Be careful when you switch - SEASONAL WEIGHTING

Dave_The_Rave_2

Learned something new today...

After checking my final nPower GAS bill (I'm moving to First Utility), it didn't quite add up. Many bills have two rates applied, a standard rate, then a lower rate once it hits a certain threshold.

In nPower's case, it is once you use more than 4572 kWh over a year. However, this is not spread evenly over a year, as you'd expect. Oh no, it is weighed according to the month. This is nPowers' table:-

Months...............................Maximum units at primary rate Per month

Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb...............882
March ................................272
April, Oct............................271
May, June, July, Aug, Sept.....46

Annual total........................4572

They claim other companies do this, but knowing nPowers' performance recently (the Annual discount they 'forgot' to apply for several years), I just don't trust them.

So if you swap to another supplier (like I did) which come into play in Jan or Feb, you are paying a huge chunk of the higher charge.

One option to avoid this, is either go to a company who has this for the Summer months, then swap to one without for winter! Swap around Aug for swap over in Sept (taking into account the time it takes to swap). Other option is to just avoid a company that manipulates this (to their advantage in the first place).

BASICALLY DON'T INITIATE A CHANGE OF SUPPLIER IN DEC/JAN, AUGUST IS BETTER!!!!
(Again, this takes into account the time to swap)

Link to nPower explaining this:-
https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/95/kw/seasonal/session/L3RpbWUvMTMyNjU0NzY1MS9zaWQvSVlPTjM3T2s%3D

Just thought I'd point this out to make folk aware.

victor2

It's just their way of ensuring you do use the annual allocation for the primary rate up. Your total cost for the year, assuming you use at least the annual allocated kWh, would be the same, but weighted to cost you a bit more in the winter. You could swap to nPower for the summer only, assuming you had a tariff that had no cancellation penalty, and select one that doesn't weight it for the winter. But is it worth the hassle? The better contracts usually tie you in for longer periods anyway, so you're unlikely to save much in the long run.

microsmith_2

I have just been in contact with our supplier, (npower) they sent us a updated bill (£388.00 per month) so i took a meter reading and rang them, the bill has now come down to £132.00 a month for the online 20 tariff, i was told if i switch to a new tariff, i cant remember the name of it, i think it was go 20 or something then out bill would drop too £101.00 a month, our contract ran out in December and they want to get us into this one that fix's the price for a year, i was worried about prices coming down and i have locked into a fix price, (not that anything ever comes down in price) should a wait till march and see what happens or will that really not make a different if you pay a set amount each month?

victor2

microsmith wrote: »

I have just been in contact with our supplier, (npower) they sent us a updated bill (£388.00 per month) so i took a meter reading and rang them, the bill has now come down to £132.00 a month for the online 20 tariff, i was told if i switch to a new tariff, i cant remember the name of it, i think it was go 20 or something then out bill would drop too £101.00 a month, our contract ran out in December and they want to get us into this one that fix's the price for a year, i was worried about prices coming down and i have locked into a fix price, (not that anything ever comes down in price) should a wait till march and see what happens or will that really not make a different if you pay a set amount each month?

The monthly DD may be fixed, but only until they review it against what you've actually used at their effective prices. It isn't a fixed monthly amount regardless of how much you use.
EDF and BG have announced cuts already and the rest of the big 6 are expected to follow suit. That might be the time to look at the best fixed price deals going. In the meantime you're probably on a standard tariff, which is generally expensive, so you have to consider what it may cost you now while you postpone looking for another deal, fixed or otherwise. You could just look for the best available deal with no exit penalty, so that you can look again later after prices have hopefully been cut.

Spiggle

microsmith wrote: »

I have just been in contact with our supplier, (npower) they sent us a updated bill (£388.00 per month) so i took a meter reading and rang them, the bill has now come down to £132.00 a month for the online 20 tariff, i was told if i switch to a new tariff, i cant remember the name of it, i think it was go 20 or something then out bill would drop too £101.00 a month, our contract ran out in December and they want to get us into this one that fix's the price for a year, i was worried about prices coming down and i have locked into a fix price, (not that anything ever comes down in price) should a wait till march and see what happens or will that really not make a different if you pay a set amount each month?

Hi,

I just posted this on another thread here. I'm actually in the GoFix8 plan with nPower and used the quote calculator on their site to find the GoFix10 will be cheaper. After 1st Feb I can switch without penalty due to them waiving exit fees and allowing those in fixes to switch to another of their tariffs after price reduction. It may help you.

Also, I hope you don't mind my advice, but you should submit meter readings on a regular basis to stop estimates being way off the mark of your actual usage.

All the best,
Spigs

rogerblack

Dave_The_Rave wrote: »

In nPower's case, it is once you use more than 4572 kWh over a year. However, this is not spread evenly over a year, as you'd expect. Oh no, it is weighed according to the month. This is nPowers' table:-