Changed supplier in January just got a whopping final bill!

MillicentBystander

insanegloss wrote: »

Total rubbish.

Smart meters in home displays (you put them where you want generally) show the consumption in very easy formats including the actual costs. You can't get more front and centre than that!

Suppliers aren't interested in getting people in debt, as its money owed and not in their accounts so being front and centre with usage is key to reducing bad debt.

(adopting your approach for a second)

Total rubbish.

How many homes actually have smart meters fitted at the moment? And whose idea was it? And if consumption went down nationally would prices remain the same or increase? You seem to be forgetting that most of the Big 6 have shareholders to appease. People in debt that they can't pay/refuse to pay now get put on pre-payment meters. Problem solved. And aren't bad debts tax deductible anyway? Plus if energy suppliers were really concerned with people not using more energy through ignorance of their consumption wouldn't they give a financial incentive for regular meter reads, like they do with DDs?

chanz4

And whos going to pay for smart meters, oh that's right price rises and more revenue for the government

MillicentBystander

Correct, to the tune of at the very least (and probably way more going by previous initiatives) £11 billion. Nice work if you can get it. I wonder if this will enable the Big 6 to claim tax incentives as well?

Wywth

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Surely 2) contradicts 1) here?

Not really, as I wasn't any longer with nPower when they sent their final bill

Also, they said it wasn't a billing error, but a failure by Royal Mail to deliver the letter I sent - so I claimed off Royal Mail for that too

MillicentBystander wrote: »

PS Wywth, finally got round to finding the insurance company (can't now find the relevant thread so thought I'd post it here) that let me insure my late father's empty house - it was HSBC Insurance.

I vaguely remember that discussion.

I think, iirc, it was about a typical requirement to inspect an unoccupied property at least once per month (and perhaps more frequently)

I don't think HSBC actually provide unoccupied property insurance (although many insurers will allow an existing insured property to be insured for up to one additional year unoccupied should it fall empty - specific terms usually apply)

According to the policy, there are a lot of exclusions that apply where "that happens after the home has been left unoccupied for more than the period shown on your schedule"

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_esf-ca-app-content/content/pws/content/personal/pdfs/chhhg9181-home-policy-doc-booklet.pdf

A similar exclusion is clearly stated in the summary & important information
i.e. "Certain losses or damage when your home is unoccupied for more than the agreed number of days"
http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_esf-ca-app-content/content/pws/content/personal/pdfs/chhhg10811-home-policy-sum-and-policy-booklet.pdf

Bargainhunter83

Hi all! I have switched to Scottish power from npower recently and got my final gas bill today eeeek! They said I owed £600 for 6 months! This would mean I had to pay all of my electric bill which hasn't yet been calculated but luckily I found Scottish power told them my meter reading was 1470 when in fact it should have been around the 400 mark. Has anyone else had problems like this with final billing as it happened to me with eon too!?
Also I had two prices changes over the 6 month period, one for a price increase ( typical ) and second was for a tarriff change in accordance to new ofgem rules ( reason I left ) on my final bill they have estimated what my readings were for the time of price changes to calculate the bill. How can I pay a final bill that includes estimated readings? I don't think that's fair, surely they should request a meter read on the dates that their changes are applied? Thanks

zerog

Bargainhunter83 wrote: »

surely they should request a meter read on the dates that their changes are applied? Thanks

What they should do is tell you when the change is applied, which would allow you to read your meter if you wanted.

If your final bill is based on actual readings (which it should be) then it is valid to estimate what the readings were between the dates of that bill.

Wywth

Bargainhunter83 wrote: »

Hi all! I have switched to Scottish power from npower recently and got my final gas bill today eeeek! They said I owed £600 for 6 months! This would mean I had to pay all of my electric bill which hasn't yet been calculated but luckily I found Scottish power told them my meter reading was 1470 when in fact it should have been around the 400 mark. Has anyone else had problems like this with final billing as it happened to me with eon too!?
Also I had two prices changes over the 6 month period, one for a price increase ( typical ) and second was for a tarriff change in accordance to new ofgem rules ( reason I left ) on my final bill they have estimated what my readings were for the time of price changes to calculate the bill. How can I pay a final bill that includes estimated readings? I don't think that's fair, surely they should request a meter read on the dates that their changes are applied? Thanks

nPower would have got the final meter reading from SP.

The new supplier would usually obtain a meter reading from the customer, but I think when I changed to SP they sent a meter reader round to obtain the reading themselves.

The intermediate readings may be estimated, but that doesn't affect the amount you owe which will be based on an actual meter reading (either supplied by you or by a meter reader)

If you advised the supplier before switching that the reason for switching was because of their price change, you could have been charged the entire final bill at the old rates (and so avoided any estimated meter readings)
Nontheless, you were advised the date of the change in tariff so you could have supplied a meter reading on that date if you wanted a more accurate bill.
You don't really expect a supplier to arrange a meter reading for all their 4 million customers on the same day do you?