Npower and large backdated bill

grahamdoc

Hi people I could do with some advice on how to deal with my present problem.


On the 22/03/06 an Npower rep called to the house and talked us into transferring our account to Npower, which we agreed to do.
The transfer was completed 3 months later and we got our first bill on the 18 September 2006. the rep did not take a meter reading at the time of the transfer, in fact the meter was not read until the 03 February 2009. all bills we received have been estimated up till then. So as you have guessed on the 9 February 2009, we received an amended bill for £2448.54. once all the previous payments we made had been added to the total the bill was reduced to £1971.63.


secondly, I live in a semi-detached house with my wife and two children Nick 20 is never home and Jodie spends all her time on the internet like me when I'm not at work, wifey watches the TV when she is not at work, yet our electricity bill is about £170.00 a month, does anyone have any info on how to test the meter.


Returning to the first point, when the electric bill was amended. The bill was amended from 01 march 2007 and not from the earliest estimated bill 18 September 2006. now im a great believer in I used it so ill pay for it, but since 9 February 2009 ive been paying £212.00 each month ( a weeks wage) to clear this debt, I just got an email to say the new bill has been worked out and its £1540.65. I'm getting nowhere, does anyone have any way I can deal with this.
In case it makes a difference we are on a standard tariff paying by direct debit and both gas and electricity is with Npower.

savemoney

Standards tariffs tend to be expensive if it was me obviously in hindsight I would have given the company at start a meter reading and then meter readings regularly rather than rely on estimated readings which many people for foul of and then pay catchup

If you want to monitor usage take regularly readings on meter ie once a week or fit a smart meter like the owl which are around £35 which can tell you in real time your usage although they are not 100% accurate

Generally the most units consumed are for heating, showers, bathing, large tv especially plasma, kettles (although only take 2 minutes @ 3Kwh), washing machine, tumble and perhaps vacuum cleaner 1000-1400watts

We are family of 4 with 2 teenagers and use around 13-14kwh per day on average this doesn't change much in Winter but obviously our heating does which is gas. We all have tvs in rooms most on during night with pvrs and computers too

If you have electric heating or immersion heater that may add a lot to your energy bill especially in Winter

Get of standard tarrif when you can and shop around you might have to resolve this first and pay any debt

I pay £85 per month for both and have slight debt still due to high usage last Winter for gas but credit for electric

Premier_2

grahamdoc wrote: »

Hi people I could do with some advice on how to deal with my present problem.


On the 22/03/06 an Npower rep called to the house and talked us into transferring our account to Npower, which we agreed to do.
The transfer was completed 3 months later and we got our first bill on the 18 September 2006. the rep did not take a meter reading at the time of the transfer, in fact the meter was not read until the 03 February 2009. all bills we received have been estimated up till then. So as you have guessed on the 9 February 2009, we received an amended bill for £2448.54. once all the previous payments we made had been added to the total the bill was reduced to £1971.63.


secondly, I live in a semi-detached house with my wife and two children Nick 20 is never home and Jodie spends all her time on the internet like me when I'm not at work, wifey watches the TV when she is not at work, yet our electricity bill is about £170.00 a month, does anyone have any info on how to test the meter.


Returning to the first point, when the electric bill was amended. The bill was amended from 01 march 2007 and not from the earliest estimated bill 18 September 2006. now im a great believer in I used it so ill pay for it, but since 9 February 2009 ive been paying £212.00 each month ( a weeks wage) to clear this debt, I just got an email to say the new bill has been worked out and its £1540.65. I'm getting nowhere, does anyone have any way I can deal with this.
In case it makes a difference we are on a standard tariff paying by direct debit and both gas and electricity is with Npower.

Regular meter readings!

Without them, you have no idea of what you are consuming. Take them regularly yourself and perhaps use a site such as imeasure.org.uk to keep an eye on your ongoing consumption costs.

With that detail, the amount of debt you have and the amount you are paying, you'll be able to see the plan to the day you are hopefully debt free.

Loubylou2

Hi
We've got a similar problem. Transferred to eon last october as they promised to reduce our bill. Our monthly direct debit reduced by about £13 per month to £107 per month for both. Anyway we get our bills o line and TBH I haven't apid much attention to them as we have had someone out to read the meter about 3 times since then.

We got a bill today tellingus that our direct debit is increasig to £327 per moth and without warning we are suddenly £700 in arrears.
We are in shock as have just started a DMP so can definitely not afford that.

OH spoke to eon at length but of course we don't have any old bills now to prove what we were paying before. We did give them a reading when we started though.
They are claiming that we have never had an actual reading and the company that do the meter readings are saying that they couldn't gain access which is definitely not true.

The lady we spoke to has said that £327 is a reasonable amount for what we use but I can't believe that. She has agreed to hold fire on the increase and we are to take our own readings for the next 2 weeks to see our consumption. I can't see how this would help though.
I really don't know what to do so as has been said any advice would be welcome.
Thanks

grahamdoc

The replys I have here are not of much use, you may wish to try here, I cant post a link so google the name

consumeractiongroup

Its the same as this site but people tend to get stuck in with the help.
im not pitching either site, as this site is great for lots of stuff.
good luck Graham

st999

The replys I have here are not of much use

The reason the replies you have had here are not much use are because you have not given enough information.

Is electricity all that you use or do you have gas?

Quoting amounts of money are no use, that is how you got into this mess in the first place.

Anyone can reduce their direct debit but if they do not reduce their consumption as well they will run up a large debt.

You need to tell us the actual kWhs that you are using, either daily, monthly or yearly.

You also need to tell us your actual tariff, preferably cost per kWh and standing charge if applicable.

grahamdoc

1. please read the last sentence of my first post.
2. I got into this mess in the first place, because I assumed the people responsible for supplying my power supply wore competent enough to get it right. Had I have known the readings would have been vastly inaccurate I would have checked them as and when the bill was received. Its of no use telling me I should have been checking the meter readings now, I know that tell me something I don't know.
3. I'm not a 5 year old, I know reducing consumption will also reduce costs, hay lets put it to the test, (Kwh+consumption=cost), Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it works and with no mention of monies.

The point of the post was no to establish the benefits of meter reading, nor do I require an assistance in debt management. No I was hoping for some advice on the principles of law and any legal, tests avaliable to me. Perhaps someone could have given me some pointers about how to go about dealing with Npower and reducing this debt, like the advice I got from consumeractiongroup site.


I wish I never posted this in the first place, But I'm a quick learner, I won't do it again.

macman

You got into this mess because you didn't take a reading at transfer time (it's not the rep's job to do that , it's yours-reps do not do meter readings, they're just interested in their commission).
Then you did not submit a reading for a further two and a half years and failed to check any of your bills against actual consumption, even though you apparently knew they were estimated. They are only obliged to read your meter every two years.
At the start of the contract just how is the utility co. supposed to know what your average consumption is, when you don't know yourself?
The rep told you he could reduce your monthly DD and you fell for it.

grahamdoc

Macman,
Correct on all accounts, now tell me something I don't Know.
Something of more use.

macman

I don't know what advice you were expecting? You've used the energy, it has to be paid for, and so you now have to work out an acceptable repayment plan with nPower. Normally if the debt has accumulated over a certain period then you will be given a similar period to pay it back.
The first thing to do is get off the standard tariff, which is always the most expensive. Use a comparison site to find the cheapest npower tariff. If you've been on standard for 4 years then you've been throwing money away.
Then work out what your actual consumption is, monitor it and work out ways to reduce it.