Account Always £100+ in Credit - How To Get It Back?

bjblackmore

Hi,

Our NPower Dual Fuel online account is always in credit. Over the past year we've had 4 bills, in credit by £100, £150, £30 (winter bill) and now £131.

They only ever seem to suggest increasing your monthly direct debit on the bills, if they calculate you'll end up short. They never voluntarily suggest lowering it when in credit.

I could phone them and ask them to reduce the monthly DD by £10 so in a year the £130 credit should be closer to the balance. But I'd rather £130 was sitting in my savings account, rather than theirs. How much do you have to be in credit by to be able to ask them to pay it all back? How do you go about this, I can imagine them getting quite funny about it over the phone, if you ask for the whole lot back!

Thanks

Ben

bossymommy

The money is yours, so you are entitled to it. I would telephone them and tell them you want the money back. I was in credit with BG last year, by about £60 and they just automatically sent the amount into my bank account, and reduced my monthly payments. Just give them a call

dogshome

Hi bjblackmore - It's actually worse than you think.
Over the winter n'power would have 'Sculpted' your Gas Bills by adding a lot of Prime units to your bills, which they then balance out on the years total by reducing the number of Prime units charged in Summer - So they should actually reduce your monthly D/D's in Summer, but it seems that whilst we are now well into May they seem to have so far 'forgotten' this.

Personally I would not touch n'power with a barge pole, but if you decide to switch be aware that the large Annual Direct Debit disount they offer that put's them in the Best Buy tables, is exactly what it says on the tin - You have to have made 12 consecutive D/D payments since you last got the discount to qualify for the next one - If you switch before 12 D/D's are paid, the discount is lost.

Put it this way - The discount is in fact money you gave them in the first place, but stretch the rules by just 1mm and they get to keep it.
If you switch, do so immediately after getting a bill showing deducted discount, and even then on every D/D you pay until the switch you will have paid towards a discount you will never get

bjblackmore

Thanks guys. I'm going to phone and ask for the money back. We have the dual fuel online discount, which I believe is paid end of March/Begining of April on our account. So it should have been applied by now. I will look into switching now, I hadn't for a while, as all the supliers were going through a process of cutting prices, and I wanted to wait until they had all done it!

Ben

KimYeovil

dogshome wrote: »

[...]
Over the winter n'power would have 'Sculpted' your Gas Bills by adding a lot of Prime units to your bills, which they then balance out on the years total by reducing the number of Prime units charged in Summer - So they should actually reduce your monthly D/D's in Summer, but it seems that whilst we are now well into May they seem to have so far 'forgotten' this.[...]

I don't understand. What has seasonal sculpting got to do with anything? Why should the debits be reduced in summer? I thought you were a proponent of monthly payments being a twelfth of the annual cost?

But, yes, OP, you should be due a reduction in your payment for this year (or a refund - it is YOUR choice to demand which.) And as Dogshome mentions you should determine whether the £105 anniversary discount has been applied - you may well should be £200-odd in credit.

Plushchris

dogshome wrote: »

Hi bjblackmore - It's actually worse than you think.
Over the winter n'power would have 'Sculpted' your Gas Bills by adding a lot of Prime units to your bills, which they then balance out on the years total by reducing the number of Prime units charged in Summer - So they should actually reduce your monthly D/D's in Summer, but it seems that whilst we are now well into May they seem to have so far 'forgotten' this.

Depends what tariff the OP is on, they could be on one of the Npower tariffs that have standing charges so the sculpting wouldnt apply.

epsilondraconis

dogshome wrote: »

Hi bjblackmore - It's actually worse than you think.
Over the winter n'power would have 'Sculpted' your Gas Bills by adding a lot of Prime units to your bills, which they then balance out on the years total by reducing the number of Prime units charged in Summer - So they should actually reduce your monthly D/D's in Summer, but it seems that whilst we are now well into May they seem to have so far 'forgotten' this.

Personally I would not touch n'power with a barge pole, but if you decide to switch be aware that the large Annual Direct Debit disount they offer that put's them in the Best Buy tables, is exactly what it says on the tin - You have to have made 12 consecutive D/D payments since you last got the discount to qualify for the next one - If you switch before 12 D/D's are paid, the discount is lost.

Put it this way - The discount is in fact money you gave them in the first place, but stretch the rules by just 1mm and they get to keep it.
If you switch, do so immediately after getting a bill showing deducted discount, and even then on every D/D you pay until the switch you will have paid towards a discount you will never get

This was the reason I moved away from nPower (I also ensured I left as soon as I received the dual fuel discount on my bill). I lost only about £15 as a result of their sculpting methods.

From the sculpting thread on MSE, I've seen a number of people that have claimed back their money; however it sounded rather tortuous. I've simply decided never to use them again.

kjsmith7

Another thing to note is you may prefer not to pay via direct debit. You may not be tied into paying via direct debit, but this depends on your tariff. You may prefer to keep the money in your savings account and just pay into it monthly as you would into your gas/electricity account via direct debit and then write a cheque, pay via BACS or via debit card each quarter. You would lose your direct debit discount, however, which may work out more than the interest you would gain in your savings account, so check that out first too Just another option for you if you have no joy!