NPOWER REFUNDS
Nearly two million people are being given a refund by the energy company npower after it admitted charging them wrongly from May to November 2007.
If you bought your gas from npower in that period you may already have had a letter from the company. If not it should arrive by the end of the month. But some Saga readers who have received the letter say it looks like a circular and many customers may simply throw it away.
So if you bought your gas from npower between 1 May and 31 October 2007 make sure you read any letter from npower get carefully. The letter is the key to the payment. All you have to do is take the letter to any Post Office with two forms of ID – one that shows you and one that confirms your address – and you will be given the refund in cash.
The amount will vary from £1 to £100 with an average of £35. In addition npower will add VAT and interest.
If you have changed your supplier since 2007 do not worry – you will still get the letter and the refund. If you have moved to another address it is possible that the letter will not reach you. In that case – or if you think you have had a letter but thrown it away – you should call the npower helpline..
If you were an npower gas customer in that period but have not heard from npower by the end of November you can register for the payment anyway. Not every gas customer is entitled as some tariffs, including pre-payment meters, were not affected. The refunds apply to the gas charges not to electricity charges.
The total cost to npower will be around
£70 million. Consumer Focus, which used its legal powers to force npower to
agree to this deal, is one of the public bodies the Government has decided to
scrap. It will disappear in the next year or two.
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