npower price rises

Cardew

Kietv40 wrote:

....NPower came up as my best option, potentially saving me almost £400 a year! This was reduced to less than £150 once I asked them to do the recalculations using their January prices.

:rolleyes:

You must have very large consumption of gas/electricty to be able to make savings of £400/£150 before and after NPower price increases.

If a 14% price rise 'costs' £250(i.e. your savings are reduced by £250) your current bill must be approx £1,800 pa.(£150 per month)

£150 pa savings are still pretty reasonable.

heyjude_4

I am in the process of switching to npower from british gas but am still in the cooling off period. Just had a phonecall from them offering to match bgas prices capped until 2007 and increase the dd £50 dual fuel discount to £60. told them I would think about it and to ring back tomorrow. What should I do!!

njm_2

heyjude wrote:

I am in the process of switching to npower from british gas but am still in the cooling off period. Just had a phonecall from them offering to match bgas prices capped until 2007 and increase the dd £50 dual fuel discount to £60. told them I would think about it and to ring back tomorrow. What should I do!!

Are you on the BGas capped rate at the moment? I thought capped rates had certain tie-ins and you generally paid a higher rate than the standard tariff now but would be protected against future price rises. If nPower are prepared to offer a enhanced incentive to transfer to them then perhaps BGas might offer one for you to stay with them.

funky-footprints

find it strange that some are panicking about switching to npower, when it was made clear that they hadnt raised thier prices when Martin gave the go ahead to switch ? We all knew this price increase was going to happen !

elegy

I have been watching the price changes since Martins advice, it was hardly surprising about Npowers increase - and Atlantics, they had only guaranteed their prices to January and we are nearly there, sites were advising about their increase in advance,HOWEVER even with their rises they still beat Utility warehouse for me by about £75 and are only marginally more than some others, and of course are (hopefully) less likely to increase again as quickly.

HC_2

I'm really upset about this. I know that Martin doesn't have a crystal ball, but he said 'now is the time', so I switched from Powergen to NPower. That was about 3 weeks ago, so it's too late for me to cancel.

I didn't read about the price rise in the press, otherwise I could maybe have stopped it in time.

Oh well, c'est la vie.

MSE_Martin

Hi folks,

Sadly this is one of those things. I had heard on the Grapevine that an Npower rise maybe due, but it was for early next year. In the end that's what has happened except they've announced now and risen the prices on Jan 1.

Ultimately there is no - "no price rise" time. The aim of 'time to switch' was to pick the most level playing field possible with the longest time until price rises. While I realise its cold comfort, actually I still think the timing was right. This is a constant problem and there is no solution to the ever changing landscape, except switch frequently and keep the prices low.

Sorry if anyone feels I got it wrong, I do understand that, sad point is sometimes there's no right answer

martin

fraser

the visibility of the price rises in the original article was poor the ukpower link would have been good

now i cannot cancel the move... will be worse off by £80

wheres the "no thanks" button ?

MarkyMarkD

I don't blame Martin or anyone else - but I think that the comparison engines should make it crystal clear if a saving is contingent upon a retrospective discount - and I would suggest that Martin also refers to this in any subsequent article on utility prices.

Retrospective discounts are absolutely the most devious way for any supplier to make money out of their customers - they get top of the comparison tables, but can increase the price whilst the customer is effectively tied in*.

* And yes, I know that you are not (in this case) actually tied in, but might as well be if you are half-way through a year of earning your retrospective discount.

mbailey

I did the price comparision as suggested by Martin and it came back saying I would be £40 better off so I did the change from Powergen to Npower. With the new prices I am now worse of by £60!

The total price for the year (including DD discount) has gone up by 15.53% on npower. :mad:

At the end of the day it was my decision to change, but Martin, please be careful what you recommend in the future.