Npower Issues

learning_to_drive

Hi,

I've got two kids and we live in a rented house with my partner, we moved in Jan and were given out first bill of £200 after the first quarter for dual fuel (Gas is very high, before we had an apartment and paid £118 per quarter for electricity which covered everything). We set up a payment plan and tried to pay some down but we had other debts coming out to cover plus a chunk of my income was delayed due to it being missed off the invoicing run.

Our next bill has arrived and we are now £550 in arrears and have started getting threatening letters, I called up to discuss and try work out a plan, Im now self employed and have tried to explain that I cant be stretching myself and will pay what I can afford but they dont seem to be interested that my income varies, I said I wouldnt be threatened with people coming to the house to tell me to change meters, or them turning up to fit prepayment meters (wouldnt suit us anyway with kids and we dont always have cash). Today we were put in touch with first steps which is their fuel poverty people, basically we dont qualify because they take into account the tax creds and child benefit (I chose to have kids and dont want sympathy) but this isnt true income, they arent interested and state they calculate it based upon that.

Also they sent me a payment card so I have had things on Amazon selling and made around £30 so far but awaiting another £50 coming in, when I post the items, I take the cash with me and pay it off my bill to at least show a bit of willing.

To cover my USAGE alone it's £113 p/m, I can afford that until my contract starts in Sept for some new work I am doing, but the arrears problem raises it's head, I have tried to explain that I am going to need some time to resolve this issue and overpay where I can, but I can cover my usage but then a further £100 per month for the arrears or whatever isn't affordable, they dont care and start threatening me with bailiffs or whatever, it left me a bit miffed. I have to speak to them again tomorrow when they assess whether my usage means I qualify for first steps however the signs dont look good and they dont seem to want to work with me.

Anyone got any advice? I know it needs to be paid and I agree with them but I cant understand why they cant see I cant pay it all, the first has to be £113 to cover usage and prevent falling further behind, we shall see though.

Anyone got any experience, how far do they go? I dont want all that where people turn up at the house and what not, ours is with a private landlord and I dont want him knowing we are struggling with power bills or any bills really, we have just signed a 1 year lease and are very happy where we are.

Would a switch be benenficial? I know we have to pay this bill but are other providers cheaper at the minute? I have never had to switch power suppliers before.

Thanks,

Vestra

There may be cheaper supplier but if you switch you will have to pay up to date which will be a further bill and they will want it paid then! If you are unable to pay for your future usage and the energy you have already used then it sounds like a prepayment meter might be the only option. You would be best getting a payment plan sorted as soon as possible as if you don't they can add on extra charges for debt visits and warrants.

Magentasue

As said, you won't be able to switch with your debt.

Now, the debt. You have two things to pay here, what you're using and the outstanding amount. If you refuse to have prepayment meters, the supplier will (reasonably) want you to pay an amount that reflects your use and repays the debt. There is a limit to how low they will go - if you cannot afford it, prepay is your only option. They will set the meter so you can take longer to repay your debt, which they can risk doing because you can't run it up any higher.

If you refuse the prepay, you are a risk - as fast as you're paying back, you're running up more debt - this is essentially what happened after your first bill. It looks as if they're giving you about six months - I can't honestly see them giving you more than a year which would mean they'd want about £160 a month. if you can afford that, I'd offer it and see what they say.

I don't mean to sound rude, but your finances seem a bit haphazard and, although I understand why you want to keep credit meters, prepayment meters would be one less bill to worry about. Bear in mind though, most suppliers charge you to change back to a credit meter after you've cleared the debt.

It may be worth checking with CAB or similar for free advice in case there are other benefits you can claim. As said above, you need to sort this before you end up paying charges on top of the bills.