I can assure you it's something that those who do this area of work have always been unhappy about. It's never seemed fair that those who have made regular payments on the account come out worse off than those who haven't paid a penny. That was the rule, though I believe there have been some recent changes which have balanced this up somewhat. I don't think the peole who have paid benefit any more, but those who haven't are less advantaged, but I've lost touch a little.

Thanks for the replies. The DCA is Equidebt, but it wasn't with them when it was CCCS. Do you think it's worth contacting CCCS, I presumed they wouldn't have records that far back. I moved house 5 & a half years ago & it was around that time the plan failed, but before or after I don't know. I am probably best CCAing them, I doubt there's any paperwork, I'd had the card for a good few years before that, probably before 2000.

Thanks Silverfox

I have recently started to receive letters & calls from a DCA for a debt which must be very nearly statute barred, if it isn't already. It was being paid as part of a CCCS plan which failed. The problem is I have no records & don't know when the last payment was made. Can anyone help?

The late billed policy would not apply if they were reducing the size of your bill, which seems to be the case here, so the 12 months is irrelevant. I would have thought that the difference between 16,000 units & 5,000 would be not far short of £1500?

I'm getting exactly the same thing Count. The letter threatening to visit me at work, the payment plan, plus numerous calls, often with a recorded message. I did snap with one of the monkeys today & told him they were phising, the debt was not mine & to stop calling. I suppose I'll need to progress to a prove it letter & thence a CCA request, but I shouldn't have to go to this expense & inconvenience of all of this. They are ****.

It's not impossible that the work might have affected your meter, you would be best speaking to your local distribution company about that.

I wasn't aware that they ever were? I thought that this information was only held by the local distributors. Either way, I'm sure they would have access to the ECOES system so would know who the supplier is. Whether are not they should give out that information is another matter, although the whole sysytem of who supplies is much more open these days than it was a few years back & that can't be a bad thing.

Sorry Pelham but NG cannot tell you who your electricity supplier is. To find that out you will need to contact the local distribution company.

Suzi, it sounds like you have been billed on estimated readings. Did you take your own readings when you moved in? The £934.60 you mention will be based on the reads for this bill & used to project your future use. If you did take reads, compare them to the bill you have received & also checked that the reads that you have been billed to, are close to those on your meters now. If they are not, call npower with your reads & also keep a check yourself for a couple of weeks, to give them something to estimate new connection reads on. Don't panic, ask for a complaint to be raised & you'll get through to people much better able to help you. I'm afraid the interests of the collections & billing departments are not always one & the same.

As I understand it, with final bills, the supplier must issue you with a final bill within 12 months of the account ending, or they can not enforce collection. i.e. they can still send the bill out put there's not much they can do to enforce payment. Also if you have received a final bill & paid it in full, whilst it can be amended, there's little they can do if you refuse to pay & say sorry I've had your final bill & paid it. (Unless obviously it was to your reading, which subsequently proved to be incorrect).

Anyone?

just bumping as I need some advice

Hi all just after advice for a mate about trying to get an N245 form filled out properly. He failed to make payments on a CCJ & now repeatedly gets issued with warrants, which he pays. Sadly this isn't doing anything to pay off the debt. I've now got him a payment book & he has started paying them. I've got an N245 form to get the warrant suspended, as the creditor advised they would keep going out automatically as there are large arrears. Question is, do I need to get him to send a covering letter with the form? He can afford the payments, so is only asking for a suspension & there is nowhere on the form for any explanation. Apart from that the form is quite straightforward. Any advice appreciated

Hi Yellow. I hope they'll be symapthetic, but you must realise that if your first bill for £600 for 6 months use was accurate, (& please make sure you're not bening billed to inaccurate estimates), you are using £100 per month, so £80 wouldn't even cover your use & your debt would continue to increase. I don't think any utuility would agree to that. If you are in difficulty, it might be worth trying to speak to their "SAFE" team in collections, who will try to reach a compromise with you.

Just to clear something up, Scarborough was not in the old Yorkshire Elecric region. Most of North Yorks Was Northern electric. The YE area didn't stretch much further north than around Wetherby across to Bridlington. So if you live in Scarborough & your supplier shows the old areas, Northern would be right.

