How can continually overpaying be cheaper? A shocking £3000 in credit.

Robin9

As others have said read those meters ASAP and get up to date bills.   Then you can make progress.

At this time of year you should be building up a good credit ready for the coming Winter -  by August you should expect to be at least 2 months in credit.

Have you got access to his online account ?

PS While looking at utilities -  don't forget Sky/BT (EDIT Sorry just seen you post re this -  did it get resolved ? and the Water (is that metered ?).

Then there's the insurances ...............................................

matelodave

If you really think he's vulnerable then perhaps a closer eye on what is going on could help him.

As said above being old, elderly or even a bit infirm etc doesn't automatically make you vulnerable although it gets trotted out as an excuse for not doing stuff.

Lots of people who aren't really vulnerable but just can,t be bothered, cant understand, don't check their bills, dont check their meters and hope that it will somehow work out on it's own. Those are the people that get ginormous bills or end up with ginormous credits

I spent the morning with a mate who has a computer and a mobile phone and is perfectly capable of using both of them but cant be bothered to open e-mails from anyone who isn't a contact.
He can use whatsapp, instagram  do video calling, play silly games and even re-send heaps of rubbish to other people etc.
His e-mail folder had around unopened 300 mails including many from utility companies asking for readings, sending him bills, reminders etc plus heaps of spam as well but its too much effort to check it and sort it out. Hes not vulnerable, just cant be bothered.

Scot_39

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

According to the account the last readings were taken/given in November 2024 (so not that many months ago) though I presume they are still being estimated in some way.

Seems very suspicious to me to have vulnerable people just continue to pay and pay pay way above the level of what they are actually using.
Then when we dig down into the weeds: 'cheaper' can mean just pennies cheaper
The free money given to the energy company for them to invest elsewhere would have yielded £120-150 within the last 12 months had my dad been able to invest it himself.
Thus 'cheaper by DD' takes on an even more suspicious and scammy edge . . 

Furthermore my dad received a letter just today with the big and bolded text being "A debt could be building up on your energy account'. Which again looks like pure scaremongering scam talk.

Edit - Sorry decided to split my 2 posts rather than answer both yours in one and got out of order

And on current cap SVT TDCV consumption - has been saving £120 versus standard credit - just over 5%.

Its clearly wrong that the credit is now so high - over 10x direct debit level - which sounds too high anyway given the balance - but we dont know how high relative to annual true usage - especially over last winter - given Nov last reading.

You could go full complaint mode - but they might argue over lack of readings etc (I am under T&Cs obliged to send EOn readings monthly if my smart meter stops communicating)

Scot_39

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

  

So I've recently been helping my dad out with his financial affairs, bills etc. and just found out he has been paying a ridiculously high direct debit amount to his energy company (OVO - gas & electric) for a number of years now.

Currently the account states that he is over £3000 in credit, yet the energy company continue to take more and more money out (the current monthly amount is close to £270 a month and just went out of the account again 2 days ago).

Needless to say I need to put a stop to this pronto. So firstly what's the best way to go about this?
(I've just taken the gas and electric readings via camera phone).

Secondly. I guess this was sold as a 'paying a monthly amount by DD is cheaper' kind of scam when first sold to my dad.
But how can giving free money away for someone else to invest be cheaper? I know this has built up every month - but with interest rates being upwards of 5% for a lot of the time in recent times my dad could easily have made £120+ on investing that money over the last year. 
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on changing this tariff or even changing energy companies.

Thanking you all in advance.

1 Submit readings.

2 Get accurate balance statement.

3 Request refund (*)

4 Get - I wouold hope as link below a refund request would trigger in any case - or set yourself an appropriate DD amount (Say annual usage cost/12)

They may do a full recalc if do over phone - but you may need your dad present to authorise they talk to you - recalc a DD and you probably can request refund then another DD recalc - all in one go - but talking to CS can be soul destroying)

But their is also the ability to user request refund apparently via online account

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/how-do-direct-debits-work

Says you can request a refund - see general conditions or link in above to full rules - but only once accurate readings submitted (within 28 days) of request. 

"If all the above apply to your energy account, you can request a refund through the Bills section of your online account. "

Note (*) You can probably expect them to hold on to 1-2 months credit / DD amount - seems normal at this time of year - but once account balance accurate - I'd expect anything over that to be refunded within few weeks (took EOn exacly their time limit last time I requested a few £100 back)

Ildhund

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Currently the account states that he is over £3000 in credit, 

OVO customer here, who's been there and done (most of) that.

You say the account is in credit. Does that mean that you have access to your old man's online account? If you have - and especially if you're named on the account - it all gets a lot easier. There's an awful lot of information in OVO's account pages.

If you're not named on the account, and if you're willing to declare yourself financially liable for the account, call Support with your father beside you and ask them to set that up.

