Can Npower force us to pay £250 a month?

Erialc1972

Due to various errors on their part, (not reviewing our direct debits for over a year meaning we underpaid for a significant time with our realising, !!!!-ups when moving house and switching suppliers, rising prices etc etc) we have been informed we are around £2000 in arrears. We currently use around £120 of gas & elec per month and were paying £150 DD to try and pay off some arrears. We were obviously aware this would take a while but were pleased it was being resolved.

NPower then contacted us because they wanted to increase our direct debit to £340 per month, and were quite insistent. However there is no way we can afford this amount so we tried to negotiate. They reduced to £250 very reluctantly but frankly this is still quite a bit more than we can afford every month.

Can they force us to pay double our usage costs? I am dreading another cold winter with the price rises this year on top...just getting desperate for advice as they are being less than helpful!

jalexa

Erialc1972 wrote: »

Due to various errors on their part, (not reviewing our direct debits for over a year...

Can you elaborate?

The direct debit review is not key at all, only the dates of all the bills are relevant to what NPower can "lawfully" do, in particular bills in the last 12 months.

You need to post more information before you can get meaningful advice.

Premier_2

The supplier will often allow you to repay the debt over the period it accrued (by negotiation).

So £2000 over 12 months means about £170 per month on top of what you actually consume.

Are you sure you only consume £120 of energy per month, as that is less than the debt you accrued. :huh:

Irratus_Rusticus

Seems to me there are two responses:

1. The hard 'facts' of life:

Any failings of an energy supplier should never produce £2,000 domestic arrears if basic responsibility is taken. We don't fill the weekly shopping trolley without having an idea what we'll face at the check-out, if only to avoid embarrassment. Buying energy isn't that more complicated. Reading meters at the outset and making sure we know our tariffs is no more than reading the price label. Keeping an eye on readings periodically is the same as watching how the basket is filling up.

But a harsh lesson on lifeskills isn't in the spirit of this fine site

2. The softer 'facts' of debt:

Gas and electricity are 'priority' debts due to the threat of disconnection without prior court action needed. A first step with such a high debt should be to contact the CAB or Money Advice Trust National debtline to get a free third party on your side.

Creditors tend to bully debtors in person but not professional third parties. The fact you go to a help agency also shows you are taking the matter seriously. Don't go to any organisations that charge for helping.

A debt of £2000 should not need to be paid off in a year if you can demonstrate this would cause serious hardship. As a minimum you need to supply a written and full personal budget showing how much you can afford to pay. This amount is completely separate to meeting ongoing payments which form part of your personal budget outgoings (make sure the ongoing payments are reasonable for your consumption and tariffs).

Personal budgets are well-known formats to creditors and you should work from templates readily available to avoid overlooking essential outgoings. You might even be surprised by what you can include as reasonable expenses.

Use the personal budget to back up an offer and make the debt repayments immediately whether the offer is accepted or not. Do not panic into offering more than you can genuinely afford. That is another reason why you need the thorough personal budget. It helps you KNOW what you can afford.

Require that the energy debt is based on actual readings and not estimates. If there is any serious illness or are pensioners in your household, disclose these facts in writing with the personal budget.

If you take these steps, reaching an affordable agreement quickly is more likely.

As long as you keep to agreed repayments you shouldn't be forced to have a prepayment meter, but you can offer to have one. Make sure before volunteering that the cost of using a PPM for your energy use is made clear.

Never trust any energy company to keep you out of debt! It's not their priority, concern or responsibility no matter what anyone tells you. Good luck

spiro

Due to various errors on their part, (not reviewing our direct debits for over a year meaning we underpaid for a significant time with our realising, !!!!-ups when moving house and switching suppliers, rising prices etc etc)

You need to be more specific about these events. You say not reviewing DD for over a year, you now owe £2000 and you use £120 a month. Well £120pm equals £1440pa which means that to build up a £2000 debt you would have only paid £36pm for the last 2 years.

mattcanary

Are the readings used (including the first reading used when you moved into your house/ changed to your current supplier/ when the current meter was fitted) correct? If not, then the bill will not be accurate.

How much were you paying by DD before this issue cropped up, OP?

coupleuk

We don't fill the weekly shopping trolley without having an idea what we'll face at the check-out, if only to avoid embarrassment. Buying energy isn't that more complicated. Reading meters at the outset and making sure we know our tariffs is no more than reading the price label. Keeping an eye on readings periodically is the same as watching how the basket is filling up.

In an ideal world I'd agree with you. However, that's not the World we live in.

My 73 year old mother has some money in the bank and is able to pay if her grocery bill is a little high at the checkout.

BUT, she hasn't got the slightest clue when it comes to things of a "complicated" nature - utility bills, phone contracts, pensions, finding the mute button on tv remote - she just cannot process this information at all.

She's not stupid, it's just that she will trust others to do what's right for her because she doesn't understand the systems in place.

Paul

Irratus_Rusticus

Hi Paul.

Point taken. Self an early-bath version - tho still fully remote qualified

OP doesn't mention being a pensioner? Pensioners are (or should be) treated more carefully by creditors (bailiffs wear softer gloves) and why debt advice (as mine above) recommends making fact clear.

Debt resolution help is a well-trod path. Cutting to the chase quickly has got to be more sensible advice if supplier still demands what OP said.

loiseve

Hey there

I just thought I would add a little here

N Power sent us an incorrect bill in February after incorrectly billing us for 9 months. They only realised they had incorrectly billed us when we called in November to pay our (small) bill as normal. They suspected our bills had been incorrectly produced and sent us a bill for, yep, like you £2000. In thier favour, they gave us £100 for getting the bill wrong (applied to our bill), however, immediately after they start collections!!

They claim our useage is actually £260 per month, and they want the debt paid off over 24 months. So yes, they want £350 per month. I complained and asked to pay £300. I sent this with an income and expenditure. They said no.

Having lived in houses where the energy is normally around £100 for our household, we are quite frankly in shock and considering a move. We think it may be that we live in a large georgian appartment (grade 2 listed) with minimal insulation and electric heating. Whats worse is it is rented and our landlord has declined our request for gas central heating.

As N power have refused to accept I have taken it to the ombidsmun, just because I dont feel they are being wholly fair. I appreciate it is my responsibility to pay for cosnumption but they messed up very badly and now we are in big trouble.

I dont know how this is going to go, or who is in the right, but I have a 5 month old baby and two other children and with winter approcahing Im very scared indeed!

rising_from_the_ashes

OP and Loiseve, I do sympathise with you both but am going to quote Irratus Rusticus and say that "Keeping an eye on readings periodically is the same as watching how the basket is filling up".

This is especially important if something has changed ie you've moved to an older / bigger / less well insulated house / from gas ch to elec storage etc.

Yes NPower did mess up but IMHO so did you - did it never once in that whole time occur to you to read the meters?

macman

Based on £250pm, your £2,000 debt will not clear for about 15 months, so it's a very reasonable figure. Bear in mind that your ongoing usage of £120 will rise a lot with the forthcoming price increases, so you'll need to budget more than £250.
The alternative is to make a one-off payment to reduce the debt. Since you can't switch, are you already on the Npower's cheapest tariff?