Big electric bill, grateful of any help

Si84

I'm about to move out of my student house that I share with three others and we are having a bit of an ongoing nightmare with our bills.

When we first moved into the property I transferred the electric to British Gas from Npower. British Gas managed to register the WRONG METER and were reading next doors. After we figured this out british gas told us it was an erroneous billing and that we were still registered with n power. It has taken at least two months to get transferred back to Npower and for them to give us a calculation of our bill.

British gas refunded all we had paid so far which was £411 Npower have just told us we owe them close to £1000. How can we know if this is right? And will they expect us to pay it all in one lump sum?

Any help or advice pwople would give would be greatly appreciated as we can't afford to payy that much.

Magentasue

You need to check the meter reading on the last bill from Npower and check your present meter reading. You can then work out what your bill should be (do a rough calculation using 10p, 12p or whatever you pay per kwh). Work out what you can afford to pay between you and contact npower to set up a payment plan. They will almost certainly be prepared to give you time to repay the debt, but there will be a limit on how long they will let it go on. If you can't afford to pay the bill fast enough, they will probably want to install a prepayment meter.

Si84

Thanks for the advice, The situation is further complicated by the fact that we have completed our time at university and will be moving out of the property this month.

Will they let us set up a payment plan if we are no longer customers?

I have just talked to Npower, and with all of the queries of incorrect meter readings I am unsure whether they are calculating from a correct initial reading.

They suggest I give them the serial number of the meter and they can investigate the meter to find out how much we owe but this can take 60 days?

This may cause a lot of problems in getting our house deposits back.

Cheers for the advice, currently trying to find an old Npower bill from a year ago.

Si84

Also if they are calculating a years electric at the current rate could that add to the bill? and is this right.

Sorry if it seems like I am totally lost, but I am.

Magentasue

They are less likely to set up a payment plan if none of you remain customers. You can but ask, but I would try and sort it before you close the account.

Premier_2

Si84 wrote: »

Also if they are calculating a years electric at the current rate could that add to the bill? and is this right.

Sorry if it seems like I am totally lost, but I am.

nPower reduced the price of their electricity at the end of March this year.

However it wont save you any money in this instance. If they have to calculate a whole years bill, they'll take account of price changes by using estimated readings at the time the price changes occured

ally663

I recently had a situation where NPower did not read my meter for approx ten months and when I sent readings they did not use them. So in effect they allowed me to stay on estimates for nearly a year which in turn when accurate readings were done we had racked up over £800. I contacted the 'NPower Executive Complaints Department' to complain about the problems I had been having. (I had sent a complaint to the customer services but it was ignored). Anyway I am suggesting this because at the ECD they were very thorough, supportive, apologetic and helpful. Just what you need when this sort of thing goes wrong. They have suggested a small goodwill gesture (which they did not have to do) and a payment plan. (However I will be remaining as a customer). All the best, hope it works out for you.

ally663

sorry.... you can find the address details for the Executive Complaints Department on the back of your bill.