OVO terms and conditions change from SSE

JR_Basingstoke

Ovo took over my SSE account for Gas & Electricity.  As I understand it all terms and conditions were supposed to remain the same - I certainly haven't agreed to any changes.  OVO wish to charge monthly yet I was on a quarterly bill before and wish to stay that way.  OVO say that can't handle quarterly billing - surely that is their problem and not mine as a change to monthly billing is a change in my T&Cs I have not agreed to.  Correct or not?

mmmmikey

Hi - your T&Cs may allow them to change the billing period/method, i.e. it may not be a change to your T&Cs, they may be exercising a right that the T&Cs give them. You'll need to read your T&Cs carefully to establish that.

On a more practical level....

(a) maybe now is the time to consider if paying quarterly is still a good option for you - you can now save a fair bit by paying monthly instead, whether you pay the full bill each month or a fixed amount

(b) if you are set on wanting quarterly billing it's probably easier to change suppliers to one that offers it rather than argue with Ovo about it.

Hope this helps, Mike.

Dolor

All terms and conditions can be changed. I get an email at least once a week from some organisation or other. The ‘bottomline’ is that if you are happy to continue to accept an energy supply from Ovo, then you have by default accepted their terms and conditions. 

FWiW, I believe that the Licence Conditions for all suppliers should be changed to require them to bill customers monthly. Doing so would reduce the number of posts on this forum by at least 50%.

Gerry1

Dolor said:

FWiW, I believe that the Licence Conditions for all suppliers should be changed to require them to bill customers monthly. Doing so would reduce the number of posts on this forum by at least 50%.

Our energy will be supplied by nuclear fusion long before dozy Ofgem does anything sensible like that.

JR_Basingstoke

Thanks all for the responses - off to look for new suppliers then.

MattMattMattUK

JR_Basingstoke said:

Thanks all for the responses - off to look for new suppliers then.

I am pretty sure that with the end /merging of SSE no suppliers offer quarterly billing anymore. Is there a particular reason you are wedded to quarterly billing?

Privateer

JR_Basingstoke said:

Thanks all for the responses - off to look for new suppliers then.

Sorry for hijacking this thread. Did you find any suppliers better than OVO?

I'm looking for ones with daytime and nighttime rates, preferably 12 hours peek and 12 hours off peek per day and 24 hours off peek on weekends. I have solar PV panels and just had a battery system installed.

MattMattMattUK said:

I am pretty sure that with the end /merging of SSE no suppliers offer quarterly billing anymore. Is there a particular reason you are wedded to quarterly billing?

I also prefer quarterly billing as I have non-smart meters and don't do direct debit, which is very good with OVO's grossly overestimated meter readings. I don't want to read meters every month for billing!

QrizB

Privateer said:

I'm looking for ones with daytime and nighttime rates, preferably 12 hours peek and 12 hours off peek per day and 24 hours off peek on weekends.

Would you also like the moon on a stick?

Unless you're living in a property with a legacy tariff, the usual choices are single-rate or Economy 7.

There were briefly a couple of multiple-rate smart tariffs that had cheaper weekends (Green Energy "Tide" comes to mind as an example) but these ceased to be offered in the autumn of last year. 

Unless you have an electric car and qualify for an EV tariff, most of the alternatives are Octopus's smart tariffs. Octopus Flux might suit you; there's a long thread on it over in the "Green and Ethical" sub-forum:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6425299/new-octopus-tariff-for-solar-and-battery-users-octopus-flux

Privateer said:

I also prefer quarterly billing as I have non-smart meters and don't do direct debit, which is very good with OVO's grossly overestimated meter readings. I don't want to read meters every month for billing!

Without a smart meter, you're going to be out of luck changing from your current style of tariff (single-rate or Economy 7, whichever you have now).

CSI_Yorkshire

Privateer said:

JR_Basingstoke said:

Thanks all for the responses - off to look for new suppliers then.

Sorry for hijacking this thread. Did you find any suppliers better than OVO?

I'm looking for ones with daytime and nighttime rates, preferably 12 hours peek and 12 hours off peek per day and 24 hours off peek on weekends. I have solar PV panels and just had a battery system installed.

MattMattMattUK said:

I am pretty sure that with the end /merging of SSE no suppliers offer quarterly billing anymore. Is there a particular reason you are wedded to quarterly billing?

I also prefer quarterly billing as I have non-smart meters and don't do direct debit, which is very good with OVO's grossly overestimated meter readings. I don't want to read meters every month for billing!

What on earth?

You want twice the amount of off-peak that anyone else has, refuse to read meters and want accurate billing on your own special schedule?

Kudos for ambition.