E.on vs Ovo

Qasim99

I`ve just moved into to my first home so deciding whether to stick with current supplier or move to a new one.

Sainsbury's Energy are providing the property at the moment £98 for both gas and electric standard rate. I've seen two deals I like but would like some advice to which is the best company to deal with or should I stay with Sainsbury's and see what they can do.

E.on Go online 1 year v9 £79.11pm
OVO better energy all online 1 year fix £79.93pm

System

I suggest that you thread search E.oN feedback and Ovo feedback.

House_Martin

Have you included the switching cashback from MSE cheap energy club ? Eon s is £30. That swung it with me in January when I switched to them.
I ve been with Eon a few times and never had any bother at all.Very reliable supplier.Their latest V8 is coming up in my area as the cheapest of the big six and not far off the cheapest if the dual fuel cashback is included.

orangesnaps

I personally would not go for E.on, we switched to them from Sainsbury's energy (no problems at all with them and was even in credit and received refund with interest after we ended our account with them) we switched to E.on due to the cashback and lower rates and it's terrible. They gave us a very conservative monthly direct debit amount only to jacked it up from £55-172 as we weren't able to build credit during the winter months so our account went into debit when our quarterly bill got generated. Even after clearing the debit, they would then be charging far more for our usage.
I've already set the date on when we could switch elsewhere without paying any exit fees.

pearl123

When i was with ovo I found them to be very good and if they have favorable prices again i would go back to them.

System

orangesnaps wrote: »

I personally would not go for E.on, we switched to them from Sainsbury's energy (no problems at all with them and was even in credit and received refund with interest after we ended our account with them) we switched to E.on due to the cashback and lower rates and it's terrible. They gave us a very conservative monthly direct debit amount only to jacked it up from £55-172 as we weren't able to build credit during the winter months so our account went into debit when our quarterly bill got generated. Even after clearing the debit, they would then be charging far more for our usage.
I've already set the date on when we could switch elsewhere without paying any exit fees.

As a general point, and I have no wish to cause offence, consumers (myself included) can get worked up about DD payments which, in the greater scheme of things, are just an amount of cash paid on account. There is no question of any supplier 'charging far more for our usage": all suppliers are required to raise charges based on usage and the agreed tariff rate. These charges are deducted from the amount of credit that has accrued from your DD payments, or added to any debit balance.

The 'problem' then is the setting of the monthly DD amount which has become more complicated since Ofgem leant on suppliers to avoid customer debt. Some of the smaller suppliers require a payment in advance of supply; some hike up the DD payment over the Winter months, and others are happy to set up a DD payment based on 1/12 of the projected estimated annual amount (reviewed after 6 months).

The one thing that consumers can do to reduce DD swings requires nothing more than a monthly meter reading. These readings are used to update the annual projected consumption which is used by the supplier when carrying out a DD review.

celtic_charmer

I have just switched back to Ovo after moving away to another supplier who was slightly cheaper for the last 12 months (fixed price contract). The other supplier may have been cheaper but the cost of phone calls and the hassle and stress just wasn't worth the savings. Moved back to OVO for a better price and CONSIDERABLY better customer service.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

orangesnaps wrote: »

I personally would not go for E.on, we switched to them from Sainsbury's energy (no problems at all with them and was even in credit and received refund with interest after we ended our account with them) we switched to E.on due to the cashback and lower rates and it's terrible. They gave us a very conservative monthly direct debit amount only to jacked it up from £55-172 as we weren't able to build credit during the winter months so our account went into debit when our quarterly bill got generated. Even after clearing the debit, they would then be charging far more for our usage.
I've already set the date on when we could switch elsewhere without paying any exit fees.

Hello orangesnaps and I'm sorry you're unhappy with the way we've looked after your account.

Hengus gives some great advice. Thanks Hengus. We look to spread payments as evenly as possible over a full 12 months. The aim is for accounts to have as close as possible to a zero balance by the annual review.

Amounts are based on current prices and past usage. A change to either will trigger a request to alter the payments. Monthly amounts also take into consideration any credit or debit on the account. If there's no outstanding balance, our assessment will be based on how much energy has been used over the past 12 months and calculated using your prices. As Hengus says, the more readings we have, the greater the accuracy of the monthly amount.

If you're on a Fixed Price deal, we guarantee the unit prices per kWh and daily standing charges will stay the same for the duration of the contract. With these products, it's usually changes to usage that lead to requests to alter the monthly payments.

When customers switch to us, we base our initial quotes on the information we're given at the time. If it turns out that different amounts of energy are used than originally advised, we'll ask to change the monthly amount as above. This is to prevent too much credit/debit building up and to keep the account on track for the zero balance I mentioned.

To help customers keep on top of their payments and to make sure they're covering what they're using, we've an online tool called the Direct Debit Manager. This also comes in handy should circumstances change.

Provided customers have registered with our website, they can use this tool change their monthly payments. If the account is billed up to the latest meter readings, payments can be changed by up to 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without readings. Before confirming the new amount, we advise by how much we think the account will be in credit/debit by the annual review if the payments are altered but usage doesn't change as expected. There's more about this on our website.

I'm sorry if we've not explained these arrangements adequately before orangesnaps and hope this helps fill the gaps.

Malc

Nick_C

One good thing about Ovo is they give you (the equivalent of) 3% "interest" on any credit balance.

buzzard

I switched away from Ovo after they refused to bill me for months (although I had just switched from a different tariff with them, not switched supplier), denied I had sent all the readings ( I produced their own email to confirm) and it got worse after that. They eventually had to pay compensation on top of waiving my switching fees.

Ovo are currently being investigated by Ofgem and although I have asked if I can supply my experience I have yet to receive a reply.

Currently with Avro - cheaper and while their website is less user friendly the failure to bill initially was resolved after one quick phone call.