’

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO could you please explain further. I understand the today’s balance is a live to total, but it the only option I have to pay.

My last bill sent for period 28/01-27/02 had closing balance of £138. However as you can see below the bill for that period is showing £72.71 which are the charges for the period. I’m desperately trying to figure out how to pay the £138?!

 

All of us commenting pay by DD as the rates are less so it can be difficult to comment sometimes in these situations. 

The 72.71 is the total new charges for 28 Jan to 27 Feb i think in your case. 

Perhaps the 138 you are quoting is the Closing Balance you are seeing on a bill. If so that isn't the same thing. 

As none of us have access to your account we can't tell to be honest. We are simply customers trying to help out.

You could click in View details on the 72.71 box and post some screen shots of what you see if you like and one of us will be happy to comment.

The page you posted never shows the Closing Balance, so will never show the 138 you mentioned. 

Does that sound helpful? 

C
Rank

Thanks @Jeffus 

Here is the breakdown when I select the 28/01-27/02 details and its the same on the actual downloaded bill.

Your balance

Starting balance 28 Jan £216.58 in debit
Total charges  £72.71 out
Card payment 1 Feb £150.35 in
Closing balance 27 Feb £138.94 in debit

 

So I know I owe £138.94

When I go to make a payment it says my account balance is £83 in debit (which is the today’s balance, a live running cost that will be finalised in the next bill) -no option to pay the £138 anywhere at all.

When I go on the app I have another different figure to pay of £71 (and it says amount to pay- this is what we have calculated you need to pay) As explained previously if I try and make a payment on the app of over £71 it puts me in credit.

It surely shouldn’t be this complicated to pay what my bill says I owe? Is there something wrong with my account?, though I know I am not the only one confused

I will have to try and phone again tomorrow while I am away from the office, this is becoming so time consuming. To be honest though I have called twice and no one has managed to clearly explain this, the 150 card payment you see there is the first time I tried to call to figure what was going on and told to pay the 150 and it would clear my balance, I now know that was not the case as I had an opening balance of 216 (and I received a bill the next day after this payment for £213.53? even more confusion), the 150 was again the ‘today’s balance’ amount at that time, it seems the balance keeps rolling over as I can’t actually pay it

juliamc
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +2

Hi @ConfusedCustomer Can I chip in here ? This muddle all started with the SSE debt transferred to OVO. You may have tried this but can you phone and make a single payment into your account of the £200 ? Then the live billing will just be for your actual OVO bills.

Is this the number you’ve been calling?

This is from https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/how-to-pay

  • Make a card payment: You can do this in your online account or by calling us on 0330 303 5063 Monday to Friday from 9am till 5pm. We accept all major credit and debit cards (except for American Express).

Apologies if that’s already been tried - but I feel sure OVO will want to take you money !

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 6

@ConfusedCustomer I’m going to chip in, too, because:
 

… So I know I owe £138.94

When I go on the app I have another different figure to pay of £71 (and it says amount to pay- this is what we have calculated you need to pay) 

… I can’t see that anyone’s mentioned the Energy Bill Support Scheme payment(s). It may be no coincidence that the £138 closing balance on your statement just happens to be £67 more than the app is telling you to pay. £71 + £67 EBSS = £138. So paying £71 should bring you back to zero.

The billing details page (specifically the Charges in detail bit) at the website should show you what’s going on. This page changes each time there’s a meter reading, so submit a reading if you want to know how you stand.

Noel | Secure Liberty 110 Electricity-only E7 meter | Secure Pipit 500 IHD
Jeffus
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Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Thanks @Jeffus 

Here is the breakdown when I select the 28/01-27/02 details and its the same on the actual downloaded bill.

Your balance

Starting balance 28 Jan £216.58 in debit
Total charges  £72.71 out
Card payment 1 Feb £150.35 in
Closing balance 27 Feb £138.94 in debit

 

So I know I owe £138.94

When I go to make a payment it says my account balance is £83 in debit (which is the today’s balance, a live running cost that will be finalised in the next bill) -no option to pay the £138 anywhere at all.

When I go on the app I have another different figure to pay of £71 (and it says amount to pay- this is what we have calculated you need to pay) As explained previously if I try and make a payment on the app of over £71 it puts me in credit.

