Why am I paying more than I expected for my energy?

There are many reasons why your energy costs might be higher than expected. Here, you’ll get an overview of some of the key causes.

It’s important that you’re aware of the financial support on offer, if you are worried about your energy costs. Find out about setting up an affordable payment plan and the help available from us, by getting in touch with our team. You can also apply online here.

We’ll be able to offer support that’s tailored to you and your situation.

Common reasons why your energy bill could be higher than expected

There could be a few potential reasons. Here are some of them.

Reason 1. Your prices could have increased

This is possible if the price cap has changed lately and you’re on a variable tariff. Find out about the cap and how it might affect you here. You’ll always get notice of price changes in writing, before they happen.

Important to know: the price cap doesn’t put a cap on the total cost of your energy. It only limits the price you pay for each unit of gas and electricity. The more energy a home uses, the more it will cost. Find out how it works here.

Have you come to the end of a fixed tariff recently? If you haven’t chosen to fix again, you’ll have been rolled onto our standard variable tariff. This is what we’re required to do by Ofgem. But you can always choose to fix on a new tariff if you’d prefer to, even after you’ve been moved to our variable tariff.

Reason 2. Your home could be using more energy than usual

This often happens in the winter months. It can also happen if you have new appliances switched on, or if there are more people in your home than usual.

If you have a smart meter, you should be able to see exactly where your home is using energy, by looking in your online account or in the OVO app.

Reason 3. You’ve fixed your prices but your energy use has gone up

When fixing your prices, there can be a misconception you’ve fixed the price of your bill too. People can think that they’ll pay exactly the same each month. However this isn’t the case.

When you get a fixed tariff, you fix the price you pay for each unit of gas and each unit of electricity. Your bills will still go up if your home uses more energy – because you’ll be using more units.

It can be helpful to think of it like filling up a car with petrol. The price per litre stays the same, but the cost changes depending on how much you fill up.

Remember: you can get financial support if you need to. You can also set up an affordable payment plan to spread any costs over time. Our team is here to help. 

Reason 4. You haven’t sent a meter reading in a while

If you don’t send regular meter readings, you could be paying too much. Submitting readings more often should stop any risk of that happening to you.

After you send your reading, your energy account will soon be back up to date. If you have been paying too much, you’ll notice that you owe less than you did before – or that you have more credit in your OVO account.

Your energy costs can also go up after sending a meter reading. This happens if your home has used more energy than predicted. If this is the case, you could have a balance to pay or have less credit in your OVO account, once it’s up to date.

Reason 5. You’ve just sent a meter reading

After you send a reading, your energy account will update to show how much energy your home has used in reality. There could be a balance to pay after that happens. Your bill could be higher than expected or your Direct Debit payments could increase.

Remember: you can get financial support if you need to. You can also set up an affordable payment plan to spread any costs over time. Our team is here to help.

Reason 6. There’s a fault with your meter

This is rare but it can happen. Keep reading to find out what to do if you think this is happening to you. Our team can help.

I think my gas and/or electricity meter isn’t working properly. What can I do?

It’s unusual for faulty gas and electricity meters to be causing higher bills, but it can happen. If your bills have climbed suddenly with no clear explanation, there’s a chance your meter could be clocking your energy use too fast.

To find out if your meter isn’t working properly, we can carry out a Meter Accuracy Test (MAT) or an Official Meter Accuracy Test (OFMAT) for gas meters.

We’ll send an engineer round to do this for you. It’ll cost £157 to test a gas meter, and £149 for an electricity meter. If your meter does turn out to be faulty, we’ll refund that cost back to you.

Please get in touch with us if you’re worried this is the case.