Increase in NPower DD

[cr15py]

As a result of my DD previously being too low and a combination of them and me mucking up the DD when I changed banks pending my IVA, my monthly DD has more than doubled from £45pm to £102pm!

Presumably this is an example of increased expenditure. I should find out my new salary within the next few days (probably an extra £40/month net I would imagine), and my rent has increased by £25pm - would it be an idea to inform my IP and request a new income and expenditure form?

As a result, I will probably be worse off by £40-£45/month, which would basically wipe out my contingency fund - is there anything I can do with my IVA payments?

[buttercup]

These utility companies are outragous!!!!

That is a hell of a jump every month

[debbie.s]

We have had a similar problem. We changed suppliers because of problems with Powergen. When they finally sorted our bill out we owed them over £450. They were prepared to knock 25% off because it was their error, but I still have to find an extra £35 a month for 10 months to pay this off. Only 5 months to go!

Debbie[;)]

[louisa.s]

Can you ring them up and explain that you are on a very tight budget and would they accept a revised payment of £XX and hopefully over the course of the year it will all balance itself out?

Once you get your new salary I would resubmit your I&E, showing rent increase, renegotiated Npower payment (with supporting documents if available) and send them off, with a note at the bottom to say that unless you hear otherwise from them they accept your revised I&E.

Thats what I've done on previous occasions where it has occurred after my review and they've been happy with it - well they never got back to me so I assume they were happy with it!!!

[abc]

Try contacting the utility company and explain that you can not afford their proposed increase and agree a longer term to repay the arrears.

How much is the arrears? Might be worth speaking to your IP to include them in the IVA.

[chris.g]

Hiya, something similar happened to us with Npower, payments went up from £105 to £270 per month. When I rang they gave me the 'it's the customer's responsibilty to keep a check on their bills' line!!! After causing a bit of a stick, speaking to a manager and speaking to a member of the customer care team, they arranged to reduce the payments down to £170 per month over a 18 mth period. Apparently, they have to allow the same time period to pay the arrears as it has took to accumulate, therefore, if it's been 18 mth, they allow the same time to pay it back. Good luck....

[cr15py]

Thanks guys. I owe Npower about £400, which has arisen in the past year. I could ask them to reduce the payments - I didn't think I would be able to include that in my IVA to be honest.

My problem is that I struggle on the phone - I tend to deal with everything in writing/e-mail so I can take the time to get my point across rather than getting all flustered on the phone and agree to something that I know I can't fulfill.

If it could go in the IVA, and I could start a fresh with a different supplier (which I want to do anyway, because I think NPower are far too expensive!) then that might be the best policy for me.

[ianmillington]

There does seem to be a trend with budget account customers for power companies to allow arrears to accrue over a period of time simply by failure to increase the DDs on a timely basis. Then, they whack up your DDs to recover the backlog at at time when they presume you won't be able to afford to pay it in one go. As you can't move until the bill is paid you are, effectively, locked in. At this stage you will struggle to argue that the power company is a creditor either.

The right course of action would normally be to do as you have indicated Chris, which is to fill in a new I & E. However, I know from other posts that your IVA is quite recent and to ask for a variation at this stage would probably damage its credibility.

I would check with your IP to see if there's anything that can be done. Possibly you will have the "15% reduction" clause which may give some leeway, or the IP may be able to cut you a bit of slack and let you reduce your payments a bit informally (i.e you accrue a small amount of arrears but don't breach the proposal).

Either way, however, you use one of your lifelines.

Ian

[chris.g]

Might be the wisest thing as Npower have a pretty bad rep for the cost of gas/electric. We were advised that we could put the Npower into the bankruptcy, we are waiting for the OR meeting so we will keep our fingers crossed that we can. We ended up owing them over £1000 as they set the usage amount far too low every time they adjusted it, again, my responsibility as I should have requested a higher payment!!!! Utility Companies!!!!!!

[aguise]

Hi there I have a a rise in my utlities of £27 a month,I pay both together. I rang them to say I was going to switch due to the rise in payment and immediately this lady comes up with savings on my bills of nearly £200 a year. It was done by going to an online account where you do your own meter readings, I think you save 15% and you get tesco clubcard points and save on something else as well (sorry cant remember, she then offered to reduce the payment back down. A good result as the most i could have saved was £150 by swapping, and would have had to pay any debit on my account before doing so. I left the payment as was until the account is out of debit and have been allowed to offset this against overtime. Much easier now i can view all my payments and bills online and am saving a fair bit as well. I am with powergen now called Eon. Just ring and ask if there is anything you can do to save money off your bills as you are thinking of changing and see what they come up with.

Ang

[vickir]

I'm on Dual Fuel with EDF, we have a 3 bed house and pay £30 each for gas and Electric, plus get nector points, EDF still seem the cheapest when you have dual fuel and pay by DD, they even had to refund me £75 when i moved house - so £30 each is actually too much, but i stick with it, i'd rather pay too much than not enough

[cr15py]

I would love the opportunity to leave NPower, because their customer services are awful as well as them being darn expensive. But with £400 electric arrears, I can't see me being able to do this for a few months yet which is irritating me.

[louisa.s]

think I'm on the same on as you Aguise. We switched shortly after commencing our IVA and i must confess it's been brilliant and although we do our own readings occasionally we get a guy come rouond (although that be because we forget!) and the tesco clubacrd points add up majorly over the year!!!

I suppose technically we should get into the habit of doing our meter readings coz at least then our bills will be accurate.

On an entirely differnent point - Those clubcard points really do add up particularly if you reuse your own bags, recycle you inkject cartridges/mobile phones, buy both your petrol and food and get your energy with them. just in one quarter we are looking at getting about £23 from them - we are just 2 people who don't spend a huge amoutn on food!!!

[gill.p]

I work for a large utility company and can advise that on-line accounts give bigger discounts etc.. With regards to Direct Debits, companies are often tied up with Credit Management Guidelines that can really restrict what they can and can't do with regarding to spreading payments. If you have had an error on your account most providers will be prepared to spread the debt over the length of time that the error has occured. The companies do tend to say that it is a joint responsibility, when paying on estimated bills, as they provide you with a quarterly statement which should clearly state if the bill is estimated or an actual read, they are only obliged to have the meter read by an data collector once a year. By paying a bill on an estimate means that you are agreeing the bill and aware that it is not a true read. Some debts can get passed to collection companies, who also can agree to spread outstanding balances over longer periods. Please, always ask for longer terms, as terms and conditions are always changing.