Thumbs up For OVO Energy!

MentalMinnie

So i switched to OVO on 1st December, paying £76 a month DD, based on last years Kwh consumption. Previously with E.ON, paying £100 a month. Received a statement on Friday, and I'm already in credit by £55! Happy days! To be fair, we had a faulty boiler last year, which could have added to the high useage readings, but still very happy! We live in a 3 bed semi, and we've had a few cold weeks as well, so we've not exactly scrimped on the heating. So far, so good!

MemmaJ

I have just switched to Ovo via moneysupermarket.com, and am really confused having now recieved my 'welcome' E-Mail.

I am currently with British Gas, and pay around £110 a month on their standard Dual Fuel tariff.... Moneysupermarket.com told me I would save around £600 a year by switching to Ovo, so of course I went ahead and started the process (having compared their unit charges with a few others and agreeing that they did seem the cheapest).

My 'welcome' E-Mail, however, states that my Direct Debit will be £344 a month.....?! It explains that they made it 25% higher than expected as I'm joining in winter, but that would still make it around £275 (without the 25% addded on) - which is £165 more per month than I'm currently paying British Gas..!

The only thing I can think of is that it's a mistake, as I've only seen good things about Ovo on these forums, so I plan to phone them today and get to the bottom of it. I have a cooling off period until 2nd Feb, whereby I can cancel with no fee/charge - so if it's not a mistake, that is exactly what I'll be doing!

victor2

MemmaJ wrote: »

I have just switched to Ovo via moneysupermarket.com, and am really confused having now recieved my 'welcome' E-Mail.

I am currently with British Gas, and pay around £110 a month on their standard Dual Fuel tariff.... Moneysupermarket.com told me I would save around £600 a year by switching to Ovo, so of course I went ahead and started the process (having compared their unit charges with a few others and agreeing that they did seem the cheapest).

My 'welcome' E-Mail, however, states that my Direct Debit will be £344 a month.....?! It explains that they made it 25% higher than expected as I'm joining in winter, but that would still make it around £275 (without the 25% addded on) - which is £165 more per month than I'm currently paying British Gas..!

The only thing I can think of is that it's a mistake, as I've only seen good things about Ovo on these forums, so I plan to phone them today and get to the bottom of it. I have a cooling off period until 2nd Feb, whereby I can cancel with no fee/charge - so if it's not a mistake, that is exactly what I'll be doing!

Estimate out the cost yourself based on the last year's actual usage in kWh. Calculate what that usage at OVO's tariff would be and divide by 12 to see what would be a reasonable DD amount. You'll be using a lot less in the summer and there's no justification in loading it because you're joining in winter. The idea of DD payments is to spread the cost evenly over the year. There's been much discussion on here about how companies aim at a particular time for your account to be at zero balance though.

MemmaJ

I THINK I've done it, but have never done this before so would like confirmation that I've done it right, if that's OK..?!

I've just been on my British Gas account online and over the last 6 months I've used 6782 kWh of gas. (I've only been with BG for 6 months, as that's when I moved into this house, so can't get a figure for 12 months). So I've basically overestimated and simply multiplied it by 2, to get a figure for 12 months = 13,564.
Ovo's unit charge for gas is £0.0312 per kWh (excluding VAT), making my 12 month figure 423.20: 444.36 including VAT (which I believe is 5% on utilities, rather than the standard 20%?). This divided by 12 makes my monthly amount £37.03.

My last 6 month usage for electric was 986 kWh. Ovo's unit charge for electric is £0.0876 (excluding VAT). So using the same principle as above, I've worked out that my monthly amount for electric should be £15.12.

This makes a total of £52.15 per month for both utilities.... Kind of a far-cry from £344 per month, wouldn't you say....?

jalexa

MemmaJ wrote: »

(having compared their unit charges with a few others and agreeing that they did seem the cheapest).

Comparing the unit charges (in isolation) is not an accurate (or easy) way of comparing. Neither is quoting monthly payments.

To get an accurate comparison using a comparison website find out your typical annual consumption(s) in kWhrs. If you do not know ask your supplier. If you say the saving was £600 then *either* the comparison was inaccurate *or* you were on an incredibly uncompetitive tariff.

