Longish post.......bear with me!! So we moved into a new house (4 bedroom detached bungalow, double garage, built in 2012 and pretty energy efficient with a Smart meter) in January this year. The energy was supplied by Ovo Energy (elec and gas) so rather than faff around changing providers we looked at what they had on offer. We signed up moving from a variable rate to their 2 year 'Fix & Protect' fixed rate which going by reviews on various websites was a decent deal. Part of the condition of the fixed rate contract is you must pay by direct debit every month. Fair enough.
Taking into consideration the removal of the price cap in April, we were able to set our own direct debit figure and set it at £200 which should easily cover us for the next six months or so, looking at our daily and monthly usage to date, this was confirmed. Then a few days ago, Ovo emailed us to say they had done a direct debit review and recommended we increase it to £236 a month. Apparently these direct debit reviews are normal procedure and are conducted every quarter. We discussed it between us my partner and I and we decided that the £200 a month would be more than enough to cover us for the projected usage over the next 6 months until around October ish time so we didn't increase the DD. Come September/October, naturally we will expect our usage to increase as it gets colder again after the summer which again is fair enough and we would then increase the monthly direct debit accordingly.
Now........yesterday we received an email from Ovo saying basically since we hadn't
voluntarily increased our DD monthly payments, they had done it anyway and we are now paying £236 per month. *Point to note - within that initial email there was no mention of this increase being optional or mandatory. You can, via the Ovo user account portal adjust your direct debit amount - but only 'up', you can't reduce it past the 'recommended' level that
they set it at. So like it or not, despite Ovo's own usage forecast illustrating that £200 per month is more than enough to cover our energy usage, we are now paying an extra £36 per month over an already reasonable £200 per month whether we like it or not.
This is what gets my goat.......I totally 'get' the rationale behind ensuring your DD is adequate enough to cover your usage so you don't dip below the line into debit and you end up building up a surplus in credit which will cover your usage come the colder months. I get that. However,
I want to be in control of my spending without paying too little, which by setting the DD at £200 we were already doing. What's going to happen now is that we are going to end up in considerable credit come October time which is fair enough but from now until then we are paying an excess as a monthly outgoing that we don't need to be paying and come October I'd be more than happy to have then increased my DD to cover the winter fuel cost from October onwards. As a result, Ovo Energy pocket the extra amount of my money from a direct debit payment which is too expensive, backed up and confirmed by their own usage data predictions no less. This irks me somewhat. They also made it clear that in another 3 months they will review the DD again and it may increase once more. This would be around July time, obviously over the summer we will be very, very likely to be using even less energy due to ambient outside temps.
To illustrate, I had a play around with their own online usage direct debit calculator and got the following figures:-
Cost figures -
With our direct debit set at £200 per month These illustrate the monthly cost of our monthly energy usage and vary between £110-£134 up until September (Quite why they predict a slight spike in May to £165 I have no idea). So the £200 per month easily covers this and then some.
Cost figures -
With our direct debit set at £236 per month The monthly cost of our monthly energy usage obviously remains the same with the black line indicating the monthly DD payment rising higher as you can see.
Credit figures - This bar chart shows the predicted amount of cash our account will be in credit if we are paying
£200 per month DD. Come September we will be
£210 in credit. Which again is fair enough and ensures going into the Autumn/Winter months we have a surplus to draw upon whilst at the same time increasing our DD as required.
Credit figures - By the same token, the bar chart below shows the predicted amount of cash our account will be in credit by if we are paying
£236 per month DD. Come September we will be in credit to the tune of just under
£400.
So yes - as I said whilst I understand their rationale regards the increase, its not needed until it starts getting colder after the Summer months pass. I should be given the choice to increase my direct debit payments at that point, they in my opinion should not be able to force me to increase the DD payments right now just as we are on the cusp of shorts, t-shirts and flip flops weather!!!
I know a lot of folk are concerned about their energy bills and their ability to pay and I absolutely, utterly sympathise with them, however my partner and I are on a very decent joint income and we are more than able to cope with the increases that may be (more likely
will be) required - but at the
appropriate time. No one likes their bills to increase, myself included but I just feel Ovo Energy are forcing people to pay more than they need to in the short term and removing any choices from them irrespective of our ability to ourselves increase payments further down the line.
Unfortunately it seems like there's nothing I can do about the monthly increase they have made. Like I say, I get 'why' its done and I can stomach the £36 increase this time around, however if our usage drops even more (which it absolutely will in the warmer months) but 3 months from now they
increase the monthly DD amount again then I'll be taking my energy custom elsewhere.
, my unscientific observation is I see hundreds of larger than necessary vehicles every day belching pollution, rarely i see wood burner smoke.
