OVO Energy introduces new monthly fee for thousands of customers
OVO Energy has moved to introduce a new monthly fee for thousands of customers. Ovo Energy, which has over four million customers, will begin charging a new £1.50 monthly fee for customers who receive paper bills from December.
The firm explained: "We're introducing a £1.50 monthly fee for customers who choose to have paper bills. This change will help us to be more efficient and support our commitment to sustainability. This change will be live and visible on December bills, which will give customers time to choose Paperless Billing if they want to.
"We’ll be writing to our current Paper Billing customers to let them know about these changes. We'll send customers a QR code, which will take them to a form where they can select paperless billing going forward." The firm said: "Are there exceptions to this? Yes, the following customers will stay on paper bills with no charge:
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"Customers on the Priority Services Register (PSR), customers who receive Adaptive Comms, customers who we think should be on the PSR and customers who might potentially be financially vulnerable." OVO said: "We won’t ask these customers to choose to change to Paperless Billing," and signed off by saying: "Thanks, The OVO Team."
A motion tabled in parliament on November 6 said they "believe that such a fee is counterproductive as families continue to struggle with high energy costs, particularly in the run-up to winter, and further notes that such a change risks disadvantaging older and other vulnerable people".
The motion had been signed by 14 MPs at the time of publishing. A spokesperson for OVO told BirminghamLive: "Like most energy providers, we already send digital communications to most customers. We still offer paper communications to anyone on the Priority Services Register, those who receive adapted communications, and anyone needing additional financial support."