Npower Bill shock!

Rengox

I am an Npower customer and currently pay £75 a month (as I cannot afford to pay the full bill all at once)
Yesterday I recieved a letter from them telling me to disregard any agreement I had with them and that from 4th November I must now pay £120.00 per month due to my estimated usage over the next 6 months.

This seems like quite a large hike especially as I live alone in a flat and use my heating very sparingly.

I'm not sure what I should do from here..any advice?

dogshome

Hi Rengox - Your post is a bit short on detail, but at a guess I presume you are in a flat with ECO7 heating & hot water.

A rough guide for this type of set-up would be an Annual cost of £1200 a year and note that this is on a tariff that has discounts for D/D payments and Online BIlling, without these the cost could be £1400 a year.
The key to lowering these costs, is to reduce the amount of power you are consuming during the Day

The £75 amonth you are paying, does it include money to pay off some debt, or is it the level your D/D's were set at when you moved in ?
Please post answers to above and advise how many Storage Radiators you have

Rengox

Hi Dogshome,

The £75 a month was set up when I recieved a bill in January for £400 and arranged to pay this off monthly (I was set a schedule which took me into 2011 and was quite happy to pay this)

As to radiators (I know that I sound like such a girl as I write this and I'm a bit embarrassed) I have 6 in total in the flat, but I'm not sure what storage radiators means so..

I am out during the day so the heating is off-during the summer etc it was only used for hot water (shower mainly) and I have only just started putting it on for about 30 mins in the evening as the flat gets freezing.

I know I sound like a complete ignoramus here, but this is my first flat and I have no idea what I should be paying etc and I desperately don't want to be a mug about it.!

Thanks so much for your help..:o

Rengox

Sorry I should point out that I have turned all but 2 radiators off in the flat so I'm not using them all-don't know if that makes any difference...?

Premier_2

Rengox wrote: »

Sorry I should point out that I have turned all but 2 radiators off in the flat so I'm not using them all-don't know if that makes any difference...?

Probably not much if you open the doors - all that is happening is that these 2 heaters have to work 3 times as hard to make up for the 4 you turned off.

As to your billing, you need to know how much you use per year.
You need meter readings and tariff details to double check the calculation.

You should be paying 1/12 of your annual cost per month (but it can sometimes get a bit more complicated as some suppliers aim for a 'zero' break even point at a certain time of the year e.g. March.

You also need to add to the monthly amount for energy, the agreed monthly amount to repay any debt that exists.

dogshome

Hi again Rengox
From your post you have been paying £75 a month, which includes a £34 contribution to a £400 debt that built up over last winter - Assuming you are on n'powers usual billing frequency of 6 months, for the six months from August 09 to Feb 10, your cost was a D/Debit of £41 x 6 = £246, plus £400 debt, which totals £646.00 - Doubling this for the full year comes to £1292.00, which is right on the button for an ECO7 heated flat, but even with the Debt Repayment excluded, it will need a monthly D/Debit payment of £108.00

The big dis-advantage of ECO7 heating, apart from giving out the least heat in the Evenings when you need it most, is that whilst you get cheap power overnight, the power you use during the day is a great deal more expensive than that supplied via a 'Standard' meter
If you possibly can, run Washing machines, Dryers etc. overnight on the cheap rate.

Collect together your annual useage figures from past bills, or ask N'power for them and visit a few Switch sites for prices from other suppliers - I always start with 'switchwithwhich' - But be aware that on most n'power tariffs there is a high cash-back figure that kicks in after you have made 12 consecutive monthly D/Debit payments - If you switch before making the 12 you will lose it

ManicMum

I had exact same letter. Was paying £75, then shot up to £120. I have now switched to Eon. do a price comparison website - then get cashback either through comparison website or I went through Topcashback and got £55.

Rengox

Thanks guys, lots to think about there-I'll get on it and see where I can improve! :T