Can anyone understand their electricity bill from npower?

marina101

My latest bill from npower is the most confusing bill I have ever received. Nowhere on the bill does it state when the price is going up or what it is going up to. The table showing how my payment for the next 12 months has been calculated shows 10 levels of pricing. When I rang npower to ask for an explanation, they agreed that the bill is incomprehensible and that the tables are meaningless. I can only have electricity, but at three different rates.
Usually npower overestimate my usage, last year by as much as 40% and it takes lots of arguing for them to agree to maintain current payment. This year they have underestimated the usage by 30% and the bill bears no relation to previous usage. Is this a way of making me repay in future at the higher prices? Has anybody else found their bills meaningless?

DaveF327

I have found the bills to be understandable, but not exactly "at a glance". They take some following, but they do make logical and mathematical sense.

The notification of a price rise and the new rates was in a separate letter (well, two - one for electricity and one for gas) and not part of any bill.

To prevent gross overestimates of my usage, I submit regular meter readings online, ideally monthly, but failing that, at least every other month.

I've never had to argue over payments. In fact, when I saw my gas account was slipping into arrears, I voluntarily increased my direct debit before they did, now months later, my latest bill shows me in credit and they're now reducing my payment. If you find they're trying to increase your debit to unmanageable amounts, it sounds like you've had your payment set too low for too long.