I have lots of credit in my OVO online account - why are you suggesting a large increase in my monthly Direct Debit payment?

As Jeffus says, it’s worth checking how much extra you’ll be paying after cancelling your Direct Debit. The standing charge alone for a dual fuel customer is around £45 a year more.

What do you see on the Change your Direct Debit amount page?

On the DD calculator page, how does the predicted balance at the end of March compare with your predicted monthly costs? 

On your Plan page, how does the Future Annual Consumption compare with your actual consumption over the past year? This is the basis for the DD calculation, so if it’s very inaccurate, you’ll have some persuading to do.

Thanks everyone for feedback and suggestions

It has been so stressful to deal with OVO that it made me ill at the time (Oct-Dec 22).  I was a SWALEC customer for over 20 years and they were fantastic.  Never a problem.

I received Ombudsman help with some of the issues resolved by OVO however they still did not address that the Direct Debit function (where you turn up or down the amount you wish to pay) does not work on my online account.  The Ombudsman can only do so much to help.

I checked how much more I am paying for manual payments and prefer to offset the small increase in comparison and earn interest on the amount saved instead.

My spend over the year was calculated and taken into consideration, (Customer Service advised it would decrease in April 23 - I still could not adjust it online).  I have kept the account in credit every month by £300 and my average monthly bills are £150.  The Direct Debit was set at £200 since Oct 22.

I am scared to return to Direct Debit as I will lose control again.  I prefer to save the money up front and earn interest for it especially if they cannot sort it out (or do they want to?)

All I want is to control the Direct Debit function up and down as it says you can ‘easily’ do.  But I kept getting a message that ‘this cannot be done at this time’

Thanks for listening.

@MrM if you are really are not happy then perhaps switch to a supplier that allows direct debits to be paid off in full each period. You simply pay for what you use.

That way you don't pay the significant penalty by not paying by direct debit.

For illustration for a typical dual fuel customer nationally

£1928 vs £2058 so £130 annually more expensive from 1st Jan

Obviously this varies based on usage and where you live.

You are never going to earn enough interest to cover the extra cost with ovo.

For example EON Next

https://www.eonnext.com/blog/135-How-Direct-Debits-are-calculated#:~:text=Variable%20Direct%20Debit.,and%20lower%20in%20the%20summer

Thanks Jeffus for the EON information - I am looking at this and the options as we speak.

Yes this looks like a much easier and cheaper option that trying to get OVO technicians to resolve the Direct Debit online system.

Thanks again everyone for your help.  Much appreciated.

There should have been four quarterly DD reviews since then. Did they not happen? If they did, what was the outcome?

I was very concerned to receive "confirmation" e-mails from OVO this morning announcing my direct debit will increase automatically next month by £16 per month. This is a 25% increase! I only use roughly 50% electricity and so am roughly 50% in credit at the start of each new period. When I go into comparison with other similar properties, my usage is vastly less. Given we have been and are now in the coldest period and I am still in great credit, I'm furious to see such an increase especially as we start to enter milder conditions as this increase comes into place. 

This is something we have seen on the forum several times relating to payments by Direct Debit. As OVO along with most energy providers does not allow whole bill by Direct Debit it is based on annual estimated usage. The year starts when the warmer days are coming along and energy usage tends to fall. This builds up a credit balance ready for the winter period and is of course to the advantage of the energy provider. This is why this method of payment is pushed by many businesses and service providers. As always there is one way to avoid this, pay by another method. Customer services may be able to explain why your individual bill has increased in this way.

Thank you. I am very ready to speak to someone tomorrow. OVO set the direct debit in October, presumably aware of colder weather imminent. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for my direct debit to increase when half of it has carried over as credit since. There is also no excuse for automatic increases of 25% on this basis. It's not a good look! 

I do hope you can get it sorted with customer services. They can usually resolve most issues and explain the reason for changes to Direct Debits. Its one of the main reasons I do not pay by Direct Debit. While this does mean paying a little more it is offset by the fact during the summer months I can save money and earn interest on it. 

Thank you. I vaguely recall having a similar experience with OVO in the past. It was "ironed out" over the phone and I ended up having nothing extra to pay. I may have suggested that I would be more than happy to clear any excess on a monthly basis should it arise....which it never did.