Daft question - Ovo DD

Altior

Yes I clicked the refund button before I switched, and the software stated I had to be 3 x DD or more in credit. The next DD would have taken me over that, but since I switched it will no longer allow refunds or a decrease of the DD payment.

The software did allow the change of DD date, so that is a short term mitigation before I speak to support.

As it happens I recently had a new combi boiler installed, so I'm hoping for some efficiency savings in the first year of the E On contract.

Quite the saga for something that should nominally be reasonably straight forward!

Ildhund

@QrizB wrote:

With most energy suppliers, when you cancel your DD they will no longer refund to that bank account via bank transfer. Something to do with not being able to verify that the account still exists, I think.

GDPR strikes again, I read somewhere. If the DD is cancelled, the supplier has to expunge details of the soon-to-be-ex-customer's bank account from its records, so they can't legally remit funds to the account unless they acquire those details from the customer again. It's easier - but possibly longer-winded - just to send a cheque.

The solution (too late for @Altior, sadly) is to take the maximum refund allowed by the supplier before starting a switch. With OVO, that involves a begging trip to customer service over the phone, because the automated refund system insists on leaving three months' DD in the account after the refund. To be really miserly, on the day the last regular DD was paid and after it's been credited to the account, reduce the DD amount using the online tool to the minimum allowed. The account will show the highest balance at that point, so the DD calculator will fall to reflect this balance. Then ask for the maximum refund. The online tool will now insist on leaving three times the new lower DD, but CS can refund any amount over one DD + a £25 buffer. Then change the DD date to after the expected switch date if possible. BTDT.

OVO won't allow a manual reduction in the DD (via the online tool) below its 'recommendation'. With a big enough credit balance, this could be as low as £5 - the minimum they will countenance.

{ETA}
@Altior It's not a daft question at all 🙂

WiserMiser

Note that Ovo say it's fine to cancel a DD.

"When your final bill is ready, you’ll be able to see your final balance too. If it’s positive, you can go ahead and cancel your Direct Direct."

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/how-to-pay

However, if your Royal Mail service is anything like mine, it'll take two weeks for the cheque to be delivered !

Instead, I'd start by calling to ask for an immediate refund of most of my existing credit. Also set the DD to a very low value.

As above, probably better not to cancel the DD, but if you do it's very unlikely that they'll instantly flag a cancelled DD to a CRA. I've cancelled DDs in the past when switching and never had that problem.

You may be able to ask your new supplier to bill by Monthly Variable DD which should reduce and/or defer the first payment. That shouldn't change the relevant rates, you'll still be on the same tariff. If you don't like staying on MVDD because of the higher bills in winter you can change back to equal DDs when everything has settled down.

Please come back and tell us what happened !

Altior

Great info, many thanks.

How things change, I'm pretty sure I was with Ovo several years ago, and they paid interest on positive balances that was higher than HS banks. So I was trying to get more money in back then!

I have quite a unique set of circumstances where I have a particular financial squeeze next month, then will be back to normal in September.

MVDD is definitely a consideration though. The E-On DD is only 5% more than the Ovo one, and as I write, I have a new boiler which should hopefully reduce gas consumption over a typical winter compared to the original boiler.

Swipe

Be aware that a cheque can take ages to be posted out, expecially now second class post is every other working day and no deliveries on Saturdays. They will also avoid any compensation by saying the cheque was processed within the 14 day window but then it sits in their post room for an extra week or so waiting to be put in an envelope, franked and sent to the Royal Mail depot.

Ildhund

@Altior Just a couple of observations:

The E-On DD is only 5% more than the Ovo one,

Don't take their (or indeed a comparison site's) word about the Direct Debit you can expect. Use the rates they're offering (including VAT - be sure to check) to calculate your annual cost, using the quantities you've actually used over the past year. Add 1/12 for safety, then divide by 12 to find the average monthly cost for comparison purposes. If your consumption falls in the future, OVO will adjust the DD downwards.

… several years ago, [OVO] paid interest on positive balances that was higher than HS banks.

Yep, I made around £50 a year in those halcyon days. If you've looked around this forum, you'll have seen some discussion about VAT in anticipation of its removal from electricity accounts in October. OVO haven't always got it right, and their 'interest reward' was a good example. They forgot about the VAT, so the effective rate paid was 5.25% at a time when banks were giving no interest at all on current accounts and 1-2% on savings.

luci

Remember to take photos of your meters when you submit your readings. That will help if there is any dispute about them.

Altior

Ovo account holders don't need an active DD if they are switching away. As one would imagine, if you owe them money after the final bill, they'll still ask for an extra payment online. Apparently a credit closing balance will be refunded to the bank account, even if the DD is no longer in place. Possibly as Ovo uses GoCardless for DD's. I'm familiar with GC and that is plausible, but as I mentioned I'm fine with a cheque anyway so I have gone ahead and deleted the DD.

Thanks for all the input on my query, I am fairly hopeful of a smooth outcome!

Altior

The saga moves forward.

Email received today from Eon that the new account will indeed be charged from 3rd Aug. They requested reads today, stating that if I can't submit them today, it can be any time 5 days either side of the start date.

It had completely escaped my consciousness, turns out I had an account with Eon back in 2024, and upon setting up my account, it still had the final reads against my meters from 2024! So the system will not accept them online due to the variance (asks me to contact them), the app says it's too early to submit reads!

Of course, contacting these companies now is a minefield, it was some kind of 'virtual assistant'. 'She' accepted my verbally submitted reads without an issue, hopefully it will be updated online and in the app.

I suspect the potential DD issue has now been circumvented, which was the critical issue.

Altior

Updating as I was asked to.

Eon Next messaged yesterday to say they were supplying my energy as of yesterday, but still needed opening reads. Even though I had already submitted these via the app and the phone!

Logged in online and it said they were still setting up my new account, and it's currently not possible to submit meter reads.

Went into Ovo, where I also could not submit closing reads as the account was closing! Ovo emailed me earlier, just after initiating the switch, asking me for reads then, and the 2nd August. But upon logging in on 2nd August, it wouldn't take any further meter reading as I was moving away from them!

Fortunately, I then went into the Eon Next app, which would accept new reads.

These automated systems are so daft sometimes, asking you to do things that it should already know they have made impossible. But I have photos of reads from the 2nd, 3rd, and a closing credit balance with Ovo.