Npower refuses to reduce my high direct debit, what can I do?

emjharts

I have a bill of duel fuel with Npower for £216 for a quarter. I called to set up a direct debit and they said it would be £127 per month, this seems extrordinarily high and to be honest I can't afford it - which I told them. They then offered to try and reduce it by setting me up on different tariffs if I paid £50 now and signed a contract - I am aiming to move out within 4 months and they said that it would cost £25 to cancel this tariff and my monthly direct debit would be £96 and so that really didn't bring down the payment very much anyway!
Is there anything I can do to reduce this payment? Help!!!!

McKneff

The point is that you are paying the £216 that you owe and for the fuel that you are using now and in the future.

It would be a lot less if you paid the £216 for the fuel that you have used and so just pay for the fuel by DD for the next few months.

add the £216 to what you will be using, say £300 for the next 4 months (its coming up winter)

£500 plus, divide this by the 4 months you will be there £125, sorry,

scheming_gypsy

Do you have an online portal and can you set up direct debits through there? I had the same problem with my gas supplier, so i just did all the 'yes yes, oooooh that's expensive but i suppose i'll have to'..... then i cancelled the DD and set another up online for a lot less.

McKneff

you can do as SG suggests, but you will end up with a big final bill at the end of it all.

undaunted

Could you switch supplier for a better deal?

Meadows

That sounds about right to me as you already owe them £216, usage over the next four months will be higher but assuming you were to only use the same amount of units as the last quarter that would work our around £288. Those two figures added together and paid over the next four months would be £126 a month not taking into account the extra fuel used for colder weather.

chris1973

I have a bill of duel fuel with Npower for £216 for a quarter

Sounds a bargain, snap it up.

Dont forget we've had two price increases this year alone, the last one was upto 20%. As with the ever increasing costs of petrol - every £20 worth of Gas and Electricity is effectively filling your 'tank' with less and less fuel to use, compared to what it might have bought you in years gone by

My parents in a 2 bedroom house, pay £45 month for Gas and £30 a month for Electricity, thats £75 a month or £225 / quarter, and they are like two Eskimo's as far as heating use goes, its never above 17c / 18c in their front room.

So unless you are in a tiny property, heating one room and only at home for about 2 or 3 days every week, that would sound about 'average'.

To be honest if you intend to move out in 4 months if that was me i'd kill the DD and go back to quarterly payments (paid for online by debit card when the bill arrived) - moving suppliers if I had to in order to obtain that flexibility, I'd also be keeping an eye from my own physical meter readings as to what I was actually spending every month, so I could accurately budget for it (or economise) for when the quarterly bill actually arrived. Far less hassle when the time comes to move then cancelling the DD, and then arguing the toss to get back any credit accrued with them in the short period elapsed.

scheming_gypsy

McKneff wrote: »

you can do as SG suggests, but you will end up with a big final bill at the end of it all.

I missed the moving out in 4 months bit... it works if you're not planning on moving out though!