If you are not confident with the accuracy of a comparison try a couple of others. IME TheEnergyShop and uSwitch generally give accurate results.

HappyMJ

MemmaJ wrote: »

I THINK I've done it, but have never done this before so would like confirmation that I've done it right, if that's OK..?!

I've just been on my British Gas account online and over the last 6 months I've used 6782 kWh of gas. (I've only been with BG for 6 months, as that's when I moved into this house, so can't get a figure for 12 months). So I've basically overestimated and simply multiplied it by 2, to get a figure for 12 months = 13,564.
Ovo's unit charge for gas is £0.0312 per kWh (excluding VAT), making my 12 month figure 423.20: 444.36 including VAT (which I believe is 5% on utilities, rather than the standard 20%?). This divided by 12 makes my monthly amount £37.03.

My last 6 month usage for electric was 986 kWh. Ovo's unit charge for electric is £0.0876 (excluding VAT). So using the same principle as above, I've worked out that my monthly amount for electric should be £15.12.

This makes a total of £52.15 per month for both utilities.... Kind of a far-cry from £344 per month, wouldn't you say....?

There is no possible way you can save that much. Your calculation must be wrong. The average best saving is about 20%. On a normal bill of £1,200 that's about £200 per year.

You haven't added standing charges. £189 per year.

jalexa

MemmaJ wrote: »

This makes a total of £52.15 per month for both utilities.... Kind of a far-cry from £344 per month, wouldn't you say....?

Indeed. There is a mistake somewhere. Given the Moneysupermarket projected saving of £600 I suspect you entered annual consumption as a monthly (or quarterly) figure, which was then passed to OVO, who stupidly did not see anything wrong (perhaps they thought you ran a hotel). The OVO tariff (fixed I assume) typically offers a 12% saving over British Gas standard tariff.

To sort this you need to get OVO to set the DD for a more realistic annual consumption. Just explain the mistake.

MemmaJ

Oh yes, forgot about standing charges.
Gas = £0.2192 per day, so £7.14 per 31-day month (including VAT)
Electric = £0.2740 per day, so £8.91 per 31-day month (including VAT).

Added onto previous total = £68.20.

Just to clarify that £344 is what Ovo have calculated my Direct Debit to be, not what I'm paying now. I'm paying roughly £110 a month now to BG, so around £68.20 a month seems a reasonable estimate....?

I just want to make sure I've worked it all out properly before I call them!

HappyMJ

MemmaJ wrote: »

Oh yes, forgot about standing charges.
Gas = £0.2192 per day, so £7.14 per 31-day month (including VAT)
Electric = £0.2740 per day, so £8.91 per 31-day month (including VAT).

Added onto previous total = £68.20.

Just to clarify that £344 is what Ovo have calculated my Direct Debit to be, not what I'm paying now. I'm paying roughly £110 a month now to BG, so around £68.20 a month seems a reasonable estimate....?

I just want to make sure I've worked it all out properly before I call them!

You also need to add the winter premium. £100 sounds closer to what it should be at this time of year. You need to get back onto the comparison website and see why it showed a saving of £600. Your figures may have been entered incorrectly and you may have other cheaper suppliers if you enter the correct figures.

Using your usage figures earlier I get £102 a month on the comparison website with the winter premium.

Using the worst tariffs British Gas and the local electric company paying by cash the saving is £20 a month.

Fairzo

victor2 wrote: »

Estimate out the cost yourself based on the last year's actual usage in kWh. Calculate what that usage at OVO's tariff would be and divide by 12 to see what would be a reasonable DD amount. You'll be using a lot less in the summer and there's no justification in loading it because you're joining in winter. The idea of DD payments is to spread the cost evenly over the year. There's been much discussion on here about how companies aim at a particular time for your account to be at zero balance though.

Ovo does load it for the winter period and it's quite clear from the information that the Company provides on it's website and, if memory serves me correctly, in the Welcome Pack.

MemmaJ

I've just spoke to Ovo on the phone - the very nice lady had literally no idea where the figure of £344 per month came from, and having given her my estimated annual usage, she calculated it to be £68 a month (I'm obviously not as bad at Maths as I thought!).

I've set it to £70 a month just to be on the slightly safer side, so that's a saving of around £40 a month - lovely!