If I join OVO can I pay on receipt of bill or do I have to pay by Direct Debit?

OVO are being difficult to their customers. As soon as I can find a suitable Variable Direct Debit supplier who charges fairly I will be moving from OVO. Currently OVO increase their charges for anyone wanting to pay by VDD. Outrageous when you think of it. You pay a penalty just for settling your bill in full monthly as they of course want billions of their clients money on deposit in their bank account or for financing forward purchases at a lower cost they then charge  their clients . 

OVO doesn’t offer Variable Direct Debit, only Pay On-Demand if that’s what you’re after. Worth noting that a lot of suppliers charge extra for VDD/POD options.

Which suppliers have you found that do variable direct debits without a penalty fee for new customers? 

British Gas for starters. I just asked them and got my money back and now they just debit me quarterly for what I have used. The tariff remained the same. 

I recommend British Gas to you 2 months when you raised exactly the same query 

You said you had sorted the switch two months ago?

I am completely confused about what you are up to as you keep posting basically the same thing over several months

A couple of comments:

• The ‘penalty’ is the amount determined by OFGEM to cover the extra cost to suppliers of delivering to customers who choose to pay on demand. Sadly, there are so many of them that default on their payments that the collection costs are significant.
• The online OVO account pages contain a Direct Debit Calculator giving a graphic representation of how it evens out payments over the year. This is what mine looks like:
    

• The thick line at £94 shows the Direct Debit amount, the orange columns the predicted monthly cost. The extra I’ll pay between now and September ensures that I won’t be saddled with a large bill in December when it would be least welcome. 
  If prices change significantly in the meantime, the Direct Debit amount will be adjusted accordingly, so I expect to see a reduction recommended next quarter. 

There’s nothing outrageous about this arrangement, which has many other benefits for both parties.

I was with SSE and I used a payment card at the post office to pay money each week to my account this was credited to my account. When the bill was due the payments I had made came off the bill. My card has now expired and wondered if I can get the same from OVO. 

Hey @Mackintosh26 

Welcome to the Forum.

We don’t use the payment cards as a method of payment sorry.

You can set up a Direct Debit or make a manual card payment when the bill comes in each month.

You can find out more on one-off card payments here:

You can also make a direct payment to OVO’s bank account, you can do this yourself online, as well in branch at the bank.