Unexplained change to direct debits?

Thanks Firedog - I couldn’t find my FAC and the link is super helpful for that.

Looks like my plan is listing my FAC for electricity as a tad under 8000 kwh - this is where its all going wrong with the predicted forward planning then.  My current yearly usage is averaging 2500-2600 kwh over the last 3 years, increasing slightly further back (during covid years 2020, 2021) to 3400 in the year. (pulling this data from my usage stats for last few years)

 - I would be very interested to know if other people with this issue have got daft estimates for their future electricity use please! 

Water heaters are set to go on during off-peak, and off again before on-peak times. 

The estimates are frustrating me, but yes, they are a different matter and I will be taking readings to match up with the smart meter readings - have been advised not to submit them until they have sorted out the meter, might need a new one, so waiting for it to tick past the 32 days of not working so they can replace it.  

I’m based in Northampton, and the meters aren’t worrying me too much, more the stupid estimates. 

Like others here I’m not happy. What rubs salt in the wound is that, from my own calculations and implied by ​@Emmanuelle_OVO, it would appear that no allowance is made for “add ons” such as charge anytime. 
Going by the cost calculator it assumes all power used is charged at the full rate.

🙋🏻 Been there, done that! 

In my case, I learnt that having a new meter installed removed historical user data from the calculation. This meant that the FAC was initially set at a high ‘industry standard’, but it would allegedly gradually come down as usage data were received. This is an established system based on a national database recording every meter’s consumption figures. My FAC did indeed come down, but it took a whole year to reach a level matching that year’s consumption. 

I can’t imagine why you’re in this situation, so I suggest you ask Support. If you don’t get a satisfactory answer, submit a formal written complaint saying that your FAC is unnaturally high and asking for it to be reduced to a sensible level matching your past year’s consumption.

I have a suspicion that the FAC is also used to calculate the estimates you see on usage charts, which is why they’re unreasonably high. As I said, this doesn’t matter much because billing will fall into line when readings are available. I don’t understand why you’re asked not to submit readings when the meter isn’t doing so. I suggest you keep records of all three readings (gas, and peak and offpeak electricity) at least monthly, preferably with date-stamped photos as concrete evidence. 

Yes, I have had a new meter installed in late October 2024. I have asked 3 times for an escalation, and todays call was to check that they are including my query about the FAC being so high. No-one seems able to edit this value on the phones, or know why they picked a stupidly high figure.

This makes sense re:the estimates being high. 

It was suggested that I keep date-stamped timed photos for all 3 readings as you have suggested too - I am not submitting readings of them as I need to be able to see (for me) accurately when the meter stopped working, and I will be doing weekly readings and keeping records. I shouldn’t have to, but I am going to anyway! 

Thanks for the suggestions of the FAC, it seems a new meter and a change of contract have caused me no end of issues already this month. 

Contact them and check they had actually sent it out. If not, that is their mistake and they should be able to change it and maybe offer a small credit as a gesture of goodwill….

FWIW the system works both ways. OVO actually tried to force my DD DOWN recently by quite a significant amount based on the new March 2026 thing. They didn’t wait 10 days - they just did it immediately because a wait period and/or my consent isn’t required for that. I just suddenly received two emails one morning. The first was a DD update confirmation that my payments had been successfully reduced, the second being an alert from OVO notifying me that my payments were eligible to be automatically reduced and this had been actioned - but that I could also opt to put them back to what they were if I wanted to.

I decided to override the system and force it back to my preferred amount anyway - I find it better to keep the credit available. If it gets too high, I’ll just dump some credit back out and fling it back to the bank.

As I’ve said before, that stuff pretty much never gets sent out “by mistake”. If it was, we’d know on the Forum already.

From the conversation I had yesterday with a customer service rep on the phone, they admitted that they should have sent a “Check your direct debit because we think its wrong” email, and that they had fallen short of their own standards by not doing so. I was offered £15 credit on my account as an apology. 

Like Firedog I have also had too high FAC issues.
At one point it was over 3x higher than it should be.

Mine was a pretty unusual cause, ultimately also due to a meter exchange, but mine was a partially failed exchange so the electricity meter was changed, but the old gas meter was left in place.

Long story short but it later transpired that the Central Data Provider (Xoserve) then had the wrong serial number for my gas meter.
They had the new one that was never fitted and so of course there was no usage being recorded cetrally, which meant that they were using ‘Industry Standard’ figures rather than actual usage when caculating my estimated future gas use.

Once that error was eventually spoted and  that meter number corrected then things settled down again, although my Gas FAC is still currently about 20% too high. (Meaning that my Recommended DDs are 10% too high).

It isn’t just meter exchanges though, both myself and Firedog identified a number of different reasons why an FAC can be too high, which then causes estimates and recommended DD’s to be too high.
I’m sure that there will be others as well that we didn’t spot or think of.
Some have already been fixed.
Some of them are pretty complicated and rare, but can and do happen.

One practical tip that I did find can work to reduce a too high FAC if you smart meter isn’t communicating properly, or if you don’t have a smart meter, is to send in regular and frequent manual meter readings to mimic what a smart meter does - send them at least once a week
It’s that lack of frequent, regular, readings that can cause things to slip.

Of course in my case that didn’t work at first because Xoserve had the wrong meter number anyway, but once that had been corrected I could see my incorrect gas FAC reducing each time I sent in a new meter reading.

PS.

… about the FAC being so high. No-one seems able to edit this value on the phones, or know why they picked a stupidly high figure.

The support agents can’t change it.
We found from our previous investigations that it is calculated automatically and input from 4 different organisations is involved in that calculation, Elexon. Xoserve, Kaluza, and OVO.
That’s one reason why issues with it can be complicated to find and fix.
Even if the support agents could change it manually then it would just change back again when the automatic calculation was next run (every 3-months).