It pays to ask about shock bill increases

QI’D BEEN a gas and electricity customer with Eon since I can’t remember when, but with all the publicity around switching suppliers to save money, I thought it was worth a try.

In April, I went to switching site USwitch. This told me that if I moved from Eon to Npower, my monthly payment of around £90 would reduce to about £65.

This new quote would save me approximately £300 a year.

I started with Npower in early May. All went well until September when Npower told me the monthly payment was going up to £95 – a few pounds a month more than I paid Eon.

There was no explanation. But I paid it. In late November, Npower sent me a second increase message. Now it demands I pay £131 a month from January 1. Jenny P

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WHICH? says: You moved from Eon’s standard variable rate onto a fixed rate with Npower to save money. The £90 a month you had been paying to Eon was based on an average of your usage over a year – balancing winter months when you consume a lot of fuel and the summer when you use less.

It had been relatively constant for some time. When you left Eon, you had a small credit balance repaid to you. Both old and new suppliers were happy with the meter readings.

You expected your new supplier to keep payments constant, but over eight months your bill went up by nearly half and then rose again so you would be paying twice as much as the original quote. Yet you are one person living in a small house – and your usage pattern has not changed.

Most suppliers look at monthly payments twice a year to see that you are not underpaying.

This is confusing. Npower admits that it made an “error” and says it will apologise to you. It has not explained how this occurred or whether it would have been rectified quickly if Which? had not complained on your behalf.

As a general rule, when faced with inexplicable increases, demand an explanation from the supplier, which it must offer.