N Power combined bill higher than expected

portygirl

I have just received my 1st combined gas/elec bill from N power ( usually quoted separately ) for period from mid Nov/end Feb. Elec is £315, Gas £408 for 3 bed modern detached house with 3 working adults. I pay £75 for Gas & £52 for elec per month & for the 1st time ever I am in debit which concerns me. I have Gas heating,water & cooker hob only, rest electric with no electric showers. In view of the considerable rise in cost over the last year I have cut down consumption considerably. No longer use tumble drier & have changed most light bulbs to long life & cut heating by 3 hours per day, I still feel this is excessive in particular the amount for electricity, which desite my economies N power says I have used a 3rd more electricity than same period last year.Only 2 x direct debits were taken from the bill which seems to be a common occurence with N power from 3 month bill which would account for some of debit, but any ideas on how to be even more economic ?

anniecave

Are you really using more units than last year? Over the same time period? Are both sets of calculations based on actual meter readings?
Do you know how many units you use per day at different times of the year?

It can be very hard to compare otherwise. Scottish Power tries to do graphs on their online system that compare how much we used this year versus last year and I'm never convinced their figures are right!

Good news though... summer is on its way!

I would just keep up the energysaving as much as you can .. and keep an eye on your payments versus your usage to make sure you won't get too much into the red!

Are you in rented property or do you own it?

portygirl

Thanks for the reply, it's good to voice my concerns & get some feedback. The last electricity bill was an estimate which could account for some of the discrepancy but the bill did not not appear unusually low & I remember checking & it was similar to estimated reading therefore I did not phone it in.
My home is owned not rented - I will now take care to record consumption & hope that N power will not want to increase DD in view of current debit.

anniecave

It will all depend on when they assess your account... If you have only been with them a few months then hopefully they will leave it a few months more so you should be fine!

The_Economist

someone i work with is with NPower and they wanted to charge him £200 plus a month for dual fuel because he had a debt on the account because they hadn't sent him a bill for a while. He is gonna sort it out and change to EDF energy. They charge a certain rate for the first units used then charge a lower rate for the rest of the units. Have you thought of changing supplier

evenstar2009

I got conned by N Power's salesperson to sign up as they would be cheaper than my current supplier who was Atlantic (i was paying between £40-50 per month) and they said my direct debit per month would be set at £35 for dual fuel. I've recently had a bill through for nearly £500 for Sept 08-Mar 09 :eek:.
Obviously they put me on a low DD to get me to switch but this was completely unrealistic. In total it actually has cost me the same for 6 months with N Power as 12 months with Atlantic!!! I have spoken to the N Power call centre to complain and they have raised a saleperson complaint as i said this was mis-sold in the first place and actually the N Power call centre woman agreed with me! I can't believe that they can actually get away with doing this to people as its basically a well organised con - just because they have professionally printed welcome packs does not hide the basic fact that they are simply conning people out of money and hiding behind confusing stats and bills. I hope th Government actually does something useful with all our taxes and buys us all solar panels so we can tell N Power and other utility companies to get lost!
If another N Power sales person approaches me in the shopping centre again i will advise them (in a very loud voice) what a complete rip off/con they are!

Rant over with for now - i'm sure i will back on here after i get a standard letter from N Power telling me i have to pay their extortionate fees or risk getting cut off.
By the way, i live in a 2 bed house and there's only me and my toddler and i'm very thrify when it comes to electric/heating so its not like we're high users!:mad: