Paying off money owed to energy supplier

NickW

Hi Everyone,

I have just found out from my half yearly statement that i owe NPower £920 for my combined gas and electric, on top of my monthly direct debits! As you can imagine i am not very impressed with them allowing this to happen without them informing me earlier (or at all). I am about to do my yearly company comparison for best deals etc but am sure that NPower are going to insist that i pay off the £920 before i can switch.
I am not denying that the energy has been used, and need to pay them off, but can anyone tell me if i have any rights to demand that i pay it off slowly on a set monthly payment rather than in one go as one doesn't tend to have nearly a grand of disposble cash sitting in the bank waiting for eventualities like this!
Yours frustatedly...

monoxideuk

Because of the ammount of debt, i would doubt that npower will allow the switch to go through as a transfer goes through an objection period, and until this is paid off you will find it hard to switch suppliers, as far as paying off the debt, ring them up and they should sort out a payment plan, make sure you find the cheapest or most cost effective tariff avail with them, and see what they offer,

Hope this helps

SwanJon

£920 over 6 months is a shortfall of £150 a month.
How much were you paying each month? Did this sound reasonable compared to what you were paying before? How did you arive at this amount?

Is the bill correct? Have they used accurate or estimated readings? Compare the meter serial number on the bill to the one in your house just in case.

If you do leave, they will expect all the balance paid of ASAP, and can go through debt collectors to get it, which may affect your credit score.
If you stay you could negotiate extra time to pay it off (especially as it looks like you would need to pay about £300 a month to pay it back in 6 months & £225 to pay it back in 12).

NickW

They recommended the amount of DD per month at £58 pounds per month, admittedly i should have thought to check with the prices hikes etc, but the meter readings were given and i wasn't really expecting such a dramatic increase in only 6 months. Anyway thanks for your responses it was a i expected but just thought i would see if any new of any precedences that i can leverage....obviously not so i will have to bite the bullet pay them and switch as quicky as possible.

icklejulez

My gas and Electric bill for Npower just came in at an extra £800! Its attrocious!

shandypants5

My latest NPower bill says I am £343 in debit.. Gas and Electric.

They want to increase my monthly payment to £154 (its £103 at the mo),
but they say if I pay off the £343 before 22 of july then my direct debit will only be £122.

My question is. Do they charge any kind of interest on the dept if I dont pay before the 22 july deadline?

I am not sure whether to pay it off now or take the higher direct debit.

SwanJon

Can't speak for nPower, but BG won't charge you interest if you have made an arrangement (like DD) and are sticking to it. They do apply charges if you havn't made an arrangement and don't pay, but it takes weeks to get that far.

I'd asusme other suppliers are similar.

[Deleted User]

Its best to read your own meter every quarter and ring in if your readings are different to estimated. I can`t understand how people can get in so much energy debt if they are on the ball. I used to pay by dd and get paper bills and it was pretty obvious if there was going to be a shortfall and I would then ring in to increase my dd

Watch out for the bills next winter as they are likely to be much higher than previous

greenbee

If you pay monthly, make sure you do your meter readings monthly as well, then you'll have a clear picture of whether you're paying the right amount (and so will you supplier), so you can adjust it if necessary before it gets out of control.

Shazbat_2

I switched from Npower to BG and got a final bill of £150+ which I am paying off in monthly instalments of £25. They didn't prevent me from switching.