NPower suddenly appears on my file

Thrugelmir

SRT81 wrote: »

But in simple black and white it looks like I've not been paying my bills, which just wasn't the case.

Always be exceptions. Cannot disagree with that. Overall move is positive. Late payment of bills helps no one.

Itchydon

I have a 999 excellent Experien rating which I have kept for at least 5 years now. No way am I going to let NPower mess it up with incompetence (after all they have sent letters demanding money a long time after I have already paid)


So just like to say thanks to the forum, I will be moving both gas and electricity to a new supplier (not NPower or British Gas) a.s.a.p. Uswitch is recommending OVO. Does anyone have experience of OVO or know whether they are appearing on credit reports?

Thrugelmir

Itchydon wrote: »

Does anyone have experience of OVO or know whether they are appearing on credit reports?

Be difficult to avoid in the future.

11.1 We will only hold and use information about you for lawful and justifiable business purposes. These may include (but are not limited to):

confirming your identity when you contact us;
offering you new services or products from our group of companies;
asking you to help us improve our service by filling in our customer surveys or questionnaires;
analysing our customers’ behaviour so we can match our services to what our customers want; and
helping us prevent fraud or loss.

11.2 We may share information we hold about you with other organisations to:

help prevent fraud;
keep to any legal or regulatory instructions;

11.6 We may check your details with one or more credit-checking agencies. If we do this, we will ask your permission before we carry out a credit check.

GingerBob_3

Itchydon wrote: »

I will be moving both gas and electricity to a new supplier (not NPower or British Gas) a.s.a.p. Uswitch is recommending OVO. Does anyone have experience of OVO or know whether they are appearing on credit reports?

Good idea, but be careful with E.On. They supply negative data at least, and an inference from other threads here is that they maybe now provide so-called positive data as well.

I don't know about OVO.

Homeagain

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Take what up?

Poor administration/customer service, putting through debits as and when then sending letters of apology (saying we are sorry, just put in a claim against your bankers???), not reversing the debit charges, no proper and firm communication, pathetic apology letters.
Nothing much really.

SRT81

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

If you wanted to explain the circumstances of how the balance built up you would be able to add a notice of correction to your report to do so.

For details about how to add this can be found here.

Hi Neil...

Having had a look at the page you've linked to, can you answer a question for me please?

Given the details I posted of my situation with nPower, if I can't make any comments that may be seen to have a negative impact on nPower, how do I make a correction to explain that I have arrears on my accounts because of their (admitted) mistake?

If not for their mistakes in setting up and subsequently managing my accounts with them the arrears wouldn't exist in the first place!

What else am I supposed to say?

Can I write that there were administrative issues which led to an investigation on the account and in that time the arrears built up?

GingerBob_3

Think it's a good idea utility companies reporting your account details to the CRAs? Think again:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/24/npower-bill-shock-economy-customers

Next you'll be telling me that large debts of this kind don't affect your ability to get a loan/mortage/mobile phone etc. :rotfl:

SRT81

Yep, that all sounds familiar.

Used uSwitch to go to nPower on a fixed rate for dual fuel, and they put me on an Economy 7 tariff for some reason (despite all my letters from them saying I was on the tariffs I signed-up to) and it took a year to sort out.

A spokesperson for Ofgem says that npower is the most complained about energy company and that it has been "concerned about their performance".

Just fills you with confidence about these companies now reporting to CRAs doesn't it.

SRT81

Oh how I wish I didn't have to bump this thread...

Got a letter from nPower, saying that my DD had been cancelled, and detailed the other ways to pay.

I haven't cancelled any DDs, so was a bit confused.

Had a quick look at my online banking for the start of the month, and I hadn't noticed at the time, but there's no payment to nPower. A slip on my part, but when you have your confirmation letter that your DD is set up and the date it will leave your account you kind of hope that they can't !!!! that up.

Rang them and asked what was going on, and this month's excuse was that the bank declined the transaction and cancelled the DD instruction because of an incorrect name on the account details being supplied. Even though it's the same details that I've had to supply to them about half a dozen times now. So from the sounds of it whoever sent the DD instruction to the bank somehow got my name wrong.

Because there's arrears on the account (see earlier in the thread), I had to speak to a snotty woman in the collections department, who launched into a tirade about how I needed to pay more to clear the balances before I managed to interrupt her and explain the circumstances, that to be perfectly honest she should have known full well if she'd bothered to read the –!now extensive –!notes on my account.

She told me that to re-set the DD, even though I didn't cancel it, and it was their mistake, again, that they needed a new set of meter reads and an up-front payment.

All this started in 2011 and I think I've been more than patient with them. This patience has now officially ran out.

I've asked them before whether it would be possible to continue my arrangement to pay the outstanding balances with their collections department, and leave nPower as a fuel customer, and was told that I couldn't.

I'm not accepting that this time. I want rid of nPower, I want rid of the constant !!!!-ups every single month, I want rid of having to get in touch with my bank and have money reclaimed to my account and having to set up DDs again and more importantly I want rid of the constant hassle and stress of it all.

I pay my bills, all I expect from them is to take the correct payments and supply my gas and electric. I honestly don't think that's too much to ask.

I told the woman in collections to look at my account, and add a new complaint to the two already registered, and asked for their formal complaints procedure so I can take it further. And the Ombudsman will be next.

I then asked if this would show on my credit rating as a late payment, and she said that it might. By that point I was fuming.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the constant level of incompetence shown by a company that can now adversely affect my credit history.

GingerBob_3

SRT81 wrote: »

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the constant level of incompetence shown by a company that can now adversely affect my credit history.

Exactly!

Some points here:

1) Utility providers should be banned from reporting to CRAs

2) nPower should be closed down by the government, with no compensation to their German parent company

3) Could you perhaps take out a (small?) bank loan and pay off these bottom feeding scum once and for all?

4) I know it's yet more time consuming, but maybe get some sort of legal advice as to whether it's possible to sue them for all the hassle you've had.