OVO Energy Review Summary
OVO Energy was founded in 2009 with a focus on providing greener and cheaper energy services. They put a strong emphasis on simplicity, so if anyone finds navigating energy suppliers and tariffs difficult OVO Energy could be the supplier for you.
OVO Energy proudly promotes the fact they offer 100% renewable energy, so people wanting a greener more environmentally friendly supplier will also find OVO Energy to be a great choice. They operate throughout the UK and offer both electric and gas services for customers.
While their home tariffs are quite simple they also offer a variety of other products including upgrades, electric cars services, smart storage heaters, and home energy storage. But if you’re just sticking to the basics OVO Energy offers a great service that is sure to please many people.
The reviews for OVO Energy are very positive as well with over 47,000 reviews on TrustPilot and a score of 4.3. So, now you know the basics of OVO Energy let’s take a look at how they operate in more detail with our in-depth OVO Energy review.
What tariffs do OVO offer?
One of the best things about OVO Energy is the simplicity of their tariffs. Customers will have a choice between:
- The Better Energy tariff – a 12-month fixed rate tariff
- The 2 Year Fixed Energy tariff – which as the name suggest is a 2 year fixed tariff
- The Better Smart tariff – which is only available if you have a smart meter
- The Simpler Energy tariff – which is a variable tariff
All plans offer 100% renewable electricity but each energy plan can also be upgraded to offer 100% carbon neutral gas for an extra £6 a month (the first 3 months are free however).
All of the tariffs apart from the variable tariff have exit fees. These are currently £30 per fuel.
OVO Energy is also part of the Energy Switch Guarantee, which means that switching to OVO should be relatively stress free and straight forward.
As part of our OVO Energy review we’ve listed some main key points of their tariffs below:
- You can opt-in for 100% carbon offset gas for a small extra charge.
- Single and dual fuel plans are both available.
- There are exit fees of £30 per fuel on both tariffs.
How do OVO compare on price?
OVO rarely offer one of the cheapest tariffs on the market. Generally from our research on comparison sites they sit around mid-table in terms of price. Which? also gave OVO 3/5 stars for ‘Value for money’, which fits with what we have found.
What do other OVO Energy reviews say?
OVO perform well on third party review site Trustpilot. They have over 47,000 reviews and an overall score of 4.3 out of 5. 70% of reviewers rate them as ‘Excellent’ with only 8% rating them as bad. You can see a full breakdown below:
| Rating | Percentage of reviews |
|---|---|
| Excellent | 70% |
| Great | 15% |
| Average | 4% |
| Poor | 2% |
| Bad | 8% |
In the latest survey by Which?, OVO came joint 8th overall out of 25 energy suppliers with a customer score of 70% (Outfox the Market was the highest with 82%).
In the survey results from Citizens Advice, OVO Energy performed very similar in terms of overall position. This time coming 12th out of 34 suppliers with an overall score of 3.45/5 (Igloo energy came 1st with a score of 4.65/5). Complaints, clearness of bills and customer guarantees seemed to impact their overall score the most.
What is OVO’s customer service like?
OVO offer reasonably good open hours at Monday-Friday 8am-6pm, although this may make them difficult to contact if you cannot do it at work.
In terms of response times, they perform well. According to Citizens Advice, the average call centre waiting time is only 55 seconds and they respond to 86.9% of emails within 2 days.
Which? however had different results in their test, they found that OVO took on average over 5 minutes to answer a call. They didn’t provide any results to email response times, but they did find that OVO responded in less than 5 minutes over live chat.
When it comes to complaints, over receive 28.1 per 10,000 customers according to Citizens Advice which gives them 3/5 stars overall for this particular area.
OVO’s latest annual complaints report (from 2019) shows that 89% of the complaints they received were resolved within the first day of being received. The main areas that complaints were raised about were customer service, Billing and Direct Debits & refunds.
What is OVO’s website/app like?
OVO Energy’s website is clean and modern which makes it easy to navigate and find the information you’re looking for. The help and support section, in particular, is worthy of praise and so is the discussion forum. We have seen other energy suppliers provide a discussion forum, but this is one of the best we have seen in terms of design and user activity.
OVO Energy also as an app available for both iOS and Android devices. Both of these apps are rated very highly on each app store, with the iOS version getting 4.7/5 from over 6,000 reviews and the Android version getting 4.5/5 from nearly 6,000 reviews.
The online portal for OVO Energy is also something that is highly praised in many of the customer reviews as well.
How green is OVO’s energy?
We have included the most up to date OVO fuel mix below for transparency, but this only covers 12 months up to March 2020.
OVO say that since October 2020 all their energy plans have offered 100% renewable electricity as standard, so their next fuel mix is likely to look very different to below with 100% of electricity coming from renewables.
