Switching Gas & Elec suppliers - beware?

Howlinbob

Hi there, I would love some advice...

I have just switched from npower dual fuel, to Scottish & Southern dual fuel. I phoned npower to see if they could match the lower prices but they couldn't and agreed I should switch.

Now npower has hit me with a really hefty 'final' bill for gas. I am a very low gas user because we don't have central heating, just a gas fire and hob. My monthly payment for gas was £44. My 'final' gas bill is £284. I received this about a month ago and when I queried it with npower, they said that it 'might not be the final gas bill, because the switch hasn't been completed yet', even though by this time Scottish had confirmed that they had taken over my supply. Nearly a month later I have still not received my final bill for electricity, but I expect that will be massive as well.

Obviously I couldn't afford to pay such a massive bill in one month so I cancelled my direct debits with npower in the nick of time. So although my new monthly payment amount with Scottish is much lower (the whole point of the exercise), I have this huge bill hanging over me from npower, somehow defeating the object of switching suppliers (to save money).

The large npower bills may be because we have just had winter so our usage was high, and the meter readings must reflect this.

Does anyone have any advice on this issue, particularly on how to handle these large 'final' bills from my old supplier? Could I ask to pay in instalments, query the amount, or if I just don't pay (They can't cut me off as they are no longer my supplier) would that adversely affect my credit score?



Thanks in advance!

mprice1988

A few points to check Howlin Bob,

1. Make sure the final bill from npower ends of the same reading scottish and southern have started on
2. Although you were paying a fixed amount a month to npower, your payments may not have been covering what you were using, thus putting your final bill into a debit.
3. Often people don't do this, but why don't you call npower and ask them what's going on. Once you have the start date of scottish and southern and start reading, one of thier advisers can let you know 'roughly' what the final bills will be?
4. You could ask npower for an agreed payment plan that you will both be happy with?

My advice would be not to ignore it as you will have to deal with it at one point.

moonrakerz

The way I read your post is that you weren't paying npower enough in your monthly payments to cover the energy you were using, hence the large final bills.
You have now shifted to S & S on a lower monthly payment than you were paying to npower..............

do you not see where this is leading you ???