Look at the meter readings pages, where there should be separate history for electricity and gas. This should tell you what actual readings have been taken. OVO issue a statement every month, so for accurate bills, readings should be submitted on the first day of every billing period. Some lucky customers' billing period coincides with the calendar month. Others are stuck with a random mid-month date, being the date the account was opened.

The billing history pages should have records of statements going back a long time, so you can see how the credit built up.
There is also a rudimentary Direct Debit calculator that should match what support agents see initially. It's currently showing the state of the account month by month until 31 March next year, at which point the balance should approach zero. A DD amount can be entered to show what effect changing it would have on the balance. Clicking Continue on that page will open a new page with a recommended DD, which I suspect would be the minimum allowed: £5. There is also an expando labelled How we work out the minimum monthly payment if you're interested.

Once you've established what state the account is in, you can request a refund of most of the credit. If you try to do this online, you'll be frustrated: the wizard will want to retain three months'-worth of DDs and even so won't allow for a refund of more than (I think) £599. Support can authorize higher refunds, but there may be another hurdle at £2000 meaning enhanced permissions are needed to authorize the refund. That can lead to delays. I would suggest asking for a refund of all but a couple of months'-worth of consumption, e.g. the sum of charges for March and April just passed. 

Once the refund has left the account - with any luck within a few days - you could have another look at the DD calculator to see how much Dad should be paying each month.

Last, if your father is of pensionable age, he's eligible to be on the Priority Services Register. This might be helpful even if you don't think he needs it. If you or he call customer service from the number(s) registered on the account profile, the call will be automatically and quickly routed to a UK-based agent specially trained to help.

Once you've got everything sorted out, you could start looking for more favourable tariffs than the one he's on. There are several fixed-rate ones that currently offer significant savings. 

TooOrangeyForCrows

Hi. Thanks for all the responses.

I actually just found this article about this very subject on MSE.
 It certainly is time to quote unquote "Stop the rip-off" which contrary to some opinions here (possibly from planted energy stooges) it most certainly is.

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2024/05/martin-lewis--stop-the-rip-off---get-p100s-credit-back-p100s-fro/

"Energy firms are said to be sitting on over £3 BILLION of our cash, building up this huge reservoir from the two-thirds of homes who pay by monthly Direct Debit

Yet we're about to enter the PERFECT TIME to stop the rip-off and get that money back" 

- - - - - - - - - -

"Too much credit? Get your cash back

Condition 27 of energy suppliers' licences is that they must take reasonable steps to ensure Direct Debit levels are fair, and to explain the level they're set at. So, just to reiterate:

- Make sure the bill is based on an up-to-date (smart) meter reading
- Ensure your Direct Debit is about right

Then call (or do it online if your firm has it) and ask why you're in so much credit – give it a chance to explain. Though the rules state that if too much credit has accumulated and a customer asks for it back, suppliers must refund it – or clearly explain why not. If they don't, you can make a formal complaint, and if it rejects it, escalate it to the Energy Ombudsman for free, which can adjudicate. Below are the big firms' policies…"

- - - - - - - - - -

"Ovo Energy

You can request it if you have more than £5 in credit and give a meter reading".

- - - - - - - - - -

I'll update on how it goes.

QrizB

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Hi. Thanks for all the responses.

No problem. We all agree that you need to submit the meter readings that you have just taken and allow OVO to calculate your father's bill.

TooOrangeyForCrows said:
- Make sure the bill is based on an up-to-date (smart) meter reading
- Ensure your Direct Debit is about right

Submitting meter readings is the first step, as we've all advised.

TooOrangeyForCrows said:
I'll update on how it goes.

Please let us know how you get on.

masonic

"Planted energy stooges"

That's a strange way to refer to knowledgeable people trying to help you free of charge.

cannugec5

I fear that once you submit the readings - have you actually done that yet?- you are going to be disappointed. 

Nothing you have written gives me any faith that the readings in November were ‘actual’ readings rather than estimates. 

The ‘You may be in debt’ message is possibly a poorly worded attempt at them begging for actual readings. 

Last bill in November is 6 months ago. Even if that was an actual read and if the current Direct Debit is spot on, as soon as the new bill is issued that is about £1600 of the ‘credit’ used up. 

As you are unfamiliar with your father’s energy bills have you checked whether you need to submit one or more readings for electricity- ie is he on a single rate or multi rate tariff- such as economy 7 etc? 

Has your father considered he might be better off with Smart Meters so you don’t have to bother submitting readings ? 

debitcardmayhem

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Hi. Thanks for all the responses.
snip…….
 which contrary to some opinions here (possibly from planted energy stooges) it most certainly ……snipped

Hardly going to give people, who try to help, the incentive to consider helping further. Think more before making accusations to cover your frustrations and perhaps consider the good advice you have been given to help you to sort out the real situation.