NIE - new DD amounts

tightasaduck's

Got a letter from NIE on Saturday to say my DD was going up from £54 per month to a whopping £92 per month. They blame this on two price rises of 14% and 33.33% recently, but their figures don't add up. Anyone challenged them on this and if so, how did they respond?

belfastgirl23

I phoned ahead of the new rises to put my DD up - I had reduced it last year since I had overpaid a bit. Anyway the DD was £29 but should by rights have been more like £39 for usage. So I phoned to get it put up to £45 to allow for price increases etc. NIE person said she thought £65 was more the ticket given the increases and explained the 14% and 33% (although it didn't add up for me either, I would have thought £60 would be more than enough). I talked her down to £60 and promised to keep an eye on reads and up it if necessary. That was ok and the letter came out a few days later. Less than a month afterwards I got another letter taking my DD down to £55 a month.

My experience has been that they are pretty amenable especially if I showed I was familiar with my energy use (I keep a diary). But then I usually get in a bit ahead of time rather than wait for them to get the letter to me.

tightasaduck's

Thanks bg23. I might just give them a ring as an increase of 70.37% on my DD just doesn't stack up and I've kept my powder dry all weekend!

I'll be firm but polite, as usual.

:xmassmile

bullpeppar

Mine has gone up from £42 to £75 a month. They did say that I could pay less but there was no guarantee that this would cover my usage.

I think the price per unit has gone up from around 9p to something like 16p and all largely due to the rise in fuel costs. Since fuel costs (oil) is now coming down, I wonder will our bills come down?

tightasaduck's

bullpeppar wrote: »

Mine has gone up from £42 to £75 a month. They did say that I could pay less but there was no guarantee that this would cover my usage.

I think the price per unit has gone up from around 9p to something like 16p and all largely due to the rise in fuel costs. Since fuel costs (oil) is now coming down, I wonder will our bills come down?

Don't hold your breath on that one, bp!

belfastgirl23

I think there was talk that the consumer council (?) were going to talk to NIE about prices in light of the price decrease - haven't heard anything on how they got on though!

cifpower

I feel lucky that mine has not gone up from £25 for the last couple of years