Npower- monthly price changes- OUCH!!

JoWinn09

We moved into this house 12 months ago. As we changed suppliers with this house we had a clean slate- so our minimum monthly payments were set to £100 ( £ 50 for each). 12 months on we have had our first review and have been given a hefty £401 a month :eek: minimum monthly payment ( thats an unbearable increase):mad::mad::mad::mad:.

Firstly is there anything we can do to help us with reducing the payments?
:money:Secondly- Can I advise that any new house buyers do not pay the minimum monthly payment and pay extra to avoid the shock of a big payment change.

Thanks
Jo

molerat

£100 pcm is about average. Have you actually checked your meter readings. Is the review based on actual or estimated usage. What was your actual usage over the year. Check what the gas meter reads in, cu m or cu ft. Does the bill agree.

It might be an unbearable increase but if you have been using that amount of energy, which is hard to believe unless you live in a mansion converted to a sauna or growing cannabis in the attic, you will have to pay for it.

So many questions, so little information.

KimYeovil

All a stup^h^h^h^h new householder has to do is read their meters and check how much they are using. And compare that with how much they want to pay. This is something most people will do as a matter of course (particularly when they have moved to a new building that will have it's own and different consumption patterns).

What possessed you not to keep track of how much you were using?

To lower your payments pay off any debt in one lump sum. And reduce your consumption.

KimYeovil

(By the way, your poll is useless as the answers are unfair - they are all of the "heads we're innocent tails they're guilty" variety.)

deshepherd

Its down to the us- we should overpay from the start to avoid this

Note, you are probably being hit by a combination of underpayments in the last year leaving a debit to be paid + Npower's new "6 monthly reviews" which means that rather than smoothing payments over a year (i.e. same amoutn every month so you pay less than you use in the winter and pay more than you use in the summer) they now are setting payments in the 6months from Oct/Nov to cover the expected winter usage.

2nd part happened to me ... my regular payments over last 12 months ended with my account being virtually balanaced at start of October - review of charges and payments confirmed that my current payments were spot on to cover 12 months usage ... but due to the 6 monthly reviews they wanted to increase my DD by 30-40% ... to make things worse when I phone to complain they took new meter readings to correct an estimtated gas reading which was too high and somehow they managed to rebill me with an even higher increase. Anyway, the bad news for Npower was this caused me to check against other suppliers and I'm now in the process of switching to Eon and should reduce my bill by 20% .... though I'm resigned to higher DDs this winter as Eon plan DDs to break even at end of winter.

jhe

we are with n power for gas. they have just read meter and refunded £240 and dropped our monthly payment by £17. i could understand this if it was summer but we are going to be in arrears in 6 month time

dogshome

YES- Of Course

Hi JoWinn09 - As a regular contributor to this particular forum, I must disassociate myself from KimYeovils post - The truth is that the changes made to the Utilities Act in 2002 made what should be the simple purchase of Electricity & Gas, an absolute minefield for consumers, and apart from this site, there seems to be no other public Educatuion Centre.
So if you are new to the game, sooner or later your innocence will cost money.
To protect yourself, never accept an estimated bill - If you get one immediately phone your supplier with your meter readings and get a new bill. Keep your bills and when you have 4 you can accurately work out your annual consumption which you can use to check the actual costs from alternative suppliers. Check every single calculation on those bills. Never accept the word of a street canvasser or phone salesman that thier company will be cheaper
n'power are almost unique in only billing every 6 months, (twice a year), but you have been with them that long and should have sufficient bills to add up your years use, so visit some switchsites,(more than one and I'd recommend you start with "switchwithwhich), to see who's got a better tariff for your particular consumpton. Take care with other tariffs from from n'power, the bottom line often looks good but it is subject to very high annual discounts hedged around with small print - Make sure you've had this discount on your last bill before you leave them
There whole lot more you should be aware of and the best thing is to regularly visit this section of Martin's site
Now for the Big One - You have the meter readings for what you use in a year. Sit down with the bills and apply those figures to the tariff you are on, when you have a total including the VAT, divide it by 12 to give the level of what your monthly D/Debits should be to pay for it, if you have debt on either of the accounts, (which you should not have at this yime of year), add this in. My bet is that it will be less than the £401 n'power are demanding. If the difference is more than £100, write to n'power heading the letter Complaint listing your calculation of your annual cost and asking n'power to either prove their figures or lower the D/D level to your figure
All the Best

mattcanary

KimYeovil,do you always have to be so unpleasant??!! I would agree with what DogsHome has said, JoWinn. Don't take what NPOwer say you should be paying each month as gospel.
I would suggest paying by DD is not the bst way to pay for your electric anyway, and certainly not when you only get sent statements twice a year! Why the hell do NPower think this is good practice??

Gerrard_8_lfc

Its not that kim is being unpleasant its people always pointing the finger at anyone but themselfs.

A utility company is there to provide you with gas and electric ect. they do not need to wait on debt that you owe for gas and elec. check your meter give updates that keeps you right and npower right.

and if you are unhappy with 6 month billing change supplier easy ?

mattcanary

Kim's advice is incorrect anyway. You do not lower your payments by paying in one lump sum. So as well as being offensive, she is wrong!

KimYeovil

mattcanary wrote: »

Kim's advice is incorrect anyway. You do not lower your payments by paying in one lump sum. So as well as being offensive, she is wrong!

Please explain this nonsensical statement. Plenty of people manage their Debits by making additional one-off payments to adjust their balance.

And what on earth is wrong with sending statements once every six months? People have meters in their home. They know how much they are using.