Will my tariff increase if I cancel my direct debit?

Ovo are trying to increase my direct from £395 to £565 as they believe my usage will increase over winter. I have tried to contact them to argue this case. My DD was initially high due to the swap over from Scottish Power to OVO I had a some arrears. So was happy to increase the DD, my account is now in credit £300 credit my average bill over the last 8 months has £200. My usage has stayed more or less the same in the last 10 years of living in this house.  I am really sad I have all my bills for the last 10 years.

So if you go on my average bill or my usage, when the 80% increase happens my average monthly bill will be £360 ish.  Thats before the £67 discount. 

I have tried to change my DD to balance amount of the bill each month or wont let me do that for some reason. It will only let me change to min of £500.

So I may need to cancel my DD and just pay the bill monthly.

I cant get through to customer services, I work full time so I can waste my time phoning every day.

Not impressed with the service so or the app.

It worry how many vulnerable are falling fowl of this and maybe doing with our food etc when there is no need.

I suggest you use another method to contact OVO. The average user (who is that?) pays £215 in additional charges on standard credit than DD over a year (October 2022 prices), so that is worth retaining. 

You can pay by variable DD rather than fixed DD, which would meet your objectives and save you money.

Don’t forget another substantial increase is in the pipeline for January2023.

I have tried 2 different methods and I will email them.

Thank you for your feedback but I included oct price increase and January price increase. This isn't my first rodeo.

Again as I stated the app wont let me change it to variable DD as that would be my solution. Its forcing me to set my DD min £525. Which I am not about to do.

Personally I don't want to build a too much credit as the money is better in my account earning interest.

Email isn’t a valid contact option anymore. You’ll find all your contact options at https://help.ovoenergy.com . If you have concerns over your payments, the Collections Team might be able to help. Feel free to give them a call on 0800 069 9831.

Further help and advice is available in the links on my guide at 

If you wish to make a complaint, please use the contact form at https://ovoenergy.com/feedback .

I’m afraid OVO doesn’t support Variable Direct Debits anymore, the last time that option was available was before I joined in September 2020. Apologies for any confusion, meldrewreborn is an experienced forum volunteer elsewhere but he’s still learning the ropes here.

If you don’t want to pay by Fixed Direct Debit, then your only option is to pay on-demand/on-receipt of the bill. Be warned that on average, it costs around £200 a year more to pay this way than it does to pay by DD.

I will put a complaint in then.  

I have calculated my bill i there is no way my DD should be as high as it is moving forward.

£200 per year is the equivalent to £16 per month.  Where is currently they are trying to over charge me by up to £200 per month potentially.

Meldrewborn needs to be careful of the wording of the reply as well as ensuring the information is correct.

The tone was rude and unhelpful it time that is stressful for all of us.

I am lucky I have disposable income to absorb the increase but doesn't mean I am going to hand over my money willy nilly to a company who thinks most of their customers cant use a calculator.

Also to a company that is making stupendous amount of dividends for its shareholders.

I’m really sorry for saying customers can pAy by variable DD when OVO don’t permit it.

Customers are entitled to a fair and reasonable DD. OVO should be able to revel their computational method upon request. Make a complaint if they can’t do that.

Ovo are a out to raise my DD to 355 pound a month! My state pension is 740 pounds per month. How is this liveable? My actual usage over the past few months has been only 69 pounds ! I would prefer to pay each month for only energy I've used. I can cut down in the winter. I want to manage my own affairs. How do I change?

This is my beef OVO taking control and increasing DD` payments without my express consent. They say they will give 10 days notice but if they cant be contacted how will it work. One thing for sure cancelling the DD will certainly get their attention they will contact you.

A positive thing about keeping positive balances on OVO they pay 5% interest on balances  shown as a deduction on monthly statement. I am not sure if this applies to new customers or just legacy customers who were with OVO originally. I have given many positive reviews online in the past for OVO but there is obviously huge demand for customer services at the moment and the inability to contact them needs to be be urgently addressed.

Hi my Direct Debit has jumped 250.00 more and keeps increasing daily, obviously I can't adjust this , I'm thinking of cancelling and paying monthly by debit card, I'm not paying them to be able to keep part of my money and earn interest on my money. Any advice

Hi @Edo ,

You might find this guide useful as it details a lot of the support being offered right now. There’s also a bunch of links in that guide which will help you out.

If you’re having trouble keeping up with payments, it’s worth having a chat with OVO to see if they’re able to help. Rather than cancel your DD, you might want to take a look at https://www.ovoenergy.com/payment-support .