When it comes to gas, OVO is one of only a small set of suppliers that allows you to upgrade to ‘greener’ gas. This means you can receive gas that is 15% green with the other 85% being carbon-neutral due to being offset. We covered OVO, along with other green suppliers, in our recent article on the best green energy suppliers.
| Fuel source | % of supply |
| Natural Gas | 48% |
| Nuclear | 0% |
| Renewables | 52% |
| Coal | 0% |
| Other Fuels | 0% |
How does OVO compare to other suppliers?
This review gives you a good overview OVO but how do they compare to other big suppliers?
We have written some in-depth comparisons on OVO vs British Gas, OVO vs Octopus, OVO vs E.ON Next and OVO vs Scottish Power to help you see in more detail the differences between the two suppliers.
Below are a few quick questions you may need answers to along with our OVO Energy review:
Do they work with pre-payment meters?
Yes and No. OVO themselves don’t provide tariffs for pre-payment meters, but then own Boost Power that only provides pay as you go tariffs.
Do they accept Economy 7?
Yes, OVO Energy does accept economy 7 meter customers.
Are they signed up to the Warm Home Discount?
Yes, OVO Energy is signed up the Warm House Discount. Check out this link to find out more about it.
Are they signed up to the Energy Switch Guarantee?
Yes as mentioned previously OVO Energy are signed up to the Energy Switch Guarantee.
What billing options are available?
There’s a variety of billing options available at OVO Energy including direct debits, pre-payment meters and more. Check out this link to find out more information.
Do they offer a smart meter? Do they accept smart meters?
Yes OVO Energy does offer smart meters although there is currently a 6-week waiting list, check out this list to find out more information.
Do they charge exit fees?
You will get charged exit fees with OVO Energy on both their tariffs. The exit fees are £30 per fuel so if you are on a dual tariff and you exit your contract early you will be charged £60.
Will they offer to pay a customer’s exit fees when they join them?
No OVO Energy does not currently offer to pay new customer’s exit fees.
Do they offer any incentives to customers to refer friends/family?
Yes OVO Energy offers £50 gift cards for M&S, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Halfords, B&Q or Amazon for each referral. This is £50 for both the referrer and the person being referred.
What happens if you move home whilst with them?
OVO Energy has made it easy to stay with them if you move house and there is an in-depth FAQ on their website and a whole section dedicated to it. Basically, all you need to do is supply your final meter readings and give them your new address. This can all be done online through the customer portal as well.
Do they mention about the Priority Services Register?
You can register directly for the priority services register on the OVO Energy website and there is an in-depth FAQ as well.
How to contact OVO Energy
To finish our OVO Energy review let’s look at how you can contact them. If you are an existing customer the customer portal on their website will be the best option. But they can be reached in a variety of other ways and you can also submit enquires through the online form on their website.
Telephone: 0330 303 5063
Customer Service Opening Times: Monday – Friday – 8AM to 6PM
Email Address: hello@ovoenergy.com
Postal Address: 1 Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6ED
How do I switch to OVO energy?
The easiest way to switch to OVO Energy is through a comparison website. This will allow you to check that OVO Energy is one of the cheapest suppliers for you (tariffs vary based on your area) and will allow you to quickly and easily switch to them.
Terrible company, been trying to get resolution for billing for almost 2 year. We have a complex supply in that we have economy 7, the left at OVO doesn’t know what the right is doing, Staff fob me off with every call. Holding now trying to speak with resolutions team, been on the call for almost 35 minutes and been on hold at least 20-25 minutes. Would definitely NOT recommend OVO. The call last over over an hour in total with with 50 minutes or so on hold, still no resolution and will not give me timescale to solve, just saying as unbilled for long period they don’t have to give a timescale!! Appalling.
Ovo informed me after making regular monthly payments that I owed them £1400 in electricity due to a technical error on their end. I of course said wipe that debt as it was a fault in there end and o have been paying in good faith. I opened a customer complaint and was assured this would be done and I’d here nothing more. March comes 3 months later. They put my account into -£961, and informed me they have given me a 10% discount. In the email explaining this it states ‘due to a technical error’. I have paid monthly I have paid in full and now am told, because someone in there company made a mistake I owe them a huge sum of money. Single mum of two children in a pandemic who has never even paid late let alone missed a payment. Disgusting and legal action will be taken.
Do not sign up to @OVOEnergy called ‘trying to save me money’ telling me to adjust my boiler, this then racked up a debt of £360 on top of normal usuage which they admitted was a member of their staffs fault but still expect me to pay. Not genuine don’t trust them
Ovo are rubbish at customer service. They have been promising a meter change (faulty smart meter) for 18 months (Excluding Covid period)and failed in every expected respect of their promised service. This is a zero star company!
I was forced onto OVO because my old supplier Economy Energy went bust. I was forced to stay with OVO for 6-7 months. I was stuck on a variable high tariff waiting for OVO as they refused to allow me to switch providers or change my tariff and I was never in debit. They owe me £375.95 plus interest. I base a company based on their customer support in this case my complaint was ignored for a year a whole year.