How do you get into debt on a PAYG top up meter?

What I don’t understand is, my meter showed credit when I was leaving the property. How can I be in debit? Nobody has been able to explain it to me.

Not all debts will result in Self-Disconnection on PAYG. Those that are set up to be paid off slowly over time will merely sap available credit at the agreed rate while allowing the supply to stay on.

Thank you for your answers. And how is it possible that the meter shows in credit upon moving out? While I’m supposedly in debit?

The current Meter Balance is the “credit” you see on the front screen. You have to go into the menus to find any active debts - or use the IHD if it’s a Smart Meter.

There are various reasons why it might happen.

This is just an example of one of those reasons - I am NOT saying this has happened to you. (But it might have).

It's possible that when there was a change in Ofgem  tariff rates, which happens every 3 months nowadays, that for some reason your particular meter did not update to the new rates.

That shouldn't happen, but occasionally it can happen.

If that should happen then the meter is charging you the wrong money for what you use, which can then lead to a debit if the tariff went up and so it is charging less than it should be (or to a credit if the tariff went down and it's charging you too much).

Normally if that has happened then the next time it changes the meter will be adjusted to take a bit more (or a bit less) to get things back to where they should be.

However if you have left then that can't be done and so you get a final bill (or a final credit).

When I left my last place the PAYG gas meter had been charging wrongly - it had been charging too much for a few months, and so I got a final bill showing £25 credit, and a cheque back from the gas supplier.

Hey @Martynca,

@Blastoise186 is correct in saying that a meter can have active credit and debt at the same time. We see this where customers that are in vulnerable positions ask for help and we can add credit to the meter to support them. This debt is then added to the backend of the meter and the customer can choose how much they pay off. We normally find that customers may choose the minimum payment and will continue to pay that off until completion but they will still top up as normal outside of this. 

We don’t have access to accounts to find out what exactly is causing your issues but if you call the number that he suggested above then one of our lovely Support Team can look into this with you. 

Keep us updated on what they say after you call 😊

I've contacted the ombudsman, due to the lack of trying to get my money back from an estimated bill the cost me £640 when I was payg.

Hi @Jez8t3,

I’m really sorry to hear this. 

I’m afraid if your case is already with the ombudsman then we’d be unable to help with it here. 

You’d need to contact the Ombudsman directly via:

• Phone: 0330 440 1624
• Email: enquiry@ombudsman-services.org
• Website: www.ombudsman-services.org

Have you already got a complaint raised with OVO? If so, you should have a complaint handler who should be personally dealing with this. It’s worth noting that the Ombudsman wouldn’t be able to take this on if your complaint is less than 8 weeks old. If this is the case we’d be happy to reach out to your complaint handler for them to get in touch. Please let us know.

Well 640 disappeared from my account 

Hi @Jez8t3,

I’m really sorry for the issues you’ve been experiencing, that’s definitely not the experience we want for our customers.

I’m going to have our Forum_Support team reach out to you so they can help you further with this. Look out for a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview