Why is there credit on your account, and what does it mean?

Here you’ll see an overview of the different reasons there could be credit in your energy account.

If you’re paying by Direct Debit 

If you pay by Direct Debit, credit can build up – especially during the summer months. This credit is then used to pay for your energy over winter, when most homes tend to use more.

Paying this way helps to spread your energy costs. The idea is you pay the same throughout the year, instead of less in summer and more in winter.

When paying by Direct Debit, the goal is to help you avoid having a debt balance long term.

Prefer to take your credit out of your OVO account? You can request a credit refund at any time – it’s completely your decision. There’s more info on how to do this further down the page.

If you haven’t sent a meter reading in a while

If you haven’t sent a meter reading for some time, your energy account might look like it has credit in it – but your balance won’t be up to date. The amount of credit you have is likely to change after you send a reading.

Once you’ve sent a reading, your balance will then be correct, as it’ll be based on how much energy your home has used in reality. Here’s what could happen to any credit you have:

• Your credit might go down, if your home used more energy than expected

• Your credit could also go up, if your home used less energy than expected

It’s important to send regular meter readings to make sure you’re paying the right amount – no more and no less than you need to. Find out how to read your gas and electricity meter.

Smart meters send readings automatically, which means you don’t have to. Your energy account balance should always be up to date if you’ve got one. Though if you’re worried yours isn’t working properly, you might want to send a manual reading or get in touch.

If you haven’t got a smart meter yet, find out how to get one free, with OVO.

If you’ve paid too much over time 

Credit could also build up if you’ve paid for more energy than your home has actually used.

You might have chosen to make payments that are larger than your actual bills. You can do if you want to – it’s up to you. Doing this would build up credit for you to use in the future. What to do if you think you’ve paid too much:

• You can take the credit out as a refund. Find out how to do this further down the page.

• You can leave this credit in your energy account to pay for your home’s energy use in the future.

Want to take credit out of your energy account?

You’re free to request a credit refund at any time, in line with our refund policy – it’s completely your decision.

Useful to know: it's important you have all the info, then you can decide what’s best for you.

• If you request a refund online, sometimes we need to confirm this over the phone to make sure you have the details of how it’ll affect your energy account.

• Getting a refund might mean your Direct Debit payments increase, once your account has less credit in it.

How to apply for a credit refund

There are a few things that need checking before we can issue a refund:

• You need to have enough credit in your energy account to cover one month’s Direct Debit payment.

• You need to have had your energy account with us for at least 90 days.

• We need to have received at least 2 Direct Debit payments from the bank account we're refunding to.

• You can’t have any other refund requests pending.

• You need to have sent a meter reading for both electricity and gas (if you have both) in the last 28 days. If you have a smart meter, you shouldn’t need to send readings, as your smart meter should do this for you.

• The minimum credit refund you can request is £5.

If all the above apply to your energy account, you can request a refund through the Bills section of your online account.

You can also call us on 0330 303 5063, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Moving home or switching energy supplier? Got credit in your account? Find out more about what happens here.