We live in a 1930's 1 Bedroom End Terraced House. We have loft insulation, but not wall. We have a 3 year old combi boiler, new electric fire (hardly used) and a gas oven and hob. Heating is on about 6/7 hours per day during the winter, and very very little during the summer. For the period August 07 to Feb 08 (6 months) our gas bill is £360 and electric is £370.

Our supplier is NPower dual fuel. They now want £178.00 per month (£2136 per year) up from £142.00 to supply our gas and electric. Everybody I talk to says this is more than they pay for their 3 bedroomed houses etc.

We've spoken to Npower so many times now but they refuse (obviously) to come and check our supply and/or our meters.

The 1st and last readings are actuals. The bill is a 6 monthly bill and the readings are as follows

Electricity
13-08-07 Actual 12161 to 12/02/08 Actual 15623 total used 3462 =£420.36

Gas
13-08-07 Actual 6250 to 12-02-08 Actual 6621 total used 371 =£343.59

Plus vat = £802.14 - £70.00 dual fuel discount = £732.14 for 6 months

but they want to increase it to £178.00 from the current amount of £142.00/month based on the estimates that they say we will use in the next 12 months.

We thought we were getting ripped off @ £142/month but £178. We fell for their doorstep selling scam and now find ourselves with arrears of £589 even though we've paid £142/month for the last year.

Obviously I've now shopped around and we can get our fuel from Atlantic Electric and Gas for £1118 per annum, but do we have to clear the arrears before we switch to a new supplier?

Sorry about the length of the post, but it feels good to get it off our chests and also warn people about Npower.

You will need to clear any arrears before the switch. I'm unsure how the arrears have come about because, at £142/mth, you have been paying enough to cover what you have been using.

i don't know if this is much help but i changed from n power to british gas and they sent me a final bill for £672 (i was on a prepayment meter) when i rang to query this i was told that if i switched back they would spread my payments out but otherwise i would have to pay within the desigated time on the bill. i didn't switch back and i made payments of £100 per month until my debt was clear. sorry if i'm rambling but what i'm getting at is that they are going to send you a final bill when you change so i would just change because i don't think you are actually in arrears at the minute because your payments seem to have been high enough.

Hi,

I would suggest cancelling your direct debit (you can always re-instate it 'cos they're going to put it up anyway with or without you liking it!) and demanding a bill to your own reads so you can see exactly what your situation is. You're right in that you can't change supplier while you are in debt, so I'd find out if I was in debt and then go from there.

hope this helps!

Tx

Hi I have switched from British gas/ dual fuel, to NPower this was a 18months ago, I had the same problem with them, although paying by direct debit, i had credit on both gas & electric, when i switched low and behold the credit turned into debit. at first I argued with them, boy have you ever spoken to British gas customer services? they really are the pits! in the end as i was getting nowhere, and don't know where to get advice,but if you do, then please let me know. i paid the so called arrears, just to get away.

Now i am about to switch from npower, who, incidentally, don't read meters, so I want to know who's been sticking their heads under my stairs in the last 18 months, however on my gas account i have £46 debit, on my electric i have £229 credit and my monthly D/D for that has gone up to £59 per month, crazy eh? if i have credit of this amount surly i should have a little payment holiday? No.

I bet when all the paper work goes through there will be debit, just as you are experiencing.

What i am going to do is get the meters read, on the same day change the suppliers that way you find out if you have any debits.

Now i have got all that with the answer to your question is: No, in a word.

I would be carefull cancelling your direct debit as they would just send you straight to a dca if you have debt. Sometimes you can transfer to other suppliers with debt it depends on the system. But to be honest your boiler can to to blame along with price rises. What you ahve to remember is new houses may have better heating etc.