Unexpected NPower Bill

Emmawood

Ok, we have been with NPower for 3 years now and have always paid (without fail) a monthly direct debit....this amount should be calculated by them on our usage and with correct meter readings??!

When we first bought the house we renovated it and didn't actually move in for 6 months, however, we paid a monthly direct debit of £130 (gas and electricity). Through doing this we built up a lot of credit and when they reassessed this they said our monthly direct debit was dropping to £10, over the year this went up to £42 and then again to £84.

The issue I have is that on our last bill in October they said we were still in credit, between now and then we owe over £600 and our monthly debit was rising to £179 - even though we have still been paying our monthly direct debit of £84.
When I spoke to them they have said our account doesn't make sense....not the most reassuring of answers, however they continued to look into this and said that it looks like our reading are the wrong way round....we have had our meter checked a couple of times to confirm everything was ok but still it kept reverting back to the wrong way round. This is surely an error on their part as I give actual meter readings when asked for?? I asked them to revert our direct debit to £84 until this was resolved and they have agreed to do this as there is no way we can afford the revised amount.

So annoyed with this, especially in the current economic climate. NPower have said they will look into this for me and raise a manual bill (which could take up to a month) but they still couldn't give me a reassuring answer and began to agree with me that the bill was unexplained....

I just wanted to know if anyone else has faced a similar issue and if there is anything I should know that could help our case?

Thanks

jalexa

Emmawood wrote: »

they continued to look into this and said that it looks like our reading are the wrong way round...

This is seperate to your troubles but are you saying you have an Economy 7 (or resticted hours) supply in addition to gas central heating?

macman

The bills are entirely system-generated. If you give readings that the system (for whatever reason) thinks are erroneous, then it will reject them and bill you on estimated readings, not actuals. This will be clearly marked on your bills-that's the time to query it.
Why are you apparently on a dual rate tariff if you have gas CH and DHW though?

Emmawood

Hi all, thanks for replies, we are on economy 7 duel fuel?? We have gas CH but not sure what DHW is...??

macman

Domestic Hot Water.
If your heating is by gas and your hot water also, then what is the advantage of you being on E7? You will be using very little power on the cheap 7 hours night rate, and paying a premium price for all your daytime (peak rate) consumption. E7 is designed for properties with night storage heaters and an immersion heater.
It varies by region and tariff, but typically you need to be using 33% on cheap rate to make E7 worthwhile-it's unlikely that you are doing that. Check your percentage usage on each rate and then use a comp site to see which is cheapest.

Wywth

Emmawood wrote: »

Ok, we have been with NPower for 3 years now and have always paid (without fail) a monthly direct debit....this amount should be calculated by them on our usage and with correct meter readings??!

When we first bought the house we renovated it and didn't actually move in for 6 months, however, we paid a monthly direct debit of £130 (gas and electricity). Through doing this we built up a lot of credit and when they reassessed this they said our monthly direct debit was dropping to £10, over the year this went up to £42 and then again to £84.

The issue I have is that on our last bill in October they said we were still in credit, between now and then we owe over £600 and our monthly debit was rising to £179 - even though we have still been paying our monthly direct debit of £84.
When I spoke to them they have said our account doesn't make sense....not the most reassuring of answers, however they continued to look into this and said that it looks like our reading are the wrong way round....we have had our meter checked a couple of times to confirm everything was ok but still it kept reverting back to the wrong way round. This is surely an error on their part as I give actual meter readings when asked for?? I asked them to revert our direct debit to £84 until this was resolved and they have agreed to do this as there is no way we can afford the revised amount.

So annoyed with this, especially in the current economic climate. NPower have said they will look into this for me and raise a manual bill (which could take up to a month) but they still couldn't give me a reassuring answer and began to agree with me that the bill was unexplained....

I just wanted to know if anyone else has faced a similar issue and if there is anything I should know that could help our case?

Thanks

I've no idea why this thread has been taken over by a discussion over the suitability or otherwise of E7 for you.
(Btw, I'm on E7 too and have GCH, and it's not costing us any more compared to the equivalent single rate alternative )


Anyway, back to the issue you posted about.

Obviously the fact you didn't move into the property immediately (and so were a low consumer) yet paid the average monthly payment of a typical householder, then it has allowed a large credit to build up that was later adjusted to recover (and as the supplier could see you were a low user, probably adjusted their assumption of future use too, just when you moved in and started using more, just to confuse matters more.

But it's quite simple to resolve.

Your initial bill will state the opening meter readings.
You can take a meter reading today
From that you (or the supplier) should be able to calculate the cost of the energy you have consumed.

Your bills should also indicate the total amount of money you have already paid the supplier in monthly DD payments (or you could get this from your bank)

Take the latter away from the former and there you will have your current balance on the account

(One complication may arise in that a price change may have occurred over this period, but if so, a meter reading (either estimated or assumed) will be shown on one of your bills at what point that occurred. If the supplier recalculates the bill, they may decide to change that previous meter reading at which a price change occurred if it was estimated and the estimated figure now no longer appears to have been correct)

nPower

Emmawood wrote: »

Ok, we have been with NPower for 3 years now and have always paid (without fail) a monthly direct debit....this amount should be calculated by them on our usage and with correct meter readings??!

When we first bought the house we renovated it and didn't actually move in for 6 months, however, we paid a monthly direct debit of £130 (gas and electricity). Through doing this we built up a lot of credit and when they reassessed this they said our monthly direct debit was dropping to £10, over the year this went up to £42 and then again to £84.

The issue I have is that on our last bill in October they said we were still in credit, between now and then we owe over £600 and our monthly debit was rising to £179 - even though we have still been paying our monthly direct debit of £84.
When I spoke to them they have said our account doesn't make sense....not the most reassuring of answers, however they continued to look into this and said that it looks like our reading are the wrong way round....we have had our meter checked a couple of times to confirm everything was ok but still it kept reverting back to the wrong way round. This is surely an error on their part as I give actual meter readings when asked for?? I asked them to revert our direct debit to £84 until this was resolved and they have agreed to do this as there is no way we can afford the revised amount.

So annoyed with this, especially in the current economic climate. NPower have said they will look into this for me and raise a manual bill (which could take up to a month) but they still couldn't give me a reassuring answer and began to agree with me that the bill was unexplained....

I just wanted to know if anyone else has faced a similar issue and if there is anything I should know that could help our case?

Thanks

Hi Emmawood,

This sounds quite bizarre and I'd really like to get to the bottom of this for you.

Please can you send me your account details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] and I can get this looked into?

Many thanks,

Adam