Switching to NPower?

adaze

Considering switching to NPower (Sign Online Dual Fuel V16) but Uswitch confuses the discounts...

Basically you seem to get:

• Dual Fuel Discount: £63.00
• Gas Monthly Direct Debit Discount: £21.00
• Electricity Monthly Direct Debit Discount: £21.00

BUT It also states "You will receive a discount off your energy bill after you have been with npower and paid by monthly Direct Debit for 12 months. "

Does this mean you get an additonal undisclosed (:cool:) discount after 12 months, or the rather more likely you don't any discount until after 12 months where you get 63+21+21=£105 discount.

Anyone know?

KimYeovil

The quote includes the annual discount.

BUT, you pay an extra (almost) £9 per month than the quoted amount and then after twelve months you get the money credited to your electricity account. If you do not stick with the company for an exact number of years plus one day you lose <geek mode = "on">(£105/12)*(months (MOD 12))<geek mode = "off">

And some have reported you do not get the reduction in your debit until the eighteenth month (because you are only billed six monthly - your second bill arrives at one year minus one day so you are no yet due the discount.)

PS: Just to clarify: for every complete year you pay without break by direct debit you will receive £105 off the advertised tariff prices. But the comparison sites include this discount in their quoted annual cost.

1carminestocky

It's effectively an exit fee by the back door, TBH. I genuinely don't believe the switching sites should be allowed to include it in their 'savings' figure, personally. Plus, it's npower. Check out the 'sculpting' thread to ascertain whether you would wish to associate yourself with this company for any length of time let alone a minimum of 12 months...

KimYeovil

I agree with Carmine (*cough* *splutter* *spit*) but don't confuse (*ah, that's better*) sculpting with scalping. Although the direct debit discount is a loyalty fee their sculpting shenanigans are no different in practice and effect from every other company's restructuring their two-tier pricing at a price change (other than the small fact that it is explicitly (but some would say only clumsily) dishonest).

PS : Please ignore this post. It is an aside only of interest to the tiresome and pedantic.**

**: I, of course, include myself in this group.

JSF

Sculpting ??

Started with the usual searches and have given up.....

I got a feeling if you are a low energy user you will get charged at a higher rate until you have used so much at which point a lower rate is charged on the rest.

Dont seem fair and is confusing, or have I missed something?

I gave up after 20mins of reading, seems like you need a calculator and a maths degree.

KimYeovil

There are two conflated and confused issues. One is fair but confusing. The other is unfair but no different (in result) from every other supplier.

Seasonal weighting is reasonable - everyone pays their contribution to the standing charge. You pay nearly nothing in summer when usage is low so maximises respite. You pay extra in winter but it is not significant compared to the extra due to the heating so you do not notice the pain.

Restructuring tariff at a price change is reasonable - you charge £14 per month then decide this is too much and decide to change to charging £4.50 per month. You charge £4.50 per month but discover this is a little low and have undercharged so decide to rejig to £5.75 per month. This is reasonable and most suppliers do this at every price change (but hide it in their two-tier tariffs.)

The trouble with nPower is that they did not do the same as everyone else and disguise it in a two-tier tariff bounds/unit price change - they just made up numbers and redefined what a year was and clawed back money after the fact. The SUMS of money or TRANSPARENCY to the casual user were (arguably) not much different. They just happened to implement it in an unambiguously dishonest manner.

1carminestocky

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=822299&highlight=sculpting

adaze

KimYeovil wrote: »

And some have reported you do not get the reduction in your debit until the eighteenth month (because you are only billed six monthly - your second bill arrives at one year minus one day so you are no yet due the discount.)

Anyone have any other experiences of this, can't say it sounds too appealing, though should you not be able to switch after the year and a day and that would generate a final bill?

The scuplting doesn't bother me too much, at least from what I understand I don't think it does :rolleyes:

NPower are around £60 a year cheaper than EON and you get around £40 cash back, so potentially around a £100 saving riding on this.

adaze

1carminestocky wrote: »

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=822299&highlight=sculpting

:eek:

Didn't bother to read the lot but man alive that seems confusing...

andygb

adaze wrote: »

Anyone have any other experiences of this, can't say it sounds too appealing, though should you not be able to switch after the year and a day and that would generate a final bill?

The scuplting doesn't bother me too much, at least from what I understand I don't think it does :rolleyes:

NPower are around £60 a year cheaper than EON and you get around £40 cash back, so potentially around a £100 saving riding on this.

I think that "sculpting" should worry everyone, because it is a way of making you pay far more money to NPower in the Winter months. They reckon that their customers would rather pay more for their gas/electricity when they use more - ??????, so you will find that when you are using hardly anything in the six/seven summer months, they charge you less per unit. As soon as the Winter months arrive, then NPower jack up the price per unit, because as they say - "The customer has asked them to do this"
I hate NPower with a vengeance.

notbritishgas

adaze wrote: »

Anyone have any other experiences of this, can't say it sounds too appealing, though should you not be able to switch after the year and a day and that would generate a final bill?

The scuplting doesn't bother me too much, at least from what I understand I don't think it does :rolleyes:

NPower are around £60 a year cheaper than EON and you get around £40 cash back, so potentially around a £100 saving riding on this.

The "bonus" is credited to your account on the 12 month anniversary, it used to be credited to the electric account but on my last bill(july) it was split between the two accounts.
However, as has been said previously you do not see the bonus until the next bill which could be up to 6 months later. I think if you left after 1 year and 1 day then that would generate a bill and the bonus would be on it.
Just to add, my anniversary date is April and my bill was July so if I was desperate for the money I would have waited about 3 months.