OVO wants more money each month - but I get a useful refund as well

I suppose that OVO must be one of the better energy companies, but even so they are proving difficult to get on with. They have just conducted a direct debit review, and have emailed me to say that in their opinion my monthly energy payment to them needs to increase by £28, from £186 to £214. This is their forward calculation for the next twelve months, based on the smart meter readings for electricity and gas (which seem spot on - no dispute there):

Estimated energy costs: £2,567

My monthly payments, with no increase: £2,232

Shortfall: £335

That looks reasonable, except that they are ignoring my current credit balance, £844.65, which would amply cover that shortfall - and probably maintain me in credit for the foreseeable future, especially if energy prices gradually drift downwards somewhat. At any rate, if you take that ongoing credit balance into account, there is presently no need whatever to increase my monthly payments. 

And I dare say that if I managed to get through to someone at OVO, they would agree. And that might win me a reprieve - until the next automatic direct debit review in three months' time! Then I'd have to go through the same hassle. 

OVO's payment model is very basic, and simply matches current payments with projected future charges, aiming to end up with a nil account balance twelve months ahead, reviewed and adjusted as we go along. That means pitching payments so that one builds up credit in the summer, but uses it up in the winter. Averaging-out costs like that is fine. But there's no room in such a model for building up an extra-large credit balance, and then using the excess to keep ongoing monthly payments lower than normal. If I stay with OVO, I'll have to go along with their way of doing things. 

They are very polite. At this point, they have only invited me to increase my monthly direct debit to cover that £335 shortfall. But they warn me that they will enforce an increase if I take no action, albeit with ten days' notice. I could sit tight and see what they really do. Maybe the upcoming January Energy Charges Statement will change the forward cost projection in my favour. It might. But I don't think it will. The worst of the winter must still lie ahead, with the likelihood of even higher consumption of gas for heating in the next three months. That will increase forward costs, and inevitably lead to a request for more than £214 per month. So I'll comply now, and earn some brownie points. It may be sound policy to be a 'good payer', so that I'm never considered for dire measures. 

But if OVO are going to get more from me for the next three months, and maybe beyond, then I want some of my credit balance refunded. They have a mechanism for this on their website. They won't give me all the credit balance back at once - they want to keep enough credit in hand  to cover the rest of my winter energy consumption - so I can't have the entire £844.65. But they will give me £285.65. That reduces my credit balance to only £559. That's OK. To be £559 ahead in mid-January seems about right. 

I've applied for that £285.65 refund, and OVO's immediate response tells me that this money will reach my bank account within ten days. It'll be useful to have. It is after all equivalent to ten monthly payments of £28, and if I save it, I won't notice the coming hike in my direct debit for nearly a year.

SEQUEL 1

Thursday 12th January: This surely can't be a coincidence. A man has come to read my gas meter. I'm guessing that when an overpayment refund is requested - an unusual event nowadays, I'd say - OVO's practice is to send someone to check the meter, even if it is a smart meter. Well, meters can be tampered with, and no doubt dishonest customers have contrived refunds in the past. Or perhaps it was just to ring my doorbell to assess whether the general situation looked pukka: that I was a genuine householder, actually resident at my given address. 

Anyway, I'll now have to wait until that man makes his report before the refund is released. 

Friday 13th January: Aha! An email from OVO promising the refund in four working days. It looks as if I passed the suspected security test!

SEQUEL 2

Monday 16th January: My bank account shows a credit of £285.65. As promised. Well, I now feel a little happier with OVO. 

But I still don't like their setting the level of the monthly direct debit without taking into account any accumulated credit balance over and above what is necessary. So I'll see whether I can get a further refund out of them.