Npower- pls,pls help

Ewan154

Hi all,
After watching the martin lewis show I decided to try and get a better deal on my mums electricity bill. She was paying £75 a month. So found a better deal on comparethemarket.com. Npower came up with a deal of £63 a month fixed rate until September 2018. so I signed up with Npower for her.

Now I received a email from Npower that they are putting the bill up to £75 because

"Reassessment takes place twice a year, to ensure that your account does not goes into debt. And also that at the end of the year your account balance is zero.
Reassessment is done to ensure that you are paying exactly accurate amount as per your consumption. As you are a MDFF customer, you pay a fix amount but reassessment helps to review your account to check your consumption are matching your payment.

Can they do this? I thought I it was fixed rate off £63. it even says on my mums account "fixed until september 2018

Any adivce pls?

jk0

It's the unit price that is fixed. Not the monthly payment. (Otherwise Mum could use as much as she wanted and pay the same amount.)

Ewan154

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. it says on her account

Online Price Fix September 2018 Elec DD
ends: 30/09/2018

Robin9

If it wss
The DD is only a good guess. If your mothers consumption is EXACTLY as the figures that you gave then it will not change.

How does the actual consumption compare ? and are the bills based on Actual or Estimated readings ?

Carrot007

Ewan154 wrote: »

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. it says on her account

Online Price Fix September 2018 Elec DD
ends: 30/09/2018

As it says PRICE FIX, not COST FIX.

Price per unit/standing chareg are Fixed. Usage is up to the user. As you switched in the high use period adjusting the DD UP is usual. If yo have an accurate use over a few years you can argue against it if you find a good employee!

Ewan154

Hi,
We have to give Npower a monthly meter reading.

Just contacted npower by chat and told them I was not happy about the price increase and they said they would put the price back down to £63.

Due to the bad weather we have been power.

NineDeuce

A monthly payment does not provide you with unlimited electricity......

Its like complaining about the cost of a potato costing more than what it says on the bag when you use more....

Price comparison websites and cost calculations are based on your annual consumption, derived from your historical bills.

Robin9

Ewan154 wrote: »

Hi

Due to the bad weather we have been power.

This extra power cost money .

How does your mothers consumption compare with your estimate ?

Carrot007

Ewan154 wrote: »

Hi,
We have to give Npower a monthly meter reading.

Just contacted npower by chat and told them I was not happy about the price increase and they said they would put the price back down to £63.

Due to the bad weather we have been power.

So you have been using more and it will cost more so you will end up in debt. Hopefully it won't be a very cold winter and it won't be much.

Trouble with an annual consumption figure is it does not provide a usage curve to see if you are using more than expected so they use a generic one. You think in these modern days with better computers they could produce a curve for you for better estimating.

Raxiel

Bear in mind you still have to pay for every unit used eventually, so be sure to submit regular meter readings so an excessive debt (or credit) doesn't build up and land you with a massive catch up bill later.

It's possible that the DD will need to increase to cover the cost.

It's normal for the usage to go up over the winter, and normally the DD is set up to build up credit during the summer that can cover the extra usage when it's cold. Since you started in September you won't have that buffer, and sometimes suppliers like to increase the payment in those cases but it may still even out in the end if you convince them not to.

System

If really is time that Ofgem came up with a better term to cover fixed term contracts. The only things that are fixed with these types of contracts are term; unit price and the MAXIMUM standing charge. Standing charge includes any discounts. It follows that if a consumer breaches the terms of the contract and the discount is removed then the standing charge will increase.

The OP needs to take note of the fact that his Mother could be looking at a larger increase in the DD in 3 months time.

The sums go like this. Estimated Annual Consumption is £63 x 12 or £756 per year.
NPower now assesses the annual cost to be £63 x 3 plus £75 x 9 = £846

In 3 month’s time (assuming the annual re-estimated cost hasn’t changed) , then the revised DD payment will be ( £846 - £378)/6 or £78 per month.