Ovo Energy Reviews: Give your feedback

victor2

I switched away from OVO last May for a cheaper deal with another supplier. No problem with final bill or a refund of my small credit balance - got that automatically within about a week of the final bill. After that I cancelled the DD instruction with my bank just to be safe.
Maybe I was lucky, or others have been unlucky. But when my current deal ends, I'll seriously consider going back to OVO if they have a good offer available.

grannieval

I have just tried to change to OVO - they say that as I have a day/night meter I will have to be charged at day/night charges - expensive for me as I have gas central heating. Every other supplier I have been with combined the usage and charged me at normal rates. They say I could pay over £50 to change meter - hardly a good idea when trying to save money. There must be lots of people who have bought houses built with these day/night meters - as they were all the rage once. Now with central heating they are not needed and I object to OVO making extra money from me in this way. Will continue my search for a better supplier. I am amazed Which magazine recommended them!

curly1975

I have been with OVO for two years now. I sold my house and the final bill and refund was sorted and back in my bank within a week.

When you ring OVO it is fairly easy to get to speak to someone. I will definitely be using OVO again when I move into my new property. 10/10 for me.

marykef

I switched to Ovo a couple of days ago. The 'welcome' email they sent was full of mistakes: the link to their site had an extra '.' on the end so it didn't work, the instructions for setting a password were incorrect, tho it wasn't difficult to see what data one needed to enter but then I hit an 'internal error' message. I emailed them and they asked me to call them back. The next day I tried again to log in and managed it only to find that my '14-day cooling off period was up' despite only making the switch a on Nov 16. I can't trust these people with my energy supply!

soosiemm

grannieval wrote: »

I have just tried to change to OVO - they say that as I have a day/night meter I will have to be charged at day/night charges - expensive for me as I have gas central heating. Every other supplier I have been with combined the usage and charged me at normal rates. They say I could pay over £50 to change meter - hardly a good idea when trying to save money. There must be lots of people who have bought houses built with these day/night meters - as they were all the rage once. Now with central heating they are not needed and I object to OVO making extra money from me in this way. Will continue my search for a better supplier. I am amazed Which magazine recommended them!

Grannieval
I think you'll find that your day and night meter is for electricity and not gas. This is very cost effective if you delay your washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher to come on in the the middle of the night. And of course anything else left on over night, such as your fridge and freezer will run on the cheaper rate. This is why many new appliances have a delay function so that you can delay the start until 12.30am in winter or 1.30am for BST. If you use a comparison site you will need to estimate how much electricity you might use during the night or use the default norm which I think is 30%.

victor2

soosiemm wrote: »

Grannieval
I think you'll find that your day and night meter is for electricity and not gas. This is very cost effective if you delay your washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher to come on in the the middle of the night. And of course anything else left on over night, such as your fridge and freezer will run on the cheaper rate. This is why many new appliances have a delay function so that you can delay the start until 12.30am in winter or 1.30am for BST. If you use a comparison site you will need to estimate how much electricity you might use during the night or use the default norm which I think is 30%.

Not quite right there. Grannieval was talking about the electric meter, and while it's not impossible to benefit from Economy 7 electricity when you have gas central heating, it's more difficult.
It is not the "default norm" to use 30% of your electricity at night, it's more like what you should be aiming for to benefit financially from Economy 7. With an E7 meter you can tell how much electricity you are currently using at the cheaper rate by comparing both sets of readings shown on your bills, even if you are on a single rate tariff where they combine the usage figures.
Not all suppliers will combine the two readings for a single rate - it's extra work to establish who will, or who will change your E7 meter to a single rate one for free.

soosiemm

My fixed rate ends in December and one month before, Ovo emailed with a new fixed rate offer at a good price. There was no mention of reverting to any sort of 'standard rate tariff' if I didn't do anything.

The new offer is called Better Energy- 2 Rate plan but there is no reference to this on the MSE Cheap Energy Club site or the Which? comparison site. However the rates offered me were better than the cheapest Ovo fixed plan listed on my MSE Cheap Energy comparisons list so I decided to sign up - and no exit fees this time. Ovo's billing system works unlike my previous supplier Scottish Power and I've decided to stay due to the largely positive feedback and absence of hassle as far as I'm concerned. Their in-credit interest rate is also better than almost any bank savings rates or ISA's so it pays to be in credit if you've got spare cash. Their business model is probably predicated on many customers being in credit and they therefore benefit from improved cash flow and perhaps fewer bad debts to manage. Sounds sensible to me if it means they can offer both low tariffs and good service.

System

When I switched to Ovo in June, I was aware that Ovo had abolished exit fees but it had replaced them with some carefully crafted words in their ts and cs about tariff hopping. The 'bottom line' is that customers can switch Ovo fixed tariffs but will lose the online discount (£30 per fuel).

Having now received a number of MSE CEC e-mails pointing out that I can save £82 on a £720 pa spend, I thought that I would check in again with Ovo. I got a standard response about energy being paid for in advance etc. I like the Ovo offer but I am afraid that they will now lose my custom to two other competitors with an annual saving to me in excess of £100. If I stay away for at least three months, I can return to Ovo on a new tariff and collect £30 Cashback with another £30 going to MSE CEC. I struggle to understand how Ovo's policy on customers switching tariffs makes any financial/business sense - but then, I am not an energy supplier.

Robin9

I gave OVO my closing readings and received my credit 2 days later.

A customer of OVO for a couple of properties - all has gone as it should do. I recommend them.

victor2

Hengus wrote: »

When I switched to Ovo in June, I was aware that Ovo had abolished exit fees but it had replaced them with some carefully crafted words in their ts and cs about tariff hopping. The 'bottom line' is that customers can switch Ovo fixed tariffs but will lose the online discount (£30 per fuel).

Having now received a number of MSE CEC e-mails pointing out that I can save £82 on a £720 pa spend, I thought that I would check in again with Ovo. I got a standard response about energy being paid for in advance etc. I like the Ovo offer but I am afraid that they will now lose my custom to two other competitors with an annual saving to me in excess of £100. If I stay away for at least three months, I can return to Ovo on a new tariff and collect £30 Cashback with another £30 going to MSE CEC. I struggle to understand how Ovo's policy on customers switching tariffs makes any financial/business sense - but then, I am not an energy supplier.

I left OVO last May for a better 1 year fix with EDF. Had adjusted my DD down so that I only had abot £30 credit with them when I left, and I got that back very promptly. Leaving a company taking payments up front to one that doesn't effectively gave me a one month holiday on my payments, and I got cashback through Quidco for switching. Now OVO have no exit penalty I could switch back to a slightly cheaper tariff, but would experience the reverse effect in my monthly payments. But if I can get cashback again for switching, that will help offset it. I too can't understand OVO not allowing existing customers to switch tariffs penalty free. I'm pretty happy where I am and even though OVO will be slightly cheaper in monthly costs, it really isn't worth the trouble to go back.
I even maximised my 3% interest on credit balances by making sure I gave readings through their statements on demand option immediately after my DD had hit the account. But still 1/12 of 3% of the balance was rarely over £1 a month.