NPower - About to apply for a Warrant;

SimIsOnTheUp

Cardew wrote: »

NPower have standard procedures in this situation.

They want to fit a pre-pay meter. You can refuse but it will simply add to your debt and you are just buying some time at the expense of more debt.

It is simply your decision which course of action you feel will enable you to handle your debts best.

This is perhaps not the best area of MSE to ask for advice. It is generally felt here that you should pay off debts, other areas of MSE take a different view.

Yes, you are right. I am in a sense 'buying time', but at present, that is my only option if I'm to have any electric.

I thought this would be a good MSE board to post on regarding this, as my query is related to my Electric bill, and this is a Utilities board!

I wish I could pay off my debts. However, right now, I'm not in a position to.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have been in this situation.

Your tone is most unwelcoming, and your post most unhelpful, however I'm assuming that this was your intention!

KimYeovil

Why do you need any electricity? Why do you need any food? Just live on whatever is in your store-cupboards for a few weeks.

You have had previous experience of credit meters and prepayment meters. Either way you seem to have not bothered to adjust your consumption to suit your budget. Your suggestions that it is not 'sustainable' is silly - your suggestion that it is 'more expensive' is also silly - if you had adjusted to whatever cheaper arrangement was available you would not have ended up in this situation.

It seems to be that you are the sort who continues to mess around and not pay attention until stringent measures are taken. You have had plenty of time to sort yourself out previously - you never bothered to take any of the several opportunities. Patience runs out. Funny how it is only then that you promise this time to be different - there were previous 'this times' that you let slip. What difference does a couple of weeks make? You could have decided before now to do what you promise to want to do now.

Why not ask your girlfriend to help - or did she come to her senses long before nPower?

macman

I'm amazed that npower have even offered to let you repay at £3.05 a week. Given that it would take nearly 6 years at that rate, do you realistically think you will maintain this?
I think that long term you'd be better off on pre-pay, and it's absurd to add another £200 debt in the meantime by making them get a warrant: that's going to add more than a year to the repayment schedule.

undaunted

Despite the sceptics & "satire" (I doubt even Kym really believes a lot of what he / she posts) I think that sounds promising.

IF Npower do attempt to get a warrant in the meantime you must still go to Court in order to contest it but I doubt that they will do so once Fuel Direct is put forward as a solution by Consumer Focus.

In terms of proof you should be able to authorise the DWP to confirm to Consumer Focus your claim status & they in turn can advise Npower of this etc if necessary

As to the amount Npower will have no choice but to accept that kind of sum - Fuel Direct is a fixed amount paid directly from benefits, & based upon what it is considered anyone on benefits can afford. (and they should in theory at least - not always in practice & another reason to fight the meter going in! - only be collecting a similar level of debt if they were to fit a PPM given License condition requirements to consider affordability) Despite past payment problems with this arrangement you could not default on it even if you wanted to & a Judge should therefore have no real reason to reject that solution by issuing a warrant. (Obviously you may need to look at the position again in future if you come of benefits)

Incidentally I'm not sure what your complete situation is but it may be worth a look at whether any of the various social tarrifs or grants might apply to you. Although suppliers are supposed to be proactive in attempting to identify vulnerable customers & solutions Npower are in my opinion just a dreadful and unreasonable company who are unlikely to have made much effort to do so I'm afraid!

http://www.npower.com/spreading_warmth/Content/npower-energy-trust/index.htm

Good luck.

SimIsOnTheUp

undaunted wrote: »

Despite the sceptics & "satire" (I doubt even Kym really believes a lot of what he / she posts) I think that sounds promising.

IF Npower do attempt to get a warrant in the meantime you must still go to Court in order to contest it but I doubt that they will do so once Fuel Direct is put forward as a solution by Consumer Focus.

In terms of proof you should be able to authorise the DWP to confirm to Consumer Focus your claim status & they in turn can advise Npower of this etc if necessary

As to the amount Npower will have no choice but to accept that kind of sum - Fuel Direct is a fixed amount paid directly from benefits, & based upon what it is considered anyone on benefits can afford. (and they should in theory at least - not always in practice & another reason to fight the meter going in! - only be collecting a similar level of debt if they were to fit a PPM given License condition requirements to consider affordability) Despite past payment problems with this arrangement you could not default on it even if you wanted to & a Judge should therefore have no real reason to reject that solution by issuing a warrant. (Obviously you may need to look at the position again in future if you come of benefits)

Incidentally I'm not sure what your complete situation is but it may be worth a look at whether any of the various social tarrifs or grants might apply to you. Although suppliers are supposed to be proactive in attempting to identify vulnerable customers & solutions Npower are in my opinion just a dreadful and unreasonable company who are unlikely to have made much effort to do so I'm afraid!

http://www.npower.com/spreading_warmth/Content/npower-energy-trust/index.htm

Good luck.

Many Thanks for your helpful and informative post.

PM sent to you

Premier_2

SimIsOnTheUp wrote: »

...
They'll be calling me back within the next couple of days.
...

But I thought the man with the PPM is coming tomorrow? :huh:

As mentioned, if you don't let him carry out the work, they'll just apply for an entry warrant and add all the costs to your account.

You may be hearing what you want to hear from the odd user, but note the warning on the head of this board:

This is an open forum - anyone can post.
Please exercise caution ...

There has been some good advice given by others, albeit perhaps not what you prefer to read.

SwanJon

SimIsOnTheUp wrote: »

I didn't think the Court / Judge would even listen to me, due to my having defaulted on payment arrangements with NPower last year :-/

SimIsOnTheUp wrote: »

Firstly, it's far more expensive, and now my sole income will be ESA, it will be unaffordable.

Paying for things is often more expensive than not paying for them.

undaunted wrote: »

Fuel Direct is a fixed amount paid directly from benefits, & based upon what it is considered anyone on benefits can afford.

While it might be nice to think that this is the case, you would still have to pay for your ongoing consumption - exactly as you would on a prepayment meter. npower would calculate how much you use, and then that, plus the debt payment would be taken from your ESA.
One benefit would be that it would be an even payment through the year.

However, deliberately not letting them fit the meter at no charge will probably turn out to be a bad move.

spiro

One thing you need to bear in mind is the UK is the only country in europe that offers/fits ppm. In every other country no payment means no fuel, no choice.

PNPSUKNET

Dont think consumer focus can force npower over a commercial decision, eg payment methods

undaunted

SwanJon wrote: »

Paying for things is often more expensive than not paying for them.

While it might be nice to think that this is the case, you would still have to pay for your ongoing consumption - exactly as you would on a prepayment meter. npower would calculate how much you use, and then that, plus the debt payment would be taken from your ESA.
One benefit would be that it would be an even payment through the year.

However, deliberately not letting them fit the meter at no charge will probably turn out to be a bad move.

The poster has not said that they don't want to pay, they have said they are in difficulty. I (sincerely) hope that some of you never find yourselves in a similar situation or your high handed comments / attitudes may come back to "bite you on the backside"!

Yes they will, of course, still have to pay for future consumption but without threats of the power going out should they run out of money, future costs or difficutlies getting the pre payment meter removed again etc & with the debt recovered at a controlled amount, not merely at Npowers whim!

spiro wrote: »

One thing you need to bear in mind is the UK is the only country in europe that offers/fits ppm. In every other country no payment means no fuel, no choice.

Fortunately the UK is generally more civilised than that, though for some with PPM & no money it still means no power. In this case Fuel Direct will provide both debt repayment and power at all times.