Help! Massive Gas Bill on DD - can't afford it

sdw3075

Hi, I've been with NPower since I moved into my property 3 years ago and have always paid on DD. Last year I had a new condensing combi boiler installed, replacing an old back boiler and so I'd assumed that this would have a positive impact on the amount I paid.

Until recently I was paying £59 per month on DD but recently got a new bill saying that my monthly amount would be £175! I got in touch with them and they asked me for a meter reading, which I gave them and they sent me a revised bill for £155 per month. There is only me in the property and the only thing that runs off the gas is the CH. I have the heating off while I'm at work and have it on all day at weekends but I wouldn't have thought that my consumption would have been that high - or have I been getting my gas at a bargain price previously and this is about the right price? I wasn't paying this much when I had the back boiler.

I know DD is usually worked out based on consumption over the previous quarter (or in my case 6 months) but I really can't believe the hike in price. Is there anything I can do as I'm not sure I can afford this.

Thanks

Magentasue

Have your previous statements been based on actual (A) or estimated (E) readings?

Sagaris

Can you work out from your bills/readings what you actually owe them? I've just had a run-in with npower, they wanted to put our dd up by £80 a month (that is for gas and electricity). I worked out that although we owe them some money, it was nowhere near what they were after, and was told 'they like to make sure customers stay in credit' - but not by £70 a month! I have now got the amount reduced - but I'm watching our readngs like a hawk! So even with correct readings given over the phone, they were still trying to get over payments from us.
We had also sent them readings every time they put a card in the door (which we would enter readings on and they would never collect) but all our bills were estimates - somethng else to look out for.

sdw3075

Thanks, I'm going to have a proper look at my previous bills tonight (I keep them all) and see what's happening. I've never been particularly good at getting my head around how they work the bills out. I wonder if I'm in arrears somehow and whether the previous amount I was paying was far too low compared to actual usage and because of that I'm now paying off arrears which is why the bill is so high. But £155 a month for gas for a single person household seems astronomical to me and I'm starting to worry a bit about where I'm going to find the extra cash, especially as the DD will be set for a 6 month period.

It may sound a bit stupid but I always trusted that they would have been able to work it out correctly - the gas metre is on the side of my property and easily accessible so they wouldn't even have to put the card through the door if I wasn't at home. Now it just looks like if this new amount is correct and it's due to arrears then they've got their maths seriously wrong in the past!

Magentasue

sdw3075 wrote: »

. But £155 a month for gas for a single person household seems astronomical to me

But it's not £155 a month for gas that you're using now - some of that is debt repayment, so that you don't have to pay the arrears in a lump sum.

It's a lesson learned - check your statements and if the estimated reading is not close to the actual reading, correct it and make sure it's used in the subsequent statement. If you work out how many kwh you use in a year, you can accurately calculate how much you need to pay.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi,

I’d suggest looking over your previous bills to see if they were billed to estimated or accurate readings. It might be that the readings were underestimated and the account is in now debit as they have billed you up to the correct ones. If this is the case they may have increased the Direct Debit to cover your usage and pay off the debt.

You could check your usage from when the old boiler was in the property compared to the new boiler. I’d look at the amount of units you were using on your bills and compare to readings on the bills when the new boiler has been installed.

It might be worth considering using a timer to control your heating and also turning the thermostat down. I’d speak to your supplier to talk about how much it costs to run your heating, depending on how many radiators and the length of time you keep it running for.

Helena