Npower Problem

englishdesi wrote: »

Hi All,

I signed up with NPower when I moved into my flat last June and I was paying £15 a month DD for Gas. I recently got my bill for 7th November to 23rd Jan and NPower have decided to increase my monthly DD to £26 a month with the first 1074 kwh at 4.412 and first 342 at 6.594.

They have estimated gas usage 6478 at 6.594p.

I had a look at my meter and noted a new reading so rang them up and gave them the reading 7877. To my horror, they then said they are sending me an amended bill and my new monthly gas payments will be £50 a month.

I can't afford to pay this every month, is there anything I can do about this ? I am really surprised at this amount, given that I live in a 1 bedroom ground floor flat and am frequently abroad on business and rarely lived there.

Why have they estimated charges over the next 18 months ?

any help would be appreciated
English Desi

Your post is difficult to understand - particularly this statement "They have estimated gas usage 6478 at 6.594p."

You will not be paying for 6,478 kWh at 6.594p! So I assume the figures 6478 and 7877 are meter readings.

What matters is the kWh you have used between 7 Nov and 23 Jan and importantly was the meter reading on 7 Nov an estimated reading.

With NPower you pay for the first units each month at a higher rate and the amount of units varies each month - more in the winter and less in the summer. I assume that the 4.412 and 6.594 are pence per kWh.

The rest of your units(kWh) should be less than 3p.

Almost certainly your £15 a month was far too low and you have built up a debit balance and NPower have increased your Direct debit to cover your consumption and recover that debt.

englishdesi wrote: »

Hi,

This is what the bill says:

7 Nov -23 Jan:

Account Balance Before Charges £64.63 Credit
Total Gas Charges This Period £73.42 Debit
Account Balance for Information £8.79 Debit

How we worked out your new payment:

Estimated Gas Units 6478 at 6.594p £427.16
VAT at 5.0% on £21.35 £21.35


Total Estimated Charges over next 18 Months £448.51
Account Balance brought forward £8.79 Debit
Total: £457.30 Debit
Divide by 18 £25.40 Debit
New Payment Amount £26.00 (Rounded)

That makes sense now, except you still haven't said if the meter reading on 7 Nov was estimated or an actual reading; the 23 Jan reading is almost certainly estimated.

You gas usage between 7 Nov and 23 Jan was extremely low(1,416kWh) so you paid for all of your gas at the higher tier1 rate.

Based on that consumption they have estimated that you are an extremely low user of gas and will use only 6,478kWh(units) over the next 18 months(that is approx 20% of the UK average) and all of this will be at the higher tier 1 rate of 6.594p/kWh.

So their calculations giving a £26 DD were correct.

Now with you having given them an amended and up to date meter reading they now have decided that you will use far more gas over the next 18 months than they have predicted(estimated) so have upped your DD to £50

With low consumption like yours, you will be far better off changing supplier to EBICO as they charge all units at a single rate; currently this is 2.55p/kWh -including VAT - although it this expected to rise at the end of March.(by 15%??)

As said above the consumption that you have been charged for between 7 Nov and 23 Jan is very low indeed. had that been with Ebico it would have been £36 for 11 weeks.

What you haven't said in your posts above is what your consumption has been from 7 Nov to the date you gave them the meter reading of 7877.

So there is no way for us to work out what your consumption has been.

Don't forget the new DD of £50 will be to pay back your arrears as well as cover your new estimated usage.

If you tell us the meter reading on 7 Nov and the date you gave them the reading of 7877 we can work out your consumption and tell you if it is high.