nPower price increase Jan 2011

MillicentBystander

davidgmmafan wrote: »

No exit fees being charged, I gather they changed thier mind...

I'm can see why people are angry, however I would guess they were losing money some versions of SOL. As its not a fixed rate tariff surely its right for a commercial company to increase the rates if that was the case?

Being devils advocate here

I thought that was just for moving tariff within npower not for switching away?

PS talking of losing money, I wonder if this increase is anything to do with them having to issue refunds totalling £70 million for the gas sculpting scandal??

joncombe

I've just had a letter saying the prices for the Sign Online 19 Economy 7 tariff I am on are increasing - by a whopping 56% for one of the prices. The current prices I'm on are:-

Unit rate up 728KWh per year : 18.29p/19.20p (ex vat/inc vat)
Unit rate over 728Kwh per year : 10.05/10.55p
Night Rate : 4.09p/4.29p

The prices from January 2010 are

Up to 728Kwh : 21.60p/22.68p
Over 728Kwh : 15.75/16.54p
Night Rate : 5.00p/5.25p

I make the increases for the three rates:-

Up to 728Kwh : 18% increase
Over 728Kwh : 56% increase
Night Rate : 22% increase

The increase on the "over 728Kwh" rate is the really painful one as this accounts for the greatest usage. I fail to see how they can justify such a whopping increases. I only signed up for this tariff 2.5 months ago and never expected such massive increases. I want to leave nPower because of this massive rise but they say they will charge me £20 per fuel (so £40 as I get my gas from them as well) to switch tariffs. I will certainly be taking this up with Ofgem. I think they are a bunch of money-grabbing crooks as they get you to sign up with what look like good prices and then bump up the prices to crazy levels and then charge you again if you want to leave as a result.

dobsoncrew

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I thought that was just for moving tariff within npower not for switching away?

PS talking of losing money, I wonder if this increase is anything to do with them having to issue refunds totalling £70 million for the gas sculpting scandal??

Most probably, might be an idea of moving to new company ie EDF Fix 2015

There fault but we pay

dobsoncrew

gumpole wrote: »

I confirmed today that the tarrif increase on Npower electricity SOL 15 is a huge 32%. Is it fair that a single tarrif can be increased by this much. Maybe Ofgem will take a look into it over the next couple of years!!!!!!!!(Ofgem a watchdog? More like a !!!!!cat)

Also a waste of time and Tax payers money

blackfritz

joncombe wrote: »

I want to leave nPower because of this massive rise but they say they will charge me £20 per fuel (so £40 as I get my gas from them as well) to switch tariffs.

They have confirmed that they are scrapping the exit penalties, what follows is a copy of an e-mail received today - Ok my tariff is SOL 18, but from what I can understand from others on here, I thinks its all n Power tariffs!

Thanks for taking the time to email us regarding the price rise letter you've received.

While I appreciate your concern that your bills will increase more than the advertised amount of 5% and I apologise for any confusion caused by this.

The advertised 5% increase does state that this is based on the average user, as laid down by OFGEM's calculations, and applies to our standard tariff only. It is the case that some users will be effected more than others and our SOL customers are amost these. This is why we have withdrawn the early exit fee from our effected tariff, while this price increase is being implemented.

This means that if you are wanting to leave the SOL 18 tariff, you can now do so without having to pay an exit fee. You are therefore free to change tariff or supplier as you choose. If you are wanting the change energy provider, please let us know and we can fix your prices for a further 20 days, to ensure that the price rise does not effect you whilst you are changing.

davidgmmafan

"PS talking of losing money, I wonder if this increase is anything to do with them having to issue refunds totalling £70 million for the gas sculpting scandal??"

Maybe it is maybe it isn't, I recall thinking at the time that that money has to come from somewhere. Same when people are talking about continuing the fight because of a simialr situation in 04 to the 07 debacle relating to price changes and sculpting etc.

If they get a result great for them but any company would have to make up that money somewhere.

On balance though I doubt the increase in old SOL rates is because of that. People mainly come to be on an online tariff through comparison sites, these people generally won't hang around if there is a large price increase. So any income they were counting on is very unlikely to materialise.

When I look at the new prices for old tariffs compared to the current version (SOL20) they are very similar. Which leads me to conclude they were losing money on those tariffs. There are fixed rates available now but they are higher than SOL20, so again I'm guessing they are expecting further price increases.

howy22

I believe Npower have been selling their SOL tariffs well below market rates for some time now, for various marketing reasons. The SOL19 tariff was only in existence between July and Oct 2010 and therefore the size of these increases cannot be linked to wholesale energy price rises. In addition, the highest increase is in primary units or in effect upping the standing charge element which is a non energy related charge. This is tariff restructuring to increase revenue. Even if you jump ship now they will still make a tidy profit from each customer without even supplying any energy unless they can be persuaded to refund the high level of profiled primary units during Nov -Feb and credit a portion of the DD discount.

2512mbcat

I left Ovo at the end of October to move to NPower's SignOnline19 tariff. Now I have received a letter telling me how the electricity tariff is changing (but not gas, I had to ring up for those new figures), and in all, electricity is going up just under 20%, and gas by around 14%, thus more than cancelling out the benefit of moving. I would have been cheaper to stay and i wish I had as Ovo seem to bit a more more of a straight-forward company to deal with (more at the John Lewis-end of scale of customer satisfaction than the Ryanair end).

Thanks for the tips on this thread - think I will 1) look to go back to Ovo, 2) get my current prices fixed (so they don't go up from Jan 4) and 3) attempt to switch without paying the penalty.

pencekeeper

I was on SOL17 for Electricity and Go Fix Gas.

When I got my recent letter detailing price rises I worked out it amounted to a rise of:

Electricity: 24%
Gas: 53%

Obviously that's crazy though I should point out I'm a relatively light user so things like standing charges can make a massive difference to me.

I rang up and asked if their online prices showed the Jan rise, and they said no apart from SOL20 (this was last week).

It turns out moving to SOL20 for me works out about the same as what I've been paying so I've dodged a bullet this time - don't know how long that will last though.

I'm all for more transparency in the prices energy suppliers pay on the market - I don't believe the excuses we're told about massive rises when their profits are so high.

MillicentBystander

2512mbcat wrote: »

I left Ovo at the end of October to move to NPower's SignOnline19 tariff. Now I have received a letter telling me how the electricity tariff is changing (but not gas, I had to ring up for those new figures), and in all, electricity is going up just under 20%, and gas by around 14%, thus more than cancelling out the benefit of moving. I would have been cheaper to stay and i wish I had as Ovo seem to bit a more more of a straight-forward company to deal with (more at the John Lewis-end of scale of customer satisfaction than the Ryanair end).

Thanks for the tips on this thread - think I will 1) look to go back to Ovo, 2) get my current prices fixed (so they don't go up from Jan 4) and 3) attempt to switch without paying the penalty.

Even if they really have cancelled the exit fee, there's still the not inconsiderable matter of the £105 you will 'lose' if you jump ship before your 12 months are up. Remember, this £105 annual discount (hooray!) paid in arrears (err, boooo!) would have been included in the switching sites' projected savings figure compared to your previous Ovo tariff. Personally, I would still jump ship and make a mental note never to darken npower's door again.