Gas And Electric Bill Confusion - Ovo

[barry1010]

I'm with Ovo and they repay the £66-ish monthly help from the government straight in to my current account. I can see it on my bank statements. I know this payment will end soon.

Checking my Ovo bills they total the gas and electricity consumption, add on the VAT and standing charges, take off the interest payment on my credit balance AND the government help payment, last month it was £67.

Surely this means I am getting it twice? I am not brilliant at even simple maths so maybe somebody can tell me how I'm reading it wrong.

[wolf63]

I normally read and understand my fuel bills.

But the last couple confused me completely and I have no idea if I am paying too much or too little.

I gave up!

[gingejbee]

From your post...I think that you are getting the monthly "help" paid directly into your account...but your monthly account details from OVO are simply stating all the figures in the monthly calculation so you know that you have received the £66 or £67.

[chelle7272]

They have to show the transactioon on your bill as they have refunded you £67 each month.
Is there a payment to them on your account prior to the refund?
According to this if you pay by DD they take the payment then refund the govt credit to your account once you payment has cleared.
https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-newsroom/press-releases/2022/september/ovo-customers-receive-ebss

[barry1010]

I am looking at my bill now.

The amount payable is definitely £67 less than the cost of electricity, gas, Vat, standing charge. The total deducts is £73.40 comprising the Energy Bill Supply Scheme and interest payable on credit balance

[chelle7272]

Yes it will show that as those are all the transactions, but what payment came out of your bank to Ovo prior to the £67 discount going in?
Itf correct it will be the amount payable shown on the bill, plus the discount amount, which then gets refunded back to you.

[youngmafbog]

If you look further down there is a block called Payments. In there it has the payments made.

Payments £499.00

Direct Debit 13 Feb £566.00
Refunds 14 Feb -£67.00

It really isnt very clear.

[Etch]

barry1010 - The reduction of your charges by the Energy Bill Support Scheme £67 (as shown in the 'Summary of Charges') is negated by the 'Refund' of £67 (shown under 'Your Balance') so there is no net effect on your bill, but you end up with £67 in your bank account.

[Barsel]

Gas and Electricity bills are the most confusing bills I've ever seen.
I don't understand my own bills and what I read here just confuses me even more.
You need to have a degree in fuelology to work it out.

[bobbinwales]

Suppose you bill would of been £200pm and your DD is £200 pm. Your bill has been reduced by £67 to £133. You payed the full £200 normal DD and received a ban account credit of £133.
So its all straight???
Is that what could a happened?

[barry1010]

My bill doesn't look like that

The payment in amount is exactly the same as my direct debit - £500.

[bobbinwales]

Hopefully my post covers it... although I used a made up DD figure to give a example so it don't match yours exactly.... but the principals the same

[ToraToraTora]

I looked at some sample bills on line. The bill isn't the clearest but believe me you won't be getting it twice.

[youngmafbog]

The problem is their systems wont have been setup for anything like this so thay all have done something slightly different.

What OVO have done is take the amount of £67 from the direct debit you pay every month. As you can see from my post above, this means you then have been paid nothing. If you then look above to the OTHER CHARGES section you will see a negative charge of £67 being applied (i.e. the grant).

Hope that helps Barry,

[youngmafbog]

Ah, I have just gone to look at the download bill rather than the on line one. Ovo have made them different!

On the download bill it shows charges on the left and on the right you can see the refund.

Look at the online one for a more detailed view of how they accounted it.