Switching providers

oliviarosejackson

Hi everyone,

We are currently with Eon for our gas and electric. We are on the onlinve saver 4 taffif paying £80 per month. This is due to expire on the 15th of Jan and they are putting us onto their standard variable rate. We do not want to go on the variable rate, we would like to have the peice of mind of a fixed contract.

I have been on the money supermarket and compared gas and electricty prices and Npower are looking at being the cheapest.

This may seem a very silly question to ask, please bear with me though, lol. I need it told in simple terms, lol.

I have divided the anual cost over the 12 months and it comes in at £9 cheaper and is fixed until early next year. I am guessing if we did switch, we would just start paying the £71 per month? And we shall pay this price until the fixed term date ends? Unless we start using our gas and electricty a lot more and shall build up credit if we don't use as much?

Many thanks in advance.

jalexa

oliviarosejackson wrote: »

This may seem a very silly question to ask, please bear with me though, lol. I need it told in simple terms, lol.

Fraid it's never simple, however with a fixed price tariff you are right that annual cost is as calculated by the comparison website. Then it gets harder.

The NPower tariff (probably) is a "deferred discount":eek: tariff. That means you don't earn the discount (though it is included in the comparison):( for 12 months. Not a problem in the first year because you are fixed but after April 2013, you would lose some discount if you switched away from NPower.

The Scottish Power alternatives AFAIAA are not "deferred discount":eek: tariffs (and are not much more expensive). Now that you know that you may wish to revisit the comparison.

oliviarosejackson

Thank you for the reply:)

Now I know why I don't understand any of it, lol.

So we will end up paying more than what they state on the comparrison site? It is all too complicated for me

SnowMan

oliviarosejackson wrote: »

Thank you for the reply:)

Now I know why I don't understand any of it, lol.

So we will end up paying more than what they state on the comparrison site? It is all too complicated for me

That is correct you end up paying more than what the comparison sites tell you if you look at things over the full period of the fixed tarriff.

For duel fuel customers npower give a £105 discount (= £100 + VAT) if you pay by monthly direct debit.

However the credit is only given after exactly 12 months.

If you switched today then it might take 8 weeks for the switch to npower to take place so that would mean your start date on the npower fixed tarriff would be roughly the end of February 2012.

So if you switch to the fixed rate tarriff you get the £105 discount after you have been with them 12 months so roughly at the end of February 2013.

Assuming you are looking at the npower go fix 10 tarriff that ends in April 2013 then you are likely to want to switch again in April 2013. If you do this you don't get any £105 pa discount at all for the period from February 2013 to April 2013.

So there will be a period from Febuary 2013 to April 2013 where you will be paying roughly £9 per month more (= £105 divided by 12) than the figures shown on the comparison site which allow for the £105 per annum discount but don't allow for the period from February 2013 to say April 2013 where the discount doesn't apply.

This npower scam is a blatant attrempt to con customers in the knowledge that the regulators appear to be very weak and unwilling to do anything about this sort of scam. If npower wanted to be fair to customers, and offer the tarriff at the cost that the comparison sites come up with they would apply the discount on a monthly basis.

However the npower fixed tarriff MAY still be the best tarriff for you despite the scam.