N Power bill shocker!

andygb

SwanJon wrote: »

This sounds liek a different situation to others on this thread - your outsanding balance was froma final bill, but others already have an outstanding balance when they are looking to leave.
Suppliers can object to a customer leaving if they have any outstanding balance over 28 days old.

I had an outstanding balance, which I am now paying off. I knew I would have an outstanding balance and switched suppliers, is that so difficult to understand? The very reason I chose to switch was because I received a bill which was extraordinary.

lfckerry

An update- i just called N Power about my bill and now they are saying im only £140 in debit-quite a difference from over £400 hey! they have reduced my payments to £94 per month to cover any outstanding balance. I honestly dont have a clue where they get their figures from! They said its because i have made a payment since the last statement-but surely not enough to reduce the debit by £250. its a joke!

medini

I really don't know what to do at the moment. Npower is demanding more money than we can afford to pay.

When my partner moved into a one bedroom groundfloor flat last june he went with npower as the previous tennant had been with them. The bill was £50 a month for both gas and electricity. I moved in with him in feb this year. In May they tried to take a payment of £160.00 without telling us that the DD had been raised. We had provided them with meter readings and paid all the bills up til thenm, but somehow we had ran up a debt of £600.

We usually have all the bills set up from his account and everything elseand the rent paid for through my account, as he didn't expect the sudden price rise the extra payment to npower caused a few smaller dd's to bounce. We has to request an indemnity claim on the dd in order to have money to pay the other bills.

Around the same time I lost my job, as I was on a tempoary contract I didn't get any extra money when finished, just a weeks wages I had worked in hand. I have been unemployed for three months now and Its becoming a real struggle to pay everything we need to.

We explained to Npower what had happened, they agreed that we could pay £50 a month and pay the debt back over a longer period, the next month they tried to take £160.00 again, this time the direct debit failed as the extra £110 they requested had already been used to pay rent. We spoke to npower again, they agreed to send us a recalculated bill. My partner cancelled the direct debit without me knowing, intending to set it back up when they sent us a revised bill.

This morning we got a letter from Npower stating that we now owe them £822.00 that they demand be paid within 7 days. When we contacted Npower to discuss the situation they gave us 2 options 1) pay it all now or 2) pay half within 7 days and then be forced to have a pre-pay meter paid, although half of what we pay for the meter card will be used to pay off the outstanding debt. I suppose we could always go for option 3) wait for them to send someone round to take all our stuff, but that never works out well for anyone.

creditboy

Vestra wrote: »

Well then you got lucky. If a debt on an account is older than 28 days the supplier may block the transfer.

If the supplier allows the transfer to go through a closing balance will be calculated once the final reading is received, this is usually asked to be paid within 10 days of receipt of bill, sometimes a supplier will allow a final payment plan to be set up but usually only spreading the debt over 3 months.

I changed supplier to Eon no problem and have set up a fixed payment plan to cover the outstanding balance of the final bill from N Power over 12 months.

nickj_2

i think that all companies have hiked their elec rates up no end and now we are just starting to see the effects after a cold winter , i was paying 17 a month for elec , it's just gone up to 45 a month - that was with atlantic so i've just changes to brit gas who wrok out at 100 cheaper per year

desperate+determined

lfckerry wrote: »

We are currently with N Power for our gas and electricity and have been since november last year.
We were paying £35p.m for gas and the same for electric( 2 of us in a 2 bed semi)
A couple of weeks ago we got our 6 monthly bill which changed our DD to £82p.m for gas(based on actual reading) and £2p.m(i laughed too!) for electric(based on 1 actual reading and then estimates).
I called them as this was clearly wrong and was told i would get a new bill-and gave them an actual reading for the electric. Few days later i get a new combined bill of £150p.m as they say we are now £400 in debit and are putting it up for 6 months then will reduce it back(not that theres much point as it doesnt seem we were paying enough anyway).
My main point is why dont they let you know if you arent paying enough earlier on instead of waiting 6mths till we owe over £400 and then more than doubling our monthly payments?
Also, if we decide to move suppliers do we have to pay the outstanding debit in one go or can we arrange a repayment plan?
Thanks
Kerry

I've just had the same problem with Npower, I currently pay £30 per month on a 2 bed semi (occupants 1 adult + 1 child 9under 5))

I called them to find out what my account situation was as i wanted to change supplier, only to find out the I owed the £368.43 in arrears. They told me they wanted to put my DD up to £117 pm i argued as i can't afford that so got it reduced to £86 pm. My point is that they have never once informed me that my DD wasn't enough. I even queried this when i got my original DD amount as i believed it was enough, that kept saying its fine no probs.

Why do they do this?

desperate+determined

andygb wrote: »

I am sorry, but you are wrong about this. I was with NPower, and switched over to EON back in May. I am paying the balance of the NPower bill over 24 months.

Thats good to know as i'm desperate to switch but Npower said i can't ntil payment of arrears cleared.

littleD

LOOK WHAT DROPPED ON THE DOORMAT YESTERDAY!

YES, NPOWER

£1144.88 debit

This is the amount you've spent on electricity
from 26-Jul-2008 to 5-Aug-2009

Totally based on our meter reading

your electricity balance is £654.88 debit

This is the amount you've spent on gas
from 29-Jul-2008 to 5-Aug-2009

£746.63 debit

Totally based on our meter reading

your gas balance is £246.63 debit

Total cost £1891.51 debit

£901.51 debit

Your usage has been accurately calculated as we've used up-to-date
meter readings for electricity and gas. This may include adjustments for
any previous under or over estimating

Your payment amount has been assessed against your consumption and
a new payment amount calculated.

£244.00

You can reduce your payment amount by paying any outstanding balance

I was paying £120 pm with edf for dual fuel, when the panick about capping ASAP broke out I went with Npower 2011 fixed, npower suggested £90 pm for dual fuel as it would "even itself out".

I contacted npower 3 times to get the monthly payments raised, told they would get customer care to contact me - never happened - thus £901.51 debit - talk about a fool and his money.

Now, some advice here please (could certainly use it) I was thinking of first of all paying off the debit I owe and starting afresh with another supplyer but this time stipulating that I WANT to pay £150pm, I don't mind being out by a couple of hundred either way but nearly a grand is well beyond a joke - any suggestions folks please?

Sorry, another question - does the electricity consumption look a bit on the high side - 3 bed house, cooker, hob, (cook from scratch most nights, no ready meals so probably using quite a lot) freezer and fridge freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, TV (not on that much).

Any help appreciated!

aelitaman

Depends on your Tariffs we really need to know units of elecy used and KWh gas used.

But it looks like your elecy is high and your gas is low.

Are you on an economy 7 tariff?

mrtobs

We wouldn't go with npower again - we were living in a property that had a pre-payment meter & when we left they wrote to us to tell us that we owed them money. When we rang them, they couldn't tell us why/provide any sort of explanation about what it was for, but just said that we had to pay it! Of course, we took this further and (EVENTUALLY, after many phone calls & chasing up from us) they told us that it was because they'd put the prices up and hadn't amended our meter. They told us that a letter had been sent to us (which we'd never received), but couldn't provide a copy of this or even tell us what it had said! As we'd had no notification, we told them that we wouldn't pay it. Eventually, they agreed "on this occasion...as a goodwill gesture...blah...blah" to write off the bill. They were just so incompetant and disinterested that we'd never go back to them. Hope you manage to sort it & swap over to another supplier soon!