Why on earth do npower ALWAYS try to raise my direct debit every time I get a bill?

MrLeeLee

Each time I send a metre reading in, they nicely inform me that my direct debit will be going up from £40 to £49, £52 and the worst one was £62!!!

This despite the fact my account in £50 in credit and £40 a month has NEVER resulted in an over due account (I have been with them 2 years)

Each time I have to ring them up and talk them into not raising it, why do they keep doing this? I know it's about how much they "think" you will use over the year, but surely they must be able to work out £40 is enough?

Cardew

The Almighty Computer works it out and the letter is automatically generated - all untouched by human hand!!!

Like any computer - 'rubbish in - rubbish out'

marywooyeah

yeah I know scottish power do the same to me! account in credit yet they increase it every time and I have to phone up and argue for them to put it down. they say they do it "to build up credit so you wont get into debt over the winter months" well I won't get into debt in the winter months cos the bloomin heating is so expensive i don't put it on! the worst was when I was on maternity leave without any letters or email they more than doubled my DD 3 weeks before christmas and point blank refused to refund the excess, despite my account being £130 in credit!
I'd phone up and ask them to manually adjust it, but I agree its wrong and annoying as you then have the hassle of phoning up

rhcp

I got my Npower bill today. It had a breakdown on there of how they calculated the future DD payments based on predictive usage over the next 6 months and hopefully ending up with a 0 balance in 6 months time. Mine went up slightly and but now understand where it came from. This is the first time that I have seen this, but it looks a really useful explanation of how they calculate DD payments.

undaunted

The more cynical may wonder whether "rubbish in" is merely programming error or whether it's actually clever design.

Bank interest may run at paltry rates these days but when you're dealing with money on the scales of energy companies the more they can get out of your bank & into theirs the sooner / longer the more interest & hence profits they accrue.

nPower

Hi MrLeeLee

With colder winters and increasing costs, we always like to make sure a customer's account is up to date to make sure they don't go in to debt. If we receive a meter reading that is slightly higher than normal, we would reassess your payments to make sure this is covered.

We've just experienced an extremely cold winter - plus energy prices increased at the beginning of the year, so an increase in your monthly payments would be expected. I can look at your account for you if you like just to double check? Just send your details to forumresponse@npower.com.

Thanks
Sally

[Deleted User]

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi MrLeeLee

With colder winters and increasing costs, we always like to make sure a customer's account is up to date to make sure they don't go in to debt. If we receive a meter reading that is slightly higher than normal, we would reassess your payments to make sure this is covered.

We've just experienced an extremely cold winter - plus energy prices increased at the beginning of the year, so an increase in your monthly payments would be expected. I can look at your account for you if you like just to double check? Just send your details to forumresponse@npower.com.

Thanks
Sally

What a load of rubbish!! How can you justify increasing customer's DD when they're already in credit? Your company is not concerned with your customers' best interest - you're only interested in your own revenue. There must be millions of pounds sitting in energy companies accounts because customers have been overcharged. And tell me - who's benefiting from the interest that energy companies are earning on this extra revenue? Surely not us...

Widelats

They try to put everyones up, its all about interest rates in the bank, they can sell to you a bit cheaper if you pay up front - this is because they are generating interest in a bank from your cash, its a old trick and has nothing to do with keeping you ok during winter months, thats just a excuse they use, if they were so concerned why do old people freeze to death in their own homes during winter? No help from energy companies, help comes from government in the form of warm front payments.

Put a stop on your direct debit payments, this will stop energy companies charging you whatever they like. Surprising that npower rep posted that excuse on this forum, i don't know anyone who believes that story.

KimYeovil

[quote=[Deleted User];44158750]What a load of rubbish!! How can you justify increasing customer's DD when they're already in credit? Your company is not concerned with your customers' best interest - you're only interested in your own revenue. There must be millions of pounds sitting in energy companies accounts because customers have been overcharged. And tell me - who's benefiting from the interest that energy companies are earning on this extra revenue? Surely not us...[/QUOTE]

What a load of rubbish. The customer profits from cheaper prices. If you are not happy paying in advance then pay the higher price of a non-direct debit tariff.

Widelats wrote: »

They try to put everyones up, its all about interest rates in the bank, they can sell to you a bit cheaper if you pay up front - this is because they are generating interest in a bank from your cash, its a old trick and has nothing to do with keeping you ok during winter months, thats just a excuse they use, if they were so concerned why do old people freeze to death in their own homes during winter? No help from energy companies, help comes from government in the form of warm front payments.

Put a stop on your direct debit payments, this will stop energy companies charging you whatever they like. Surprising that npower rep posted that excuse on this forum, i don't know anyone who believes that story.

More nonsense. Stop direct debits and put the costs of billing up. Genius. (No idea why the rubbish about the elderly is there - what has that got to do with this thread?)

Protogenia

MrLeeLee wrote: »

Each time I send a metre reading in, they nicely inform me that my direct debit will be going up from £40 to £49, £52 and the worst one was £62!!!

This despite the fact my account in £50 in credit and £40 a month has NEVER resulted in an over due account (I have been with them 2 years)

Each time I have to ring them up and talk them into not raising it, why do they keep doing this? I know it's about how much they "think" you will use over the year, but surely they must be able to work out £40 is enough?

Plain and simple - money grabbing greed.

grahamc2003

Protogenia wrote: »

Plain and simple - money grabbing greed.

You can call it greed if you like, but the more usual phrase is that they are - like all companies are or try to be -profit maximisers. You could equally say that greed is the reason you accepted your last pay rise (and I expect most in the supply industry would like a pay rise too).

Basically, it's a free market, and if anyone thinks their supplier is greedy, then they can change to another.

Presumably, the op is with this supplier because it has, or at least had, the cheapest rates. Maybe having an agressive pre-payment policy (and I don't know if they do) allows them to charge lower rates. You have to look at the total package you get. For example, if the op is so annoyed about the dd policy, then there are either tariffs with the same supplier without a dd, or tariffs with other suppliers with or without dd.

To answer the specific point - if the dd algorithm used by the supplier flagged up an increase from £40 to £50 one month, and this was negotiated back down to £40, then obvioulsy the same algorithm 3 months later would decide payments are then £30 below what it wants, with 9 months less to go, so it would increase the dd from £40 to something like £60 to achieve the same result at the end of the year.

I'm with bgas who have quite a novel system, where you can control your own dd online within reason. I've just set mine to give them nothing for the next 2 months, aftre which I'll have to pay more for the remaining months (for the same result of £0 balance at the end of the year).