Unexplained change to direct debits?

I’m sure they will after the weekend, although I’ve a feeling they’ll struggle to explain the logic. 

I understand the change wasn’t supposed to happen until Monday, so it looks like somebody jumped the gun. 

It went live first thing this morning, Friday.

@Emmanuelle_OVO

See the discussion in ‘Updates and news from OVO to PZHs’ topic in the PZH forum .

I wasn’t in last week, my apologies. I’m chasing an official update for this internally. Once we have confirmation we can update all relevant topics. 

No worries, all of us at the forum were caught on the hop by this one on Friday.

I guess that you will be busy updating those tutorials today.

@Emmanuelle_OVO That's really taking the proverbial .... and a very definite final straw and "Hasta nunca" from me to OVO to draw the curtains on two years of enduring unconscionable incompetence on the part of OVO 🤦🏻‍♂️

The supposed explanation is also self-evident BS, because it doesn't take a great intellect to see that it is a scheme to designed to force direct debit customers to build up excessive and wholly unnecessary credit balances (to cover a summer and TWO whole winters in advance) for OVO to take advantage of.

Speaking as a billing professional, it is an insult to our intelligence, it is disingenuous and it is shameful - as things stand it is also a very clear breach of OVO's own terms - and the manner in which OVO has tried to introduce it, on the sly, is wholly unethical.

This is being referred to Ofgem.

I’m on a fixed-rate tariff until next May, and I currently have a credit balance amounting to 6.3 times my projected monthly cost. This new arrangement will mean that my balance would remain on average at 4.7 times my projected monthly cost for the whole of the next year. The DD calculator reports that ‘We think you’re paying the right amount for the energy you’re using.’

When my fixed-rate plan ends, the balance will be 5.5 Direct Debits. If I chose not to fix again, my costs might increase by 2.4% according to a current forecast - from £35 to £36.

Will @Emmanuelle_OVO please try and find the justification for this? 
  

The current Core Terms and Conditions give only two scenarios in which the Direct Debit might change: 

• We can ask you to increase your Direct Debit amount anytime if prices change (in line with this contract) or you’re using more energy than we estimated. If you don’t do this by the date we give you, we can automatically increase your Direct Debit to an amount that means your account won't end up in debt by the date of your contract anniversary. 
• We may reduce your Direct Debit if prices decrease (in line with this contract) or if you’re using less energy than we’ve estimated. We’ll only agree to reduce your Direct Debit payments if …  we’re satisfied that your account won't end up in debt by the date of your contract anniversary.

Neither of these covers an increase caused by an arbitrary change in the way the DD is calculated. 

It’s also worth noting that these T&Cs can change at any time without notice, but version published on the website will always be the latest. Perhaps we should be checking it daily ... 

 …. we can automatically increase your Direct Debit to an amount that means your account won't end up in debt …

That is the one that has always bugged me.

To start with it isn’t “can” it’s “will”.

On top of that it “will” be automatically increased by the computer itself even when the DD calculation is incorrect, as we know that it can be for various reasons, particularly if OVO’s  Future Assessed Consumption is wrong.

BTW note that wording - Future Assessed Consumption - in some cases, and not unusual cases either, it’s an estimate (a guess) that is being used.
In various circumstances it is ‘Industry Srandard Figures’ that are being used rather than using your last 12 months usage figures as Ofgem says that suppliers should do.

In this case though it’s because OVO has arbitrarily changed the date on which they want all accounts to have a zero balance each year, (purely to suit their own yearly accounting?), and then set the first one to be more than 12 months away.

Once your DD has been incorrectly/automatically increased by the computer itself the human Support Agents are limited in what they can do to correct it.
Other than putting you on a ‘Reduced Payment’ for 3 months (or even on a ‘Payment Plan’ if it’s been increased by the computer to more than 10% too high), there is not much that they can do. The computers programming won’t let them.
A clasic “Computer says No” situation.

Interestingly my account currently shows a recommended direct debit amount is not available. My situation:

• Credit Balance £580 (long story as why it is so high)
• Current Direct Debit : £77
• My estimated DD to reach zero March 2025: £63
• My estimated DD to reach zero August 2025 (end of my fixed contract): £72
• OVO suggested amount £94 to bring credit to zero by March 2026.

With a fixed contract (with penalties for leaving) it looks like I have no choice. Pay up because the software says so, BUT it can stop me leaving at the end of the contract.

I think @Firedog mentioned somewhere that the DD calculator does not take into account credits such as the warm home discount. My mother (different supplier) was overpaying so in Mar 2023 they reduced her (electricity) DD from £35 to £10. In September they decided this was too much so increased the DD to £38, just before the WHD was added, which would have covered most of the winter months. Interestingly the October bill made no mention of the WHD but the January bill shows a credit for August!