NPower Sign Online 19 Gas and Electricity

picardygirl

We have been with Npower for 2-3 years now, as they were more competitive than BG who we were originally with.

We've given up switching companies as they all offer lower payments to sting you at the end of the year and put your direct debits up.

Anyway, last week received a letter saying we were £142.10 in debit therefore our DD would be increased from £143 to £182 to repay the debt, so I telephoned NPower (got through immediately, have read some negative comments on here) to say is there a better tariff we can change to to make our monthly payments cheaper ..... certainly didnt expect the chap the say yes!

He couldnt change our payments on the phone that day as a DD was due to hit our account within the next few days, but he said the day after the DD was taken from our account he could adjust our DD payment.

He explained that our DD of £143 would clear the debt and we would effectively be 90p in credit and we could start our new tariff immediately, which was Sign Online 19, conditions are, must be paid by DD, must have online billing and must stay with Npower for minimum 12 months.

We received this in writing a few days later.

He promised me he would call me back from the following Saturday (which he did) to inform me of my new DD payment.

So my payments are now £111 per month instead of £182 which they wanted to put my payments upto!

So we are £32 better off each month by changing tariffs and effectively £71 better off hadnt I made the phone call!

Maybe it would help reduce others payments if they commited themselves to npower for 12 months too !!!

GetRealBabe

Hi

Changing from npower's standard tariff to Go Fix reduced my monthly direct debit from £63 to £40. Now on SOL19 and paying £54 a month and am still £9.00 better off.

I think SOL 19 is one of the cheapest tariffs but some people are put off switching to npower because of its reputation for poor/lack of/bad customer services. Luckily I've never had any problems.

picardygirl

I've never had problems either, I was even asked when was convenient to call back ..... the day after my DD was taken, he rung me exactly when he said he would.

Fingers crossed we dont have any problems, and with the experience we've had i would recommend them.

xbrenx

Another vote in favour of Npower here too. Only recently signed up with them but the changeover went smoothly, it didn't hurt a bit!

Time will tell but I'm in a positive state of mind at the moment :-)

I saved some money switching from my old supplier - all is good.

RobertR

Have been with Npower for about 3 years now and recently switched to SOL19. One thing to bear in mind is that this tariff only runs untill 30 September 2011 after which they will automatically switch you to Go Save. Although what will probably happen in practice is that around July or August 2011 they will introduce introduce another new SOL tariff and you may need to switch again.

Generally I have found npower to be not too bad. There was an initial problem when an incorrect meter reading taken by their reader resulted in a warning being placed on my account and no bill for 6 months. They then put my DD up as I had a debit, but reduced it once this was cleared. I then built up a credit and they have just reduced it again. I am currently paying just £22 per month for dual fuel.:T

t0rt0ise

This is all useful as the comparison sites say that I should change from British Gas to this tariff. I'm supposed to be locked in to websaver 9 but will ask to be released as they messed up my meter issue so badly. If they refuse I'll still go as I ought to save more than the fine I will incur. Does anyone know of any cashback schemes I can avail myself of at the time of change over?

picardygirl

RobertR, thankyou i did realise that, and just realised i didnt put in my OP ..... yes i will be definitely trying to get on another tarrif when this current one runs out .....

my dual fuel bill is starting to sound a bit like a mortgage, on a deal til sept 2011 then need to go on another deal to get the best price ! If thats the case sobeit

buglawton

The 1st post here could be a carbon copy of what happened to me

BUT...

prompted by the sudden higher DD demand I went and re-did the online switch comparison that MSE urges us to do.

...and discovered that I could knock around 20% off the bill straight off by switching.

Now here's the strange bit: Among the top 3 switch recommendations is... Npower!

Yes. they've been quietly ramping up my bill based on inertia and slipping more competitive tariffs underneath it to ensure they get the share of other new switchers. This is obviously the new standard business model: Don't tell loyal over-payers what they are missing!

Are there an honest energy purveyors out there that I can stay with for 5 years without being fiddled?