Am I being overly suspicious or has anybody else had the same recent experience? I recently received a letter from nPower to say that my electricity account had been reviewed (after the 2 heaviest winter quarters) and my direct debit needed to be increased from £27 to £37 a month. This seemed an extraordinary hike and having reviewed my last couple of years bills it was plainly exorbitant and unnecesssary.

 I phoned them and having got through no less than 3 switchboard menus finally spoke to a live human being. Almost before I had got the nature of my query out she was telling me that "It was a mistake, we're only asking for an increase to £29.50". Given that many people probably don't have the time/inclination to check such letters and just go with the flow this seems like an awfully good way for nPower to increase their cash flow.

Wish mine was £37!! It is about £65 a month.. I thought this was about average.. am I wrong?

Sorry to hear that - theres only 2 of us in the house and we heat and cook with gas. Just watch to see if they sudddenly say you need to be paying £75 and then check your bills.

You could take the useage figures for the last two years and take the year you think is most representative. Then take the cost of the units today at the two different rates, multiply them out and see what you get. Say you got £20. You could then e mail THE TEAM LEADER and tell them your findings and ask them if they consider £29.50 to be correct. If you do this my suggestion is don't tell them it's wrong just in case at some later stage you land up with egg on your face.

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll do just that. I was curious to see if anyone else had had a similar letter or for once a big corp was telling the truth and it was just an error. A few thousand people not noticing/challenging DD increases would be a nice little boost to NP coffers and money in their bank earning interest rather than their customers.

I hate to be the bearer of down to earth tidings but I don't think they're bright enough to do as you suspect especially without getting found out and on the front pages! May just have overestimated.

HI ,Just  having a moan, have been into d.dbt scheme for over a year, 50 a month, i live in a one bedroom bungalow, with 4 radiators, have dual fuel with np.. just got a letter saying i owe them £399.00 , i had to pay by the 3 june.. i was so worried i paid it, but complained , explained to them i live alone , go to bed early rather than keep the heating on.. nothing is left on standby either... they said it was unlikely to be a fault on their part..& have increased the payments to £61 a month... needless to say i am looking for another supplier...thought the costs were cut..not in my case..i am really worried...thanks...

I too have just today been visited with an increase from £36/month to £40.50/month. The joke is that they are giving me a £93 rebate for overcharging this past year and the unit cost has just dropped. How do they work these things out ? My calculation suggests a £29/month rate, so I'll be interested to see how they defend their position. Watch this space.

Frank

They are working on the basis,that because they have dropped the price a tiny bit,you will find it irresistable and keep the lights on more and turn the heating up ;-)

same thing happened to us! they have raised both gas and electricity DD amounts to far higher than our usage.
First the electric account , I rang and was told it would be reduced to the origonal amount without problems

Second the Gas account arrived boosting the amount from £35 to £58 because of the high winter usage.
I rang and complained and gave an actual reading instaed of thier estimation which confirmed our low usage.
I explained that last years accounts (GAS BOARD) where far lower than their estimation of my usage and was told they would reduce the DD if I paid off the debit on the account! I said but that's what DD are for, average spend over the year.
The girl said that was all she could do so I asked what happens tot he credit during the summer months and she said that if I applied for a refund they would consider it!!!!!
I am changing supplier again as this is obviously a rip off of enormous amounts of our money...

I received the new electric bill on saturday, and it also said they have reviewed it, and they are putting our monthly DD up from £30 to £70. I did ring them and said we can't afford this amount, but surprise surprise they wasn't interested at all.

Southern Electric came last month and put a new meter in. I asked why? as I had no letter saying they was coming. The bloke said because these meters are now old.

But it seems strange how meter was changed and now the monthly DD has gone up dramatically. They said when meter was installed it started at 2, now it's at 6, and that is within a month?

There is only myself and my husband living here. I only do washing/drying once a week. Use dish washer once a day and that is early in the mornings. Ok we have 3 pc's and now we have made 1 redundant because of the high bills. But surely they wouldn't be the cause of such high bills?

 I am dreading the gas bill coming in. We pay £46 a month on that at the moment, and the only thing that uses gas in this house is the boiler. I never have the heating on unless it's ice cold.

 I really want to change providers. When I signed up with them,they was saying they was the cheapest. Now we all know that is one big LIE to get customers to sign up with them.

I would say steer clear of NPOWER altogether.

Well, well !!! To my eternal surprise I did get my £93 rebate as promised and a recalculated monthly payment, not £29 as I had worked it out but £31. Thats a step in the right direction I suppose but I still contend that I shouldn't have to argue with them and demand a rebate. They should get it right first time. Clearly it is necessary to keep an eye on those readings and dont accept what Npower think, in fact work on the initial premise that they have got it wrong, in their favour of course.

I have just run a check on price comparison based on the price charged per unit, not how much we are being charged per month/year from Scottish area providers and there is no such thing as a cheapest provider. It all depends on how much power is used. The net result is that for average users they all work out pretty much the same so changing isnt worth the hassle. Another con ?

Hello All,

It is common practise for every energy supplier to review the monthly payment plans.

 This is due to debt being built up on the account, most people do not think about the consumtion at there properties. You will find that NPower like ourselves have a threshold in which an agent can reduce your payments, however you will find that the payments will go up in the future.

 The only argument against this is if your account was estimated, if this is the case I would call in with your readings however you will find that sometimes your payment can be increased further if you have used more than the estimate.

 Regards

Just to add my two penneth worth.

 I have noticed a trend with all suppliers to over estimate your usage. With global warming (and most definately warmer weather has occurred), its likely that everybody will be over estimated. Please constantly check and supply your meter readings. I would suggest monthly or at least on receipt of the latest bill with an estimate.

I have also noticed another trend with supplier to reclaim owed balances with large Direct Debits (DDs).

The whole point of DDs was to smooth the over consumption of the winter months with the under consumption of the summer months.

I believe they are over estimating peoples meter usage on a massive scale in order to create credit balances (i.e they owe you lots of money and gain huge interest payments for the money on deposit) and reclaim large owed debit balances (i.e you owe lots of money - oh I forgot thats why DD's were created in the first place - to help smooth things over).

In other words they are maximising their interest on your money. Make sure you demand it back. They have no right to hold on to it. It simply helps their profits get larger.

So claim the money back they have of yours and make sure you keep accurate meter readings! Please.

 

alanpaul:

Am I being overly suspicious or has anybody else had the same recent experience?

alanpaul, i totally agree with you. I too had my direct debit upped from £35 a month to £42.50, a day after being told that I was £92 in credit after 5 months of service... it makes no sense other than NPower trying to rip people off!