Npower Gas Bill

ninanoonanarna

I have just recently moved house from a 1 bedroom fat above a shop. I just received my final bills from Npower, my electricity bill was only £35 for the month so I was pretty happy with this, however my gas bill is £175 for a month! Both my partner and I work Monday to Friday every week, we had our boiler on for 1 hour in the morning to heat the water and the flat up, then once again for an hour on an evening to warm the place up for hen we got home. I don't understand how it can be so high when neither of us are there! We have moved from a 1 bedroom flat to a nice 2 bedroom house and when I asked the people we are renting this house from how much their gas bills were a month they said about £60 a month and they have 2 kids!

A friend of mine mentioned that they have been reported to be over charging people, does anyone know if this is true? I just don't understand how we can work up such a big bill when the last power bill I paid I ended up £19 in credit!

jalexa

ninanoonanarna wrote: »

however my gas bill is £175 for a month! ... I don't understand how it can be so high...

Energy (gas) is sold by the meter reading, not by the poond. The amount may or may not be right but the ££s in isolation are not relevent. To get meaningful advice you need to post more details from the £175 bill.

ninanoonanarna

Thanks, do you know what details?

jalexa

ninanoonanarna wrote: »

Thanks, do you know what details?

All numbers. Almost everything except your personal details.

But including bill opening read and date. Bill closing read and date. Conversion details from meter readings to kWhrs. Whether the readings were Estimated, Customer or Actual. Previous account balance. Payments made. Etc etc.

dogshome

The details needed are those off the Final Bill - Start date & Meter Reading/End date & Reading/Cost per Kwh for the Primary Units, (the expensive one's) and how many there were, and the cost of the Secondary Kwh and how many there were.

All Utilities collect a service charge and n'power do it by charging a certain number of Kwh a year at a higher price. Most Utility Co's do it this way and even them out over the year, by allocating so many a day to how many days the bill covers.

n'power however load many of these high cost units into the Winter Bills, and I suspect that as a low user the whole of your Final Bill has been charged at the high cost Primary rate prices.

nPower

Hi ninanoonanarna,

That does sound a little high for just one month. Have you made sure that the final readings are correct and not estimated?

If you want me to have a look into this, you can send me your details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL]

Best wishes,

Adam

chanz4

I hope the op did take a final read, always remember you cant go off someone elses consumption as they maybe more conservative than you with it. Also just turning the thermistat higher will give bigger bill

jalexa

ninanoonanarna wrote: »

I just don't understand how we can work up such a big bill when the last power bill I paid I ended up £19 in credit!

How long have you been with NPower? Something else to eliminate as an explanation is "claw-back" of forfeited "deferred discount":eek:.

ninanoonanarna

Gas summary Gas account 06532429714
Tariff - Standard Gas / Payment On Receipt Meter: G4A00546849901
£149.10
£26.91
first 1896 at 7.864p
next 856 at 3.144p
244 (cubic metres)
= 2752 kWh
16/01/12
13912
Customer reading
27/11/11
13668
Customer reading
Cost of gas used this period £176.01
VAT at 5% on £176.01 + £8.80
Gas charges this period + £184.81
Your previous bill - £9.34
Amount to pay
Please pay us by 03-Feb-2012
£175.47

I generally give my own meter readings and I've been with Npower for about 18months so I don't know. I've even double checked the meter readings just to make sure and it is coming up as the same as what I sent them. I just don't understand why it's higher than it normally is when I have spent less time in the flat during December as I've been doing over time at work and I've not touched the thermostat

jalexa

ninanoonanarna wrote: »

...I just don't understand why it's higher than it normally is ...

The reason is because of the way NPower seasonally allocate the expensive primary units on a No Standing Charge tariff. Details here...

http://www.npower.com/idc/groups/wcms_content/@wcms/@resi/documents/digitalassets/how_to_work_out_your_gas_bills.pdf

Had you remained on the tariff for an exact number of years it would have balanced out but (cost wise) the winter quarter is the very worst time to leave this type of tariff.

Be warned next time you are considering NPower. Not the only "gotcha" for the unwary.

jalexa

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

That does sound a little high for just one month...

How can you have been so unperceptive? That's just how NPower treats some unwary customers.