Is there any chance your landlord would have a copy of the start reads from when you moved in still? There is no act as far as im aware, but you could ask them to re-estimate your bill based on your consumption since you moved in if you explain how crap your letting agents were? May take a few £'s off the bill? Unfortunately if the supplier is given no readings they have to bill you somehow and if its estimated would normally be based on the previous occupants consumption.

Was it a final bill? If so was it an estimate? Check the final reads tally with the start reads provided by EDF. Did you give a final read when you left the property and a forwarding address? If not the debt would get sold onto a debt collectors who will do a trace for the outstanding balance.

I'm sure NPower will allow you to spread the cost, at the moment with the price rises they may do what they can to keep their customers happy! Good luck

Have you checked your reading now to see if it follows the reading they have billed you for? You can always request your new supplier raises an ARD, ie agreed read dispute if there is a significant difference. That way, both suppliers have to agree a read which Npower should propose. Give NPower a call with your reading for today and they should be able to do this for you. Clare

You pay a standing charge on prepayment meters, so most likely that that is being deducted.

Have you never queried this????

2 bed house, all electric £60 a month.

I was once a happy Virgin Media customer and then I moved house. A few days before moving I called them and discussed my move and was happily told that my new house is ready for the transfer to take place. Would be active the day after I moved in. No problem I thought. Also told me that if I went on the XL package I would get more tv channels and talk unlimited for £39 a month. Good as it was less than I was already paying! Moved and the next day, no phone and very basic tv and broadband. Called them and learnt that they had set up my new account at another address!?!?! But would get it set up for me asap. Missed an engineer they had sent out 4 days later as I wasnt aware I needed one who called and said he had managed to set it up remotely, so phone was finally working. Wrong telephone number though. Turns out I have a complete new account, and because of the cock up they would supply me with talk unlimited free for a year. Fair enough. 2 months later I get a bill?!?! I thought I was paying by DD. Turns out they cancelled it as they have to when setting up a new account, my argument being why didnt they inform me and offer me a DD to save me the £5 a month. Also turns out that I dont have talk unlimited free, and sorry madam but whoever you spoke to have not noted on your account that you have talk unlimited for free hence why I had a large bill as I am paying for all my calls!!!! I am calling on a regular basis and constantly being fobbed off. I asked then, so if I am a new customer then I should have a new contract? Apparently yes, so why havent I had one then???? Also appears that I am not on the XL package I was supposed to be on, and they also dont have a record of my old account, even though I have supplied them with the account number. I was told if I brought my account upto date, they would sort out the issue regarding talk unlimited and get a contract out. Well I paid up and they took off the late payment fee and the non DD charges. So called again today, to be sure this had all been resolved now as I still havent got a contract. Was told the usual, nothing on your account about getting talk unlimited for free but will have a word with my manager and put on hold. Came back and was told the manager would have a look after his lunch break. Fine, will he call me back then? No he couldnt guarentee that. So can I take his name?? No, we dont have to give names out if the person if question asks us not to. What a load of tosh!!!! So advice, other than go to Sky please! Clare

Could you not set up a standing order? Same as a DD except you have control and they cant suddenly up your payments.

There is no specific name for it, just advise them that they cant backbill you beyond 12 months if they have made no attempt to read your meter or bill you in that time. They will certainly know about the 1 year ruling and should acknowledge it. I work for Powergen and we are all aware of this. Ask them for a manual bill quoting the billing period inclusive of meter reads. Looks to me also like they have only charged you for a years consumption but they should also provide you with a summary of charges.

Ok, thanks for that. I would immediately assume just from that information then that the February bill was underestimated as £22.99 for a quarter in the winter period is very low. Have you spoken to anyone in the consumption team at Powergen? If not then request to speak to someone in that department. They will ask what gas appliances are being used, how the property is heated, particulary over the winter period which would have covered the November to February period.

The one year rule came into affect in July this year. With regards to the other tenant who was living there at the time, was their name on the gas account too? Have you or can you get copies of the tenancy agreement to prove that someone else was living at the property at the time?

Am I right in assuming the first bill in February was estimated or have I read that incorrectly?

Ditto, as a call centre advisor, I too get fed up with the nasty comments. Couldnt have said it better myself. Clare

They may have transfered the debt to your new account but transfered it as a credit and not a debit, easy mistake to make, but no excuse for the supplier to make such an error. All you can do is be happy that you have given them your final readings and just hold fire until they go and refund the credit and then realise their error. If its Powergen, as a rule, any amount refunded over £150 is normally checked and double checked by management before authorised, purely for these reasons. Hope you manage to get it sorted anyway. Clare

Also bear in mind that when you leave the property you will have to notify the company that you are giving up the tenancy and they will request final readings and a forwarding address to send you a final bill.

The landlord will get the bill

I work for Powergen and can assure you we are not all monkeys!

It might be worth checking the timeswitch on your meter, im assuming you have E7. If you have a faulty timeswitch it may not be switching over to the night rate at the correct time, if at all. Powergen should be able to arrange for someone to come out and check it for you. Powergen have a department which deals with faulty timeswitches who should be able to go through this with you. Clare

bump

Hi, need some advice as im really trying to repair my damaged credit file. I currently have a basic account with Lloyds and have been keeping my account in order. Last month I went to my local Lloyds on the Saturday morning to pay a some money into my account to cover a DD that was due to come out of my account the following monday. Arrived there to find it was shut. Apparently they close the local branch on a Saturday now as they dont have enough staff. I was not ever made aware that my local branch shuts, so they hit me with a fee of £30. Spoke to the branch on the following Monday who were very unhelpful and just sent me a leaflet to complain to the ombudsmen. Great! Then this month, I went into town to the main branch to pay money into my account to cover a DD coming out today, but also needed to cancel a standing order that was coming out today as i wouldnt have had enough to cover it, forgot to stop that a few days ago. I called the bank yesterday who had already sent the money off, even though it wasnt due to leave my account until today, and have now charged me yet another £30. Surely if I have an agreement that the DD is to leave my account on the 6th they can not send it off a day earlier??? They said they would investigate and gave me a reference number. Any advice or tips on how to get my money back would be appreciated. I have already claimed all my bank charges from an old account which was a great success, but this account this is the only time I have gone overdrawn and didnt want to go through the long drawnout process of claiming again. Clare

Which is the best way to go. Siemens and Accuread cause us so many problems, I name them as they are probably the worst, which is why the company I work for have now started recruiting for their own DC's.

Not entirely true. I also work for a gas/electric utility company and we DONT use our own readers, but the likes of Siemens and Accuread. If you use an online tarriff with your supplier, you may find you will get a bigger discount if you pay by the dreaded FDD. By doing this you get to supply your own reading quarterly and bills emailed to you. That wont necessarily stop the meter readers coming to pay you a visit though as they still have to check your meter at least once in 12 months now. Clare

Powergen will normally spread the cost if you make a part payment now. Just call them, I doubt they will argue that. Make sure they have billed you correctly with the installation read and an upto date reading. Also make sure no debt has been carried over from your prepayment meter (shouldnt have any money owing on it but you never know)

Did you receive quarterly statements? In which case it should have shown that a debt was building up on the account. Were the reads estimated or were your meters read?