NPOWER or SOUTHERN ELECTRIC

skibadee

we recently changed from Powergen/E-ON [ wrong move ] to Southern Electric...they have just put our electric payments up to £91 a month...fair enough...but when I looked on-line Npower came out as cheaper supplier to us...obviously changing to them will save us aptly £350 a year which is a good thing...but don't want to make a wrong move which we did by going t o Southern, as paying more now than we ever were with powergen/e-on.

Magentasue

Thing is, whatever you pay by DD every month, the relevant thing is how much you will pay per kwh and over the year. Say for example, you use x kwh of gas and xkwh of elec. You can calculate that it will cost £1200 from supplier A, £1250 from supplier B and £1400 from suplier C. Now, supplier A may set the DD higher and reduce it in a few months, supplier C may set the DD artificially low and hit you with a massive increase.

What I'm saying, is that you can't judge who is most expensive by what the DD is set at. You need to use accurate annual usage to calculate how much you will pay on each tariff over a year.

KimYeovil

[Edit: Snap]

Are you electric only? If so, then, yes, substantial savings are available from one supplier and the other and from one region and the next.

But you have to doublecheck - make sure you are not confusing a bumped up direct debit instalment with a difference in the actual unit cost of your electricity. Also, some comparison calculators can make mistakes with discounts. Look carefully at the single fuel discounts for nPower and Southern Electric.

skibadee

Magentasue wrote: »

Thing is, whatever you pay by DD every month, the relevant thing is how much you will pay per kwh and over the year. Say for example, you use x kwh of gas and xkwh of elec. You can calculate that it will cost £1200 from supplier A, £1250 from supplier B and £1400 from suplier C. Now, supplier A may set the DD higher and reduce it in a few months, supplier C may set the DD artificially low and hit you with a massive increase.

What I'm saying, is that you can't judge who is most expensive by what the DD is set at. You need to use accurate annual usage to calculate how much you will pay on each tariff over a year.

This what I'm afraid of as I think Southern set up an artifically low DD and have now hit us with a massive increase........based on annual usage cost NPOWER were lower than Southern by approx £356 a year.

Both gas and electric with same supplier.

Magentasue

skibadee wrote: »

based on annual usage cost NPOWER were lower than Southern by approx £356 a year.

OK, based on annual usage cost - what about based on annual kwh used?

skibadee

based on annual kwh usage....npower is cheaper...just...but not sure about their tariffs....they seem to have different tariffs for different parts of the year.....or am I being thick and all suppliers do this?

Magentasue

skibadee wrote: »

based on annual kwh usage....npower is cheaper...just...but not sure about their tariffs....they seem to have different tariffs for different parts of the year.....or am I being thick and all suppliers do this?

I'm not sure about this but my understanding is that Npower charge more units at the higher tier price during the winter. So, no, you're not being thick - far from it. If nobody comes in to explain it better, a search for npower in this forum should give you more information.

anniecave

what area of the country are you in? They don't charge different numbers of units in my area.

skibadee

I'm in Gloucestershire

anniecave

OK - you are in midlands supply region then. I think. (Your supply number start with a 14 yes ?) Same as me.

What tariff are you on with Southern? I assume you put that tariff in on the comparison site? (sounds silly, but tariffs amongst the same supplier can vary massively). And what's your annual kwh figures for gas? and electric?

The price differences do vary between the suppliers over time. Basically each time prices go up the suppliers vary how much they increase prices in each area, and that's where the game is. And they consistently bring out new tariffs all the time.

And it used to be the case that your regional company was always the most expensive, but npower is that regional company in my (and I think your) case, and it's coming out the cheapest. Wow!

A._Badger

I don't know if this is the sort of feedback you were looking for but I can tell you that NPower is the only utility company I have ever taken to the regulator.

Like most of us, I suspect, I've dealt with some shoddy outfits in my time (BT springs, readily, to mind) but no one comes even remotely close to NPower in terms of bungling inefficiency and a complete lack of interest putting its mistakes right.

I wouldn't wish NPower on my worst enemy!

Please do bear in mind that price isn't all with these companies.

Hope that's some help.