Npower overcharging?

craziiboo1

Hi there,

I'm in a bit of debate with Npower currently, over a ridiculous bill they've slapped me with. I have been charged £1008 for my 1 bedroom flat, with 2 people living there (both of which work during the day). My flat has only electricity.
I have been trying to sort this out for over 2 weeks now, and still have gotten nowhere.

Going through the bill they have sent me.. they are trying to charge me nearly £600 for day usage(2600+kwh) from 15/2/13 -29/3/13. Based on their estimate for feb and my meter reading for end of march. I can see my meter reading is much higher than their estimate, but I don't understand why it is so much higher..

I appreciate my bill for that month would be high due to heaters.. but not that high. On my online account, it states my energy usage each month I have been living in my flat. And it is significantly less for feb and march, than what is stated on my bill... They are now trying to charge me £194 a month. Which I cannot afford...

I have an immersion heater and they reckon its that eating to my usage ... But is not, it is on a timer to come on at night... I have left it on the last 2 weeks and not changed my energy usage habits... And my energy usage each day at most 9kwh compared to their 31kwh. ( I have been taking meter readings twice a day for the last week and a half)

Can someone please offer me some advise in what I should do in this matter.
Thank youu

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

What do you mean by Npower are charging nearly £600 for 2600+ kWh. What does the '+' mean?

Obviously 2600kWh does not cost £600 approx. 23p/kWh so that can only mean there was an earlier debit balance or you are not taking into account estimated readings.

There is no point in comparing your 9kWh daily now(in September) with your consumption when your heating is on in winter.

The charge of £1008 is for how long? If a year that would be quite normal.

The £194 monthly is pretty obviously to cover future expenditure and pay back a debit balance.

You need to post more details if we are to help.

Economy 7 tariff or not?

How long in flat?

Total consumption over that period?

dude89

craziiboo1 wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm in a bit of debate with Npower currently, over a ridiculous bill they've slapped me with. I have been charged £1008 for my 1 bedroom flat, with 2 people living there (both of which work during the day). My flat has only electricity.
I have been trying to sort this out for over 2 weeks now, and still have gotten nowhere.

Going through the bill they have sent me.. they are trying to charge me nearly £600 for day usage(2600+kwh) from 15/2/13 -29/3/13. Based on their estimate for feb and my meter reading for end of march. I can see my meter reading is much higher than their estimate, but I don't understand why it is so much higher..

I appreciate my bill for that month would be high due to heaters.. but not that high. On my online account, it states my energy usage each month I have been living in my flat. And it is significantly less for feb and march, than what is stated on my bill... They are now trying to charge me £194 a month. Which I cannot afford...

I have an immersion heater and they reckon its that eating to my usage ... But is not, it is on a timer to come on at night... I have left it on the last 2 weeks and not changed my energy usage habits... And my energy usage each day at most 9kwh compared to their 31kwh. ( I have been taking meter readings twice a day for the last week and a half)

Can someone please offer me some advise in what I should do in this matter.
Thank youu

You say the meter reading on the 15/2 was an estimate, when was the last actual reading before that? It seems likely that this meter reading was under estimated and resulted in this bill being higher due to it being a catch up bill. (If you get any estimates in the future give them an accurate meter reading ASAP to avoid this)

If the meter readings are correct then they are not overcharging you.

craziiboo1

Thank you for replying so quickly

The + is that I could not remember the amount exactly.. The actual amount was 2688 kwh for the month (day only), at the rate it costs over £600 ... and no this was not a yearly bill. I'm only disputing the part of the bill for february to march, not the rest, as that month in particular makes up most of the bill.

The last actual reading was when I moved in. And I have been in the property a year and a half...

I realise comparing my usage now to then is not helpful, but they are saying I will use 31 kwh a day. Which is definitely not the case.

My entire usage for the year so far is 2578 kwh

I believe there was an under estimated reading... But the one thing I'm getting annoyed with, is that my usage is recorded online for each month....
In feb I used 686 kwh and march 703kwh .. these are high compared to my summer, due to the heaters.

It's just quite frustrating as I don't understand where all the supposed extra usage has come from

dude89

craziiboo1 wrote: »

Thank you for replying so quickly

The + is that I could not remember the amount exactly.. The actual amount was 2688 kwh for the month, at the rate it costs over £600 ... and no this was not a yearly bill. I'm only disputing the part of the bill for february to march, not the rest, as that month in particular makes up most of the bill.

The last actual reading was when I moved in. And I have been in the property a year and a half...

I realise comparing my usage now to then is not helpful, but they are saying I will use 31 kwh a day. Which is definitely not the case.

I believe there was an under estimated reading... But the one thing I'm getting annoyed with, is that my usage is recorded online for each month....
In feb I used 686 kwh and march 703kwh .. these are high compared to my summer, due to the heaters.

It's just quite frustrating as I don't understand where all the supposed extra usage has come from

It looks to me then that any bills from when you moved in (approx mar 12?) up until march 2013 had been underestimated and when they finally received an accurate reading in March 13 it has resulted in a catch up bill. This is not saying it has all been used in one month but has built up over 12 months.

Npowers attitude over this will be you used it and you need to pay for it, but you should be able to negotiate over the repayment length. What was the meter reading when you moved in (and approx date) and the meter reading in March 13?

craziiboo1

The last meter reading was beginning of oct 12 at 8821 kwh day and 2792 kwh night. Meter reading at the end of march 13 was 12425 kwh day and 4469 night.

Cardew

craziiboo1 wrote: »

Thank you for replying so quickly

The + is that I could not remember the amount exactly.. The actual amount was 2688 kwh for the month (day only), at the rate it costs over £600 ...

Npower will not charge 'over £600' for 2,688 kWh. i.e. over 22p/kWh

I suspect you are looking at the Tier 1 rate which is only charged for 75kWh per month(900kWh pa) the Tier 2 rate will be around half the 22p and used for the majority of your consumption.

I agree with the post above by Dude89. You cannot pick out figures in isolation and quote them; it is the overall situation that needs to be examined.

The important information required is how much electricity have you used in the 18 months of your occupancy and how much have you paid.

Electricity is the most expensive method of heating(I assume you are not on Economy 7) and even in a 1 bed flat NPowers figures of 31kWh a day average - 11,300pa - will cost around £1,500 pa - high but not unusual.

Unless you can post the meter reading when you moved in, and the last reading 18 months later, your posts make little sense.

edit - Posts crossed.

Cardew

You are on Economy 7 but you still won't be charged 22p/kWh for all daytime units; possibly 15P?

You said you had an actual reading when you moved in 18 months ago; what is it now?

craziiboo1

The figure was the day rate only (rate 1). This was a half year bill. I pay £45 dd a month. I am on economy 7 thus I have 2 readings, one for the day and one for the night.

I have looked over my readings, one was taken in october by an engineer, I don't have the figure I gave them when I moved in. I was charged 25.77p per unit and it has changed in march to 19.06p.

The reading today is 14175 rate 1 (day) 5624 rate 2

Cardew

No wonder you have a huge debit balance if you have been paying only £45 a month. That is just not a realistic sum for an all electric flat.

Many will pay that amount for electricity alone when they have gas heating.

craziiboo1

Please forgive the mixed replies and uninformative comments.. I am new to this and not had much help from Npower in explaining any of this. This is why I have taken to the forums.
I apologize for my inconsistency