OVO's 3%

teddysmum

I'm looking at new energy suppliers and notice that OVO offer 3% interest on any credit accumulated . What kind of amounts are customers getting ?

System

It depends on your credit balance. Mine is just under £200 which equated to 48p interest last month.

£200 x 3% = £6 / 12 or 50p.

densol_2

I've got OVO - totally brilliant ! The website is the easiest I've ever used - you can easily give meter readings every month and tweak around with your direct debit to change the payment amount. Having so much control over the gas and elec means I'm much more aware of what I am spending. I pay £140 a month at the moment for gas and elec together ( I've a big 5 bed detached) .... When with British Gas I was paying over £200 a month !

teddysmum

Surely it's better to overpay, so you get interest ?

GRM

teddysmum wrote: »

I'm looking at new energy suppliers and notice that OVO offer 3% interest on any credit accumulated . What kind of amounts are customers getting ?

Sep 72p
Aug: 56p
Jul 43p
Jun 60p
May 48p

£2.79 in five months plus the 14p VAT avoided as a result. I only need to stay with Ovo for another 18 years to have earned enough to pay for one month's gas and electric

footyguy

teddysmum wrote: »

I'm looking at new energy suppliers and notice that OVO offer 3% interest on any credit accumulated . What kind of amounts are customers getting ?

3%

That 3p for every £1 in credit

So for £10 credit, thats 30p a year (about 2p a month)

£100 in credit, £3 a year (25p a month)

More than £100 credit? Why???

System

footyguy wrote: »

3%

More than £100 credit? Why???

In my case, I have a very good idea of my annual projected usage. My year starts and finishes in April so I am aiming for a zero balance on my account in April 2015. We have PV Solar which falls off from October onwards at the same time as gas consumption goes up. Yes, I could ask for my credit balance back but I suspect come November I would be hit with a large DD hike. Finally, although the cash return is small, 3% is a better return than I would get from any Bank. That said, if a person has, say, a large credit card bill it might make more sense to claw the balance back from Ovo and pay some of that off. It has to be an individual decision.

footyguy

Hengus wrote: »

In my case, I have a very good idea of my annual projected usage. My year starts and finishes in April so I am aiming for a zero balance on my account in April 2015. We have PV Solar which falls off from October onwards at the same time as gas consumption goes up. Yes, I could ask for my credit balance back but I suspect come November I would be hit with a large DD hike. Finally, although the cash return is small, 3% is a better return than I would get from any Bank. That said, if a person has, say, a large credit card bill it might make more sense to claw the balance back from Ovo and pay some of that off. It has to be an individual decision.

My figures are based on an average, year long credit.

Yes you may have more than £100 in say September, but as you say, you plan to have a zero balance in April, so:

3% of zero = zero (for April)

System

footyguy wrote: »

3% of zero = zero (for April)

Put it down to old age, but I am not sure that I understand your point. The Ovo offer, in cash terms, is a case of increasing credits as the balance builds up and falling credits per month as the balance diminishes. Nothing more and nothing less. Yes, I could take back the £200 credit that I have with Ovo and put it in a savings account at 1.5% for 6 months and gain £1.50 in interest - which would then be taxed - giving a real return of £1.20. Leaving the balance as is gives me a fair chance of keeping my DD payments the same each month and making a chunk of the £1.20 that I may be losing out on. For me, this is a 'win-win' situation - it may be different for others.

footyguy

Hengus wrote: »

Put it down to old age, but I am not sure that I understand your point. The Ovo offer, in cash terms, is a case of increasing credits as the balance builds up and falling credits per month as the balance diminishes. Nothing more and nothing less. Yes, I could take back the £200 credit that I have with Ovo and put it in a savings account at 1.5% for 6 months and gain £1.50 in interest - which would then be taxed - giving a real return of £1.20. Leaving the balance as is gives me a fair chance of keeping my DD payments the same each month and making a chunk of the £1.20 that I may be losing out on. For me, this is a 'win-win' situation - it may be different for others.

As long as you plan to have a zero balance at some point in the year, then I suggest you leave things as they are.

However, for the month you have zero balance, you will earn zero cashback.

For anyone that plans to have, on average, over £100 credit for the entire year, I suggest they withdraw such excess credit and place it in a TSB account where it can earn 5% per year.

The terms of the OVO energy account do not allow it to be used as a savings account.

As for win-win? Consult a comparison site. I reckon you can save a lot more than any 'interest' you might receive by going elsewhere

teddysmum

I was thinking of joining OVO, but today did some calculations, using the same figures which showed them favourably, a few weeks back. I was surprised to see that they now compare with the big companies and are more expensive than some of them.


However, some companies include incentives (eg for paperless billing) in the rates quoted, while others add them as a bonus, but I'm very unsure of the case with OVO as they say my gas consumption is high (it's average) and quote me a massive £15000+ per annum. I am not mistakenly putting figures in wrong boxes or quoting annual figures, monthly, and OVO is the only site which gives a quotation wildly different from my calculations.


The unprofessional language used on the site is rather off-putting, too. eg' What do you want ?'