Am I paying too much?

tombooth

Hi Guys,

I've recently moved out of my Mum's house and into my first house. I was wondering if anyone can offer any advice with regards to gas and electricity.

I am currently with N-Power who have started me off paying £75 a month for each of my gas and electricity bills - making a total of £150 a month. I don't know much about these things but I'm sure that seems quite high for a 3 bed semi.

I have looked through the site and found a comparison site and found there are cheaper alternatives. What I want to know is, should I just go with the cheapest or am I better off staying where I am as I am on a price cap until 2009 and I understand that I can pay for what I use as long as I supply my meter readings...

Hope someone can offer some good advice.

Thanks all.

Tom

oldwiring

Initial reaction is a bit on the high sidem but deoends on what you have and hoe you use it. What n-power tariff are you on?

oldwiring

I have just done a calculation assuming that you are not on Econmy 7 or such

£900 a year for each estiamtes yout gas use at 38700kWh and elec 10200. I have factored in the discounts as mentioned by energyhelpline equally between the two supplies. Average usage - gas say 20000kWh/yr: elec 3500, I think

smartie1976

I would choose a capped tariff. At least that way you can fix your monthly price for three years and not have to worry about it.
The best 2 deals around are the npower march 2010 and the BG dec 2009.
(The difference is only 4 months, and when I did a comparison for my mum, BG came out cheaper than npower!)

oldwiring

smartie1976 wrote:

I would choose a capped tariff. At least that way you can fix your monthly price for three years and not have to worry about it.
The best 2 deals around are the npower march 2010 and the BG dec 2009.
(The difference is only 4 months, and when I did a comparison for my mum, BG came out cheaper than npower!)

I think deciding what supplier to use at this stage is pretty uselless, as Toobooth does not know what energy his household will actually use, You just can not assume that what is cheaper for you will be cheaper for him!

Today's thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=225240

may help him to decide that and whether the hours of peak consumption may suit them to Economy 7. Once a reasonable assessment has been made, then he can decide to consult a comparison site. Personally I would ask for full deatils of the assumptions made by N-power in assessing his monthly DDs

angelavdavis

I had a similar experience when I left home and set up home. The power company insisted it had set this limit because I didn't have a record as a customer with any other company.

Keep an eye on the progress and ask for the money back as soon as you receive a bill if it is obvious that you are paying OTT, then ask for a reduction in the direct debits.

Good luck

tombooth

Thanks to everyone who has replied - I have since been asking around other ppl who live in the area and everyone seemed to agree that I was paying WAY too much. After this I phoned N-Power and gave them another meter reading. To my surprise they agreed I was paying too much and HALVED my DD. I really wasn't expecting this and can only assume that either they knew it was too high but wanted to see if they could get away with it or it was a mistake on their part. Either way I feel much happier now