Npower error - should I have to pay?

willyontour

I signed up for a fixed rate Npower deal in March 2008. I don't live in the UK and I have no idea how much an average bill should be. The property is a rented property.

Npower set me up on 20 pounds a month. I now know that isnt sufficient but at the time I was not aware. It was npower that set the monthly rate and I set up a direct debit.

They have not sent me any bills at all!

Now I saw a Direct debit to them for 450 pounds. I emailed them immediately and they told me that I have to pay 450 pounds for the next 7 months in order to pay off what I apparently owe them.

I was under the impression that I had fixed my payment for 3 years.

I can't afford to pay what they are asking?

What should be done in this situation? Surely npower should have informed me before changing my DD from 20 pounds (which it has been for 16 months) to 450 pounds?

Any advice?

Thanks

DVardysShadow

How much do you owe them?

nPower

Hi

I'm sorry to hear about your situation.

Direct debit payments are calculated according to how much energy you normally use in a year. If however, your new tenants are using more than your previous ones, a debt could build up on the account as the monthly payments will not be enough to cover their energy use.

npower should have sent letters informing you that your payment amounts would be increasing before they changed the amount. They would have also sent you statements indicating that a debt on the account was increasing.

I am an npower company representative - if you private message me your npower account details or address, I can take a look into your account details for you?

Thanks

System

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi

I'm sorry to hear about your situation.

Direct debit payments are calculated according to how much energy you normally use in a year.

can you explain why npower tried to increase my payments from £89 to £125 pm ? when i contacted them i was told the correct amount should have been £97 ! i got the whole "automatic increase" talk apparently its the computers fault its just a greedy so + so !