Hi gaz, sorry, I missed that post. Your current meter the one begining G4W is definitely a metric credit meter. If you have been receivng bills showing it as imperial or prepay, they are wrong. Just to add to RAH25, you have it the wrong way round. A 5 dial meter is metric & a 4 dial imperial. Of course, just because your read only has 4 digits doesn't make it imperial, it might not have reached 10,000!

Pelham, 1 unit does not equal 1 kwh on a gas meter if you're referring to the meter read. On a metric meter 1 unit on the reading is about 11 kwh & about 30 on a metric meter. gaz245, do you have bills? It would be helpful if you could post up the meter serial number, it should be pretty easy from that to tell if it's metric or imperial.

Just a couple of points JB. npower would not have set you up on E7 on a whim, they would have put you on E7 because that's the type of meter your previous supplier told npower you had. Are you getting bills with 2 firm reads or are they all estimated? The comment about sign on line 4 makes no sense. It's just a name for a range of tariffs, which would definitely include E7. Lastly it's perfectly possible to be billed as a single rate, even if you have a 2 rate meter. The bill still records 2 reads, but you are changed the same single rate tariff on both. I would recommend getting in touch with the executive complaints team & getting them to raise a formal complaint.

Hi Madcap. Does the bill show the balance of the last bill as being 0.00? If so, I would say that the transfer has been taken into account, even though it may not actually be showing. As far as I m, aware, if you have had a bill marked final bill & it has been settled, the supplier are not able to ask you for anymore money. I would mention this & in either event, get it into the proper complaints system & obtain a URN number.

Hi Folks. I need to arrange for an N245 for my friend who is in arrears on a CCJ & is receiving a summons every month. He can afford the repayment (just), but was advised by the banks solicitors, that it would be best for himt to send in an N245, to "reset" the case, so that he wasn't getting the summons every month. I have been onto the HMCS website & their is a form on there, but you can't actually fill it in & submit online. The case is dealt with at the bulk court in Northampton. A couple of questions. Can I get the form for him, from the local court & submit it there, or do I need to get the form & post it to Northampton? Would it be best to apply to vary the order to a slightly lower amount? As I said he can afford the payment, but it seems the form only really deals with a variation to the monthly payment. Any help aprreciated.

Thanks Count, I doubt they could provide a CCA as it's a very old Barclaycard from the mid/late 90s, last used in the early 2000s. I am happy to pay though, as I want to clear my debts. They're not getting any more though!

Hi folks. Letter from Connaught today. Apparently, they have been monitoring my credit history & have received notification which suggests my finanial position has improved! The grubby monsters think I might be able to clear my account, or increase my payments! I will say that in the past 6 months or so, a couple of my smaller debts have been cleared & also a credit card I have, purely for convenience, (the balance is always paid immediately), has had it's limit increased, although I have called & cancelled said increase. They suggest I contact them to discuss my financial situation, to avoid them carrying out further investigations into my credit file & to avoid further action. Whats your advice? I intend to ignore them & carry on my payments as usual. All thoughts appreciated.

Just checked mods & wondered if this might be better in the legal section? Please feel free to move if you agree. Thanks

Hi there. I am trying to help a friend sort out a problem & hoped I might get some advice. He had a substantial debt, which the bank obtained a CCJ for sometime ago. Frustrating I know, but he does not know how much the judgement was for or what the payments should be & hasn't been sent any payment book etc . I tried to find out more, but he just said he waited until he got a letter from the court & then paid it! The situation now seems to be quite serious, I have seen the letter that says they are going for a warrant of execution & yesterday, he had a visiting card from a baliff whilst at work. He is going to the court today to make a payment & I have told him he must ask for details of the original judgement & we can take it from there. At the moment they seem to be asking for arrears of over £2000 to be paid within 7 days. Impossible of course. A couple of questions. Will the local court be able to provide him with details of the judgement? He is able to make reasonable payments towards the debt. Should he contact SCM to arrange this, or go straight back to the court for a variation order, assuming that the payments must be pretty high for that level of arrears to accrue? Thanks in anticipation