Need Help, NPower Bill Arrived, Do I Switch?

kindofagilr

I moved into my house in April.

We pay £70 a month DD for the gas and electric

We have just got our first bill in from 15/04/09-20/10/09 and we are £162.74 in credit

We have used 743kwh of electric (estimated, I need to check the meter and give the reading) costing £105.24

And we have used 207kwh of gas (actual) costing £199.22

Edit (I got the above info wrong lol)
It says here Calorific value 40.100 112 (110s cubic feet) = 3611 kwh
And Calorific value 40.000 95 (100s cubic feet) = 3055 kwh

NPower want to increase our DD to £108 from 02/12/09.

Part of me thinks I should wait till april when I know my actual yearly usage before I switch?

My friend suggested ringing NPower and telling them not to increae my DD? But I am leaving work for maternity leave in Feb (baby is due in march) and I think I will use more gas and electric when I am off.

We currently have the heating on from 4.40pm-8.00pm

Any advice on what to do? should we sit tight and increase the DD to £108
Or should we sit tight and not increase the DD
Or should we try and switch

I went on a comparison site and used the yearly figures Npower gave on my bill (the actual 6 months and teh estimated 6 months) And we could save £10 a month with Scottish Power (and could get £110 cashback from Quidco) and am I right in thinking NPower would of course owe us the £162.74 as well?

Sorry for all the questions this is my first house therefore first bill and I dont know what to do, I dont want to switch to then find I owe more money in the end?

KimYeovil

The increase to £105 is not unreasonable. That only gives you an extra £360 to pay for winter over and above what you paid over summer. (£162 credit is £27 per month. £70 - £27 is £43. £105 - £43 is £62.)

Why do you not want to increase the debit?

Note that if you switch supplier you may find a cheaper price but it is also likely they will estimate over the same period (to Apr) but they don't have the £160 credit so their monthly direct debit request should be higher than £105! The should charge you instalments of £130! (Of course, chances are they won't do this as they will want to hook you in with lower debits to gain your custom.) But there is a chance switching supplier will double your payments! Of course, in the long run it is the total cost over time that is important. If you are confident you are reading your meters and bills correctly (;)) and the Scottish Power tariff is cheaper then feel free to switch. (Note that switching from nPower now means you will forfeit about £66 of the £100 discount that would be due to you after twelve months (but that's not paid in cash - just credited to your account).)

You also have to check your actual electricity reading to see just how much of that £162 credit is indeed yours.

kindofagilr

Its not that I dont want to increase the DD I just wasnt sure what to do

Ok I will leave it as is for now

I am not totally confident lol, the gas ones I am because its a digit reader lol and they have read that one themselves twice.

The electric reader on the other hand is another thing, its a clock one and I hate it, and that is estimated, I might find we owe more money to the electric.

Once I ring with the electric reading will they give me a new bill?

What is the £100 discount you mentioned?

KimYeovil

If you are on a dual fuel direct debit tariff with nPower they credit your account after twelve months with £100. This is in effect a leaving penalty accumulator that accrues at £8.33 per month - but it is reset to zero every twelve months.

Scottish Power 7 does seem cheaper than nPower tariffs so combined with there still being a £110 cashback there is little reason not to switch. It is a variable tariff with a £50 switching penalty so watch out for price changes.

I'm not sure what nPower will do with the reading - they'll most probably just put it on record and not adjust things for another six months - it's not like quarterly billing where you would be sent a revised bill.

kindofagilr

Ah right so come April we will get £100 credited to our bill?

I will have to speak to OH about this, thanks for your help

KimYeovil

But also note the quotes on the comparison sites include this annual discount - so if they suggested SP was £10 cheaper then they would be £18 cheaper per month. 4 times £18.33 plus £110 is more than £100.

talulahbeige_2

I would suggest reading the meter and giving them the correct reading, if it is quiet a bit out they will re-asses

blued

I was paying £60 per month to EON for Gas & Electric and was always in credit. Then I switched to npower after checking uswitch or wherever. They only wanted £36 per month on the direct debit! I just kept paying the £60 per month into my account for bills. 6 months later the bill comes in and they want to up the DD to £100 per month! I declined because as far as I could see they had based my entire bill for the year on what I used mainly over the winter which doesnt make much sense! I've upped the DD to £60 per month and have said I'll pay any shortfall. I'm due a bill next month so will see how it goes.

So it's worth checking what they've based your bill on. In your case it sounds like summer consumption so it is probably worth paying the extra to cover the winter when you'll use more of everything.

kindofagilr

Ok I Have read meter, on my bill it states:

For electricty
15/04/09 33362 Customer reading
16/10/09 34105 Estimate = £100.23 (743 kwh used)

Weve just read the meter and its
04/11/09 34766

So we've actually used 1404 which is more than double? so am I right in thinking that we now owe them £100?

SO if we are £162 in credit and they have changed out DD from £70 to £108 to cover winter, once I give them the actual reading, they will want to up the DD to more than £108 (which I am not sure we can manage )

aelitaman

Two bits of potentially good news for you.

One 1404 units over 7 months is about 6.6 units of elecy per day. This is low compared to the average household in the UK.

You need to check you bill you may have a standing charge and then a single rate for elcecy that you use or you may have two different rates for elecy one called a primary rate for the first X ammounts of elecy you use then a secondary rate (usually a lot less than the primary rate) for the rest of the elecy you use. So this means that your normal usuage will not double your bill. An indicative rate is about 9p per unit for the secondary pricing so you could have 700 x 9p = 63 quid extra.

Check you bill for the prcing and make sure there is no economy 7 units maybe classed as night rate on the bill.

kindofagilr

Ohhh yay thank you lol

Right I have my bill here and it says based on their estimate:
first 365 at 13.760p
next 378 at 13.230p

I am on the standard NPower tariff, there is no standing charge.

Which I think is this:
Electricity - Standard Rate, Domestic Tariff

The majority of customers who use most of their electricity during the day, and who do not in the main use electricity to heat their house and/or to produce hot water are likely to benefit from this tariff. Your bill is charged on a two-tier tariff, consisting of:
Primary unit rate - consumption up to and including 728 kWh per annum
Secondary unit rate - consumption above 728 kWh per annum
One unit is 1 kilowatt of electricity or gas used for one hour (kWh).


First 728kwh per year 13.760 per kwh
additional kwh 13.230 per kw


God the second pricing is pants isnt it!

https://www.npower.com/at_home/applications/quoteandswitch/UnitPrices.aspx?workflow=UnitPrice