Back bill issue

Cardew · 18 June 2019 at 8:03AM

AndynNic wrote: »

Been with npower since 2014 and not received a bill to date, we pay our direct debit every month and give regular readings, we are currently £6000 in credit.
Two complaints have been logged with them, the second one is on going but we're not holding our breath.
Can anyone give advise on what to do if we don't get a bill?

How do you know you are £6,000 in credit? Is it simply because you have paid, say, £100 a month for 60 months? Or do you have some form of notification(email) from NPower of £6,000 credit?

You could try and get the £6,000 refunded!

My understanding, supported by some posts on MSE, is that the £6,000 will be used to pay for your consumption over the 6 years.

Had you not paid anything to Npower, the lack of bills would have meant the cost of the first 5 years consumption would be written off under the 12 month backbilling provision.

AndynNic · 18 June 2019 at 10:57AM

Thanks for your reply.
Npower have told us we are £6000 in credit because we have paid every month since 2014.
We did ask for the money back for us to hold until we received a bill but was told not possible.
We did take our case to the ombudsman a couple of years ago but didn't get anywhere. its so annoying that we don't know what we owe them or they owe us, can't even switch suppliers.

PennineAcute · 18 June 2019 at 11:24AM

You may be £6000 in credit, but as you have not been billed yet, this will not be accurate. I, too, have had NPower nightmares and would not wish them on my worst enemy.

TheBear123 · 21 July 2019 at 9:26PM

Just to follow up on resolution on this (original E.On back-billing question post)
E.On did a review and credited my account with £2.5k.
They confirmed they should not have back-billed so far and re-calculated.

They told me to cancel direct debit during the process to prevent any high charges going through while they did the recalculation (which took around 6 weeks in total).

They had not contacted me regularly regarding getting meter readings in the past few years (which they confirmed) - certainly only very occasional prompts that I can recall. We have looked at a smart meter - but the reach would not work (in our mansion block for the gas).

So lesson being - we are all busy but I should (fairly to E.On) proactively provide meter readings regularly + check alternative tariffs regularly (rather than sticking on same one).

However, in event of actual readings not being recorded for some considerable time, the back-billing rules are clear for gas and electricity (and luckily for me in my favour in this instance) that they cannot bill you beyond 12 months estimated usage.

Back bill issue

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