Npower balance Please help

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rachelcas1984
rachelcas1984 Posts: 3 Newbie
edited 21 March 2018 at 8:24AM in Energy
Without going into a huge amount of detail I have today realised that my ever increasing debt (£2500) with Npower is due to them constantly underestimated my gas and electricity usage for the last 6 years. It started in 2012 with £500, no matter how much I pay the balance has constantly grown. They have put payment plans in place that I always fail because they are unaffordable and even when I do pay them the balance is constantly growing. At one point the lady said what more can we do and I said that they should have done their jobs correctly in the first place and charged me correctly. They want to make me have a prepayment meter and the financial solutions team refused to talk to me if I wasn't willing to have one. They said that they will take me to court and force me to have a meter fitted?? Whilst I know that I have used the energy I am trying to make them understand that if they had billed me correctly in the first place I would not be in this situation. I have opened a case with a financial ombudsman in hope that they will make them understand. Now I am stuck with them, I will have to log on and make payments online until the issue is resolved. I am scared that they will cut me off, I have x2 children. Can anybody give me any advice?

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  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 31,868 Forumite
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    How has it been going on so long ? Have you been providing them with regular meter readings ? Did you not check the estimated bills against the meter ?

    Are you being billed for the correct meter units with regard to metric or imperial ?
  • rachelcas1984
    rachelcas1984 Posts: 3 Newbie
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    Yes I send them meter readings, they just never seem to be charging me enough, say I use £120 of gas and electricity per month they would be setting me up on a direct debit for less.

    The debt started at £500 in 2012 and has grown from there, yes there have been failed plans because they were setting them too high. Having looked at my bills a always seem to be in debit?
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,106 Forumite
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    Does not nPower give the option of making top-up payments online ?
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • nPower
    nPower Posts: 1,319 Organisation Representative
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    rachelcas1984 wrote: »
    Without going into a huge amount of detail I have today realised that my ever increasing debt (£2500) with Npower is due to them constantly underestimated my gas and electricity usage for the last 6 years. It started in 2012 with £500, no matter how much I pay the balance has constantly grown. They have put payment plans in place that I always fail because they are unaffordable and even when I do pay them the balance is constantly growing. At one point the lady said what more can we do and I said that they should have done their jobs correctly in the first place and charged me correctly. They want to make me have a prepayment meter and the financial solutions team refused to talk to me if I wasn't willing to have one. They said that they will take me to court and force me to have a meter fitted?? Whilst I know that I have used the energy I am trying to make them understand that if they had billed me correctly in the first place I would not be in this situation. I have opened a case with a financial ombudsman in hope that they will make them understand. Now I am stuck with them, I will have to log on and make payments online until the issue is resolved. I am scared that they will cut me off, I have x2 children. Can anybody give me any advice?




    Hi rachelcas1984,

    Thanks for your message. Please contact us using the details on our profile page so we can help with your payment query.

    Thanks,

    Jen :)
    “Official Company Representative"
    I am the official company representative of nPower. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE.
    If we ask you to contact us, please do so using helpandsupport@npower.com - MSE Forum has temporarily allowed the display of our contact details in our signature due to a technical issue with our profile
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479 Forumite
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    I think your best option is to accept the prepayment meter (without court costs added on.)
  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 31,868 Forumite
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    rachelcas1984 wrote: »
    Yes I send them meter readings, they just never seem to be charging me enough, say I use £120 of gas and electricity per month they would be setting me up on a direct debit for less.

    The debt started at £500 in 2012 and has grown from there, yes there have been failed plans because they were setting them too high. Having looked at my bills a always seem to be in debit?
    I am a relatively high gas user and my total energy usage for the past 6 years has cost around £6K so either your use is incredibly high and / or your DD is incredibly low to get into that amount of debt. The other possibility is that you are being billed incorrectly for gas or on E7 and readings switched.

    Yes this is worthy of a complaint but you should have complained years ago when things started to go wrong. You need to speak to them and get a repayment plan in motion.

    Post up some actual meter readings, bills and DD amounts and someone here will take a look to see if everything seems in order. The first thing you need to do is confirm the billing is correct.
  • rachelcas1984
    rachelcas1984 Posts: 3 Newbie
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    Thank you Jen but I spent x4 hours on the phone to Npower yesterday, I have awful anxiety today and still upset so I am going to wait for the deadlock letter.

    Many Thanks
    Rachel
  • System
    System Posts: 178,094 Community Admin
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    Making a complaint just because you are annoyed will just add to your level of anxiety. You have to be clear about what you are complaining about and what resolution you are seeking. If you can demonstrate that you have been providing the supplier with frequent actual meter readings, and you can show that these have just been ignored, then you may have a case to ask the supplier to invoke The Back Billing Code. Suppliers have an obligation in their Supply Licences to use the actual meter readings that you have provided or if they believe them to be incorrect, to contact you:

    21B.1 If a Customer provides a meter reading to the licensee that the licensee considers reasonably accurate, or if the Gas Meter is read by the licensee, the licensee must take all reasonable steps to reflect the meter reading in the next Bill or statement of account sent to the Customer.

    21B.2 If the licensee considers that a meter reading provided by a Customer is not reasonably accurate, the licensee must take all reasonable steps to contact the Customer to obtain a new meter reading from him.
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