Ovo Direct Debit Review

Jaxer

We've had an email from Ovo notifying of an increase in the monthly DD from just under £100 to nearly £175/mth.

I've looked at the account and there was a credit balance of nearly £400 in Dec 2011 which was whittled down to a small debit balance as of July's statement (taking into account the current monthly DD). It looks like they've estimated bills for 4 of the last 6 months and these have "eaten" into the credit amount faster than the actual usage. In March there was a debit balance of around £200 which has now been reduced to about £30 (debit) as the last couple of the months have been much lighter bills.

I've spoken to their accounts department and they say that there should be a "Summer surplus" on the account to meet the higher Winter bills. They've said they'll either increase the DD as notified, or if we clear the small debit balance and make one additional months (normal) DD ahead of time to bring the account into surplus, they'll reduce the increase to around £125/mth. Looking at the usage, I think the surplus would build up again anyway over the next few months based on actual readings. The reason it's gone into a debit balance is the higher estimated bills earlier in the year (which is down to me not getting round to putting in online readings).

Is it necessary for the account to be in clear surplus as they've said, or can we say that we want to maintain the current payment and review it in 3 months?

jalexa

Jaxer wrote: »

The reason it's gone into a debit balance is the higher estimated bills earlier in the year (which is down to me not getting round to putting in online readings).

I think (probably) you have answered your own question.

I would not put much weight on adviser explanation, however the official OVO explanation is commendably comprehensive.

http://www.ovoenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Understanding_the_link_between_your_Direct_Debit_and_energy_consumption.pdf

You need to test your treatment against the procedure, not the adviser comment.

elektra

I have been with OVO a year and just had DD review..

Our calculations show your Direct Debit payments won’t cover the amount of energy we expect you to use. Rather than letting your account fall into debt, we recommend increasing your Direct Debit.

Your balance is: £63.43 CR
The cost of the energy we've forecasted you'll use for the next year, is: £515.63
As your current Direct Debit amount is: £38.00
We believe, in a years time, your account balance will be: £3.80 CR
We therefore recommend increasing your Direct Debit to: £47.00

If I am going to be in credit in a years time then why increase DD ?
Even if I didn't have initial credit balance the forecast total divided by 12 is £43.

I think OVO operated a month in advance DD so that partly explains my current credit balance.

It is irelevant anyway as the computer obviously not yet registered the fact that I am switching away.

MABLE

Well we joined OVO for just one year fix. I found after about 2 months they had suggested raising the dd by £5. After the Winter period was up we were more than £400 in credit.

However with Ovo it was good because I received 3% interest of credit balances.

So to sum up I tried them but did not like them enough to stay with them.

YoYoY

elektra wrote: »

I have been with OVO a year and just had DD review..

Our calculations show your Direct Debit payments won’t cover the amount of energy we expect you to use. Rather than letting your account fall into debt, we recommend increasing your Direct Debit.

Your balance is: £63.43 CR
The cost of the energy we've forecasted you'll use for the next year, is: £515.63
As your current Direct Debit amount is: £38.00
We believe, in a years time, your account balance will be: £3.80 CR
We therefore recommend increasing your Direct Debit to: £47.00

If I am going to be in credit in a years time then why increase DD ?
Even if I didn't have initial credit balance the forecast total divided by 12 is £43.

I think OVO operated a month in advance DD so that partly explains my current credit balance.

It is irelevant anyway as the computer obviously not yet registered the fact that I am switching away.

Because, as explained in the link already posted, Ovo don't like customers to go into debt which you are likely to do over the higher consumption winter period unless they raise the DD as proposed (save for the fact that you may switch away shortly)

elektra

YoYoY wrote: »

Because, as explained in the link already posted, Ovo don't like customers to go into debt which you are likely to do over the higher consumption winter period unless they raise the DD as proposed (save for the fact that you may switch away shortly)

Yes I was aware that was their intention, however I was unlikely to go into debit as

a) already over a month in credit and billed monthly
b) this is electric bill so winter variance not so great as it is with gas

So I still think the DD increase was too much. It was never in debt over last year.

The email just reads daft - 'this time next year you will be in credit so we are upping your DD by £9 a month'. Maybe they should make mention of how much credit they would like you to be in going into the winter period.