NPower Problems!! Think we'll freeze this winter!!

Boppy_2

My boiler broke in April and not once did anyone tell me that even though we weren't using any gas or topping up our token meter that the lovely people at NPower were charging us £2.65 a week for the priviledge of having their meter in :rolleyes: NPower tried telling me on the phone that my landlord should've told me but anyway back on track.....

So now whenever i top up my meter we have no gas by the end of the day due to the meter taking £3.50 immediately out of the £5 and then the rest within hours, they couldn't give me a reason why they were taking £1.50 within a few hours of the £3.50. I had a VERY patronising woman on the phone and quite rightly told her so, i explained that noone in my household worked at the moment as i am mentally ill and not stable enough to look after myself and my son full time at the moment so no way could we afford this to keep happening. She told me that there was nothing they could do, whatever we put in the meter they will take 70% off and then 30p a day afterwards so our budget of £15 for gas would last us literally 2 days. :mad:

We only owe around £60-£70 i think it is and have no problems paying this at say £10 a month but at 70% of our budget for a gas a week its ridiculous and we can't cope. Can we change suppliers whilst owing NPower?

I really do not know what to do, we cannot afford to heat our home due to this and i am really scared we well freeze during winter, we have nothing to cut back on

Can NPower do this to low income families? Can we change whilst owing NPower £60-£70? British Gas said we can and are switching as we speak but i have a funny feeling NPower will stop it, am i right?

TIA.

KimYeovil

That a standing charge is due whether or not one consumes power is not exactly arcane wisdom. Why not just pay the £60 you owe in a lump sum? Surely that will be more convenient?

Boppy_2

KimYeovil wrote: »

That a standing charge is due whether or not one consumes power is not exactly arcane wisdom. Why not just pay the £60 you owe in a lump sum? Surely that will be more convenient?

Do you not think if i had the £60 i would just pay it????? We get hardly any money a week as it is due to me being ill, we cannot afford the £60 hence why i posted on here!

Boppy_2

And obviously i am thick to not know we'd still get charged even if we weren't using gas, my family and friends must also be dumb because they didn't know either! Or perhaps not everybody is as clever as you Kim.

KimYeovil

If there are two of you in the house then you should be receiving more than £60 per week in benefits. I just suggested paying this small amount in one go - rereading what I wrote it could be read more aggressively than intended. I just think when you have a low income it is often a lot easier to pay a lump sum and get it over with - I'd rather live on nothing for one week and receive a full income thereafter rather than have little bits taken off for weeks on end.

And, yes, if you and your friends are unfamiliar with utility bills and their standing charges then, well, I would not phrase it as pejoratively as yourself, and it is not about cleverness, but it is a little strange to have never encountered such things.

Boppy_2

KimYeovil wrote: »

If there are two of you in the house then you should be receiving more than £60 per week in benefits. I just suggested paying this small amount in one go - rereading what I wrote it could be read more aggressively than intended. I just think when you have a low income it is often a lot easier to pay a lump sum and get it over with - I'd rather live on nothing for one week and receive a full income thereafter rather than have little bits taken off for weeks on end.

And, yes, if you and your friends are unfamiliar with utility bills and their standing charges then, well, I would not phrase it as pejoratively as yourself, and it is not about cleverness, but it is a little strange to have never encountered such things.

We couldn't go without for a week though as we have a small child to contend with, we literally live on what we get with nothing spare. I don't think anyone i know has come across this before because noones ever gone without gas like we have due to our landlord taking 5 months to sort out our boiler. If British Gas can't take over then i'll have to think of a plan b to get rid of NPower, thanks for your help and sorry for being a little snappy, blame the hormones!!

ricky9

If you phone Npower and ask them to put you on the spreading warmth tarrif you will get £125 a fuel rebate in January then £63 a quarter there after.
Prepayment tariffs are structured to contain a standing charge element. This ensures that all Prepayment customers will receive the same effective service, and the money you pay properly reflects the cost of supplying you.
The quarterly standing charge covers the fixed costs of providing the energy supply e.g. the cost of linking the mains supply to your home, providing a meter, reading your meter, processing your payments through our network of agents and processing and sending out your statements. The standing charge is paid irrespective of the amount of electricity or gas you use.
I would not recomend Brittish Gas for your gas as they are more expensive

SwanJon

Before you switch compare all companies and see what they can offer you. What works for someone else may not work for you. For example, not all suppliers have standing charges (although at low consumptions the meter still acts a bit odd) - for higher consumers there's not much difference.
.If you are recieving benefits you could ask them to adjust the rate you are paying it back at. The minimum (I think) is £3.05 a week, so that should help, but it would take you 5-6 monhts to pay back £60, and npower won't let you switch until it is paid.
There is a scheme where your new supplier takes on the debt, but I'm not sure if anyone has ever managed to do this.

KimYeovil

Be careful with ricky9's suggestion. If you are staying with a prepayment meter, the window where Npower will be cheaper is very tight. They offer you £250 on Spreading Warmth but if you are an average user they will charge you more than £320 extra for that privilege.

1carminestocky

Plus isn't Spreading Warmth npower's 'social tariff'? If it is, I'm assuming there will be big changes afoot in response to the Govt and regulators new rulings on social tariffs. Can't imagine them making it cheaper than their online tariffs as they apparently have to AND paying out all this wonga. Take care...

brysiewysie

A couple of thoughts;
Do you have prepayment electric too with Npower?
If so does this have a debt on it?
If it does would Npower transfer the current debt to this and accept the same repayment rate on that?

Is your debt repayment rate £3.30 per week? You should be able to check this via the meter. Putting the top up card in and then pressing the display button adds some extra info about what the meter is currently taking as your debt repayment and what debt the meter has been told is outstanding.

If the repayment rate is set at more that £3.50 per week you really need to be getting back to Npower and getting them to adjust it.

While you are there get them to add you to the priority services register, it sounds like you fall into this category. This will help class you as a vulnerable customer and should mean that they will treat you more sympathetically.