Got £100 credit on my account for switching to npower at the Ideal Home Show.

Jodie1975

Just thought I'd mention it (sorry if this has already been posted) as I'm quite pleased with this. I changed from Powergen and just checked on the comparison sites mentioned on here, guessing my amount used it works out about £300 cheaper per year, plus I'll get £100 credit.

I went to the stall at the Ideal Home show just to fill out an entry form to win a car, got chatting to the guy there and told him I'd only switch after checking on this site as to which was best. He showed me a print out saying npower came up tops in some report done on 03/03/06 and promised I could cancel if I got home and found better, then he told me I could have the £100 credit. So if anyone plans on going there, it may be worth it for you too??

Jodie1975

Also, should I do anything like read the meter before the switch or is that all done for me?

matto

Have you got the prices you'll be paying?

npower could be being a little sneaky here. They have a special price which as far as I'm aware is only available online and the comparison sites use this low price for their comparisons. You do not want to end up on their standard prices.

Jodie1975

Thanks, good point. Thought it was too good to be true. I will check the paper work. I really haven't had time to look into all this properly.

matto

For comparison purposes npower's cheap sign online rate is:

Elec 14.18p & 6.74p after 728 kWh
Gas 3.165p & 1.691p after 4572 kWh

Their standard rate is

Elec 18.53p & 9.21p
Gas 3.968p & 2.068p

The electricity rates vary area by area.

bbruce

£100? That's brilliant. They only offered me £40.
Npower come out cheapest for me on Uswitch but don't feature on other comparison sites.
I wonder who owns the comparison sites!

Jodie1975

Thanks for that, I will give them a call as it's not on the paper work they gave me. He said it's £60 off my first month and £40 off the second with a rolling contract of 28 days, so maybe I could switch after that to their other cheaper rate, I don't know.

Jodie1975

Bruce, did you get offered that at the ideal home show? To be honest, I was being very nice to the guy as I was trying to get inside info on how many balls were in the car, for the win a car competition. He even gave me his phone number and invited me to the champagne reception at next years Ideal Home show, lol!!

mikemoate

matto wrote:

For comparison purposes npower's cheap sign online rate is:

Elec 14.18p & 6.74p after 728 kWh
Gas 3.165p & 1.691p after 4572 kWh

Their standard rate is

Elec 18.53p & 9.21p
Gas 3.968p & 2.068p

The electricity rates vary area by area.

Matto,
Do you have any idea for how long they apply these special online prices? Do they bump them up to the standard prices after a few months, after the next general price rise, or do they keep existing customers who signed up online to the current sign uponline being offered to new customers? If it's the latter do you know if the online prices go up in sync with general price rises or do npower vary them at will, so to speak?

matto

The current Sign Online tariff is SOL4. This was introduced in mid February and prices were not raised when all other npower prices were raised in mid-March. This price rise includes substantial rises for those on the previous Sign Online tariffs, SOL3 introduced mid November and SOL2 introduced Feb 2005. These latter rates are much similar to the standard rate though still slightly discounted. The SOL2 tariff was also raised mid-November when there was a general price rise (and SOL3 was introduced for new customers).

Anybody's guess as to when they will increase prices on the SOL4 tariff. My best guess would be autumn. Wholesale prices are likely to decrease now the worst of the winter is over so npower will probably not need to raise prices until then.

bbruce

Jodie1975 wrote:

Bruce, did you get offered that at the ideal home show? To be honest, I was being very nice to the guy as I was trying to get inside info on how many balls were in the car, for the win a car competition. He even gave me his phone number and invited me to the champagne reception at next years Ideal Home show, lol!!

Jodie,
I was also trying to get that info.
No doubt if I were a tasty 31 year old, I might have got further!