NPower want to up my Direct Debit by......

rach83

£35 a month. We currently pay £50 a month and live in a one bed flat (all electric). We put the heating on in mid October (ancient under floor heating which only works in lounge and bedroom). NPower read our meter on 23rd November and the resulting bill showed that we were £6 odd in debt.

Now I appreciate it may need to be increased a bit say by £15 or so but I think that £35 is a bit much. I dont want to pay £35 and then find that I am in credit and NPower are sat on my money (we have a baby on the way and I am seriously watching the pennies!) As soon as I moved into this place back in May of this year and I found out that NPower were the supplier I wanted to switch as I personally find them to be expensive. I attempted to move to EDF Energy as I have used them before and found them to be competitive and thought that their service was reasonably good. For some reason I cant do this due to my Economy 7 meter. I find this strange as I lived in a different flat in the same block with the same meters and I used them?! I also tried Scottish Power as they came out cheapest on price comparison websites but again they could not help due to the meters.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

PsiDOC

Call them.
I found them very approchable when they tried it on with me and wanted to up my DD by £30 a month ( I pay £70 for both gas and electric) after looking at the figures the CSR agreed no action was needed and halted the DD change.
Communication is key. Be polite and explain clearly. I am sure you can sort it.

Psi

Fire_Fox

Read your own meter now you have had the heating on for a while, roughly calculate your next bill, pick yourself up off the floor and pay the £35 extra. If money is tight I don't know why you put the heating on in October?? You really need to find out exactly why the transfer is being blocked, E7 is not an unusual tariff so all suppliers will support this. Are you sure you haven't got an E10 meter?

stubbs0907

i work for npower and i know this may seem like a large increase.
the systems take into consideration many factors such as last years usage for the same period and also bear in mind that their have been some price increases this year which will need to be looked at.
i would definately advise you to call them and explain that you feel its a little bit too much. they may be able to explain something to you.
if yuour in debt now after the summer months you will definately need to increase your prices but by how much i cant say without knowing how many units you are using per day etc

so call them. it might be handy for you to take 5 daily reads before you ring and they can work out how many units you are using etc and this can be used to compare what you were using in summer and can sometimes explain why they want to increase it so much,

Cardew

Companies will not refuse to take you as a customer because you have Economy 7.

Also ancient underfloor heating doesn't sound like it will utilize Economy 7 but more like Economy 10.

On your November bill how many rates are they charging? If you can post the rates it might give an indication.

HannahCF

Hiya,

I live in a 2 bedroom flat with economy 7 storage heaters and I'm with Scottish Power. I was N Power and switched with them as soon as I moved in. They fitted in a new meter too.

Premier_2

rach83 wrote: »

... I attempted to move to EDF Energy as I have used them before and found them to be competitive and thought that their service was reasonably good. For some reason I cant do this due to my Economy 7 meter. I find this strange as I lived in a different flat in the same block with the same meters and I used them?! ...

There was a thread about a month ago regarding this. It isn't about E7 in particular, but about the MTC code of your MPAN

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2060315

Could this be the same issue you have?