It surely shouldn’t be this complicated to pay what my bill says I owe? Is there something wrong with my account?, though I know I am not the only one confused

I will have to try and phone again tomorrow while I am away from the office, this is becoming so time consuming. To be honest though I have called twice and no one has managed to clearly explain this, the 150 card payment you see there is the first time I tried to call to figure what was going on and told to pay the 150 and it would clear my balance, I now know that was not the case as I had an opening balance of 216 (and I received a bill the next day after this payment for £213.53? even more confusion), the 150 was again the ‘today’s balance’ amount at that time, it seems the balance keeps rolling over as I can’t actually pay it

The government EBSS payments are causing the confusion. These finish in March. It was a terrible scheme, they should have just reduced the unit rate and standing changes to keep it very simple for everyone. The EBSS for you works differently to me and many of the other regular poster as we pay by Direct Debit. 

So your balance at the end of your last bill was 138.94

But then immediately after that the  government gave you another 67 which pushed your charges negative in the next period so that figure of minus 57.08 in that screenshot you posted.

The system is deducting the 67 the government gave you after the 138 bill from the 138 so OVO are saying just give us 71 for now, don't worry about the the 138 for now as the government has just given you another 67.

You shouldn't see all this complexity once the EBSS stuff drops out of everyone's billing. 

 

C
Rank

The energy support £67 is showing in the details further down for Jan-Feb period

VAT 5% of £133.06 £6.65

Energy Bill Support Scheme -£67.00

Total Charges£72.71 out

However I have just done some further calculations;

Starting balance 216.58

Charges 72.73

=289.29

-150.35 I paid mid period ~(as this was the balance showing to pay and I was told it would clear it -obviously wrong)

=138.94​​​​​​

-67 = 71.94!

So I think this has solved it, sort of, its still not making complete sense

Why does my bill not say closing balance of 71.94 then, this is what has caused the confusion. If I am ignoring the £138 as a closing balance, even though I would assume a closing balance is what I owe, and only looking at the charges, that’s still a different amount to what it is telling me to pay as it is £72.71

Why was my today’s balance constantly changing before whereas now I’ve had the consistent 71.94 to pay? well on the app anyway,  what happened to the ‘live billing’?

Why does the amount to pay on the app differ from the amount to pay on the account logged in on the pc? There were two different amounts yesterday, now they are the same, grrr this is so frustrating.

 

Jeffus
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

The energy support £67 is showing in the details further down for Jan-Feb period

VAT 5% of £133.06 £6.65

Energy Bill Support Scheme -£67.00

Total Charges£72.71 out

However I have just done some further calculations;

Starting balance 216.58

Charges 72.73

=289.29

-150.35 I paid mid period ~(as this was the balance showing to pay and I was told it would clear it -obviously wrong)

=138.94​​​​​​

-67 = 71.94!

So I think this has solved it, sort of, its still not making complete sense

Why does my bill not say closing balance of 71.94 then, this is what has caused the confusion. If I am ignoring the £138 as a closing balance, even though I would assume a closing balance is what I owe, and only looking at the charges, that’s still a different amount to what it is telling me to pay as it is £72.71

Why was my today’s balance constantly changing before whereas now I’ve had the consistent 71.94 to pay? well on the app anyway,  what happened to the ‘live billing’?

Why does the amount to pay on the app differ from the amount to pay on the account logged in on the pc? There were two different amounts yesterday, now they are the same, grrr this is so frustrating.

 

It will be easier once all the complicated Energy Bill Support Scheme payments are out the way. 

I am happy to go through it, but i wonder if you would be better off with a supplier who didn't do live billing? It may always frustrate you. You could switch once all the Energy Bill Support Scheme complexity is gone. 

Would you like me to try again and go through it? I worry you may still get frustrated. 

 

 

Z

OVO have made their billing so complicated I am not surprised there are so many comments/questions on it.  I hope they log into this forum.

My first issue is that there doesn’t seem to be a page where it shows simply electricity charge + standing charge + VAT

Then they show and in and an out of the government payments, this could be put on a separate page showing the amounts paid into your bank account - no need to muddy the waters

Then a simple, you had this much credit, you’ve paid in this much, your charges this month were this much and now you’ve got this much

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

If you download the full bill, it’s all there in the formats you’re probably used to.

And besides, the government payments are being terminated as of 1st April so they won’t be relevant anymore anyway

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!

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