Huge OVO Debt

[Shilo5]

Really ashamed to say that I have large arrears for gas and electric to Ovo.

 

Theyve been ringing and emailing me every day for the last week and I am ringing them in the next few hours to discuss a payment plan.

 

Its no excuse but I have struggled with a lot of different circumstances over the last 5 years when my husband who handled all the finances left.  We had a lot of things going on and I was also pregnant.  

 

Since then several of our children have needed alot of appointments, referrals as 4 out of 5 have been diagnosed autistic.

 

3 of them have been unable to attend school due to the school not meeting needs and I have been up to my ears with ehcp paperwork aswell as having several home fulltime.

 

ovo are now wanting me to ring to discuss a payment plan, threatening with passing on data to credit reference agencies and disconnecting the supply.  
 

I am offering £250 a month to cover arrears and useage.  They are saying they need a direct debit.

 

 I explained in the past that this was doubled without prior agreement but they have said this won’t happen again.

 

 What’s the best way to handle this? 

[Andyorch]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

No need to be ashamed...there will be millions in the same boat come this time next year.

 

How have the arrears come about and how old are they ?  pre cap or post cap ?  ?  Is OVO your current supplier ? Do you not already have a direct debit with them ?

 

Andy

[Shilo5]

Hi Andy 

 

Thanks so much for the welcome and the reassurance.

 

I have barely made any payments to them in this time so the debt has mounted.  

 

I’m at a place now to focus more on this and if I need to set up a direct debit I will if they keep their word to not increase above what I can afford.  
 

What does pre and post cap mean?

 

I will ask them what plan we are on aswell and yes it’s still supplied by Ovo.  

 

Current useage around £150 a month so the £250 would cover around £100 of the arrears.  I know this will change come October though . I will increase payments if I’m able to.  

 

I’ve looked into the grant to clear debt but it’s now stopped from what I can see….

[Andyorch]

Pre and post cap refers to when they doubled their price for energy...so did you run this debt up before or after and why have you not paid anything to them if they are your supplier ?

[Shilo5]

I managed to pay the majority of bills in the time period but I was unable to keep track of all of them mentally on top of everything that was happening at home.  

 

My husband also lost his employment so he was no longer paying the bills and I took up most after having to claim UC but was unable to keep up with all.  

 

How would I find out if it was precap? The debt is from 2017 til now.  

[Andyorch]

2017 is pre cap the cap was only raised this April...seems to me your problem is the lack of using a Direct Debit...you qualify for discount and duel fuel discount by paying with DD and no doubt payment by DD is OVOs terms of supply.

 

Look you can always amend your payments using their online account dashboard once you have set up your DD and agreed an affordable payment plan...and worse comes to worse you can stop a DD ...not that I would recommend that course of action.

 

But the last thing you want is the hassle of the debt being passed to a DCA or your credit file trashing...AFAIK under the current legislation they cant cut you off but get an affordable payment plan in place and get a DD set up then I'm sure you will be able to sleep more comfortable at night knowing this is off your mind.....well possibly not for the next couple of nights 

 

Explain your circumstances but try to agree a payment plan...even if its only just covering your usage.

 

Andy

 

PS Topic moved to GAS Electric Water forum.

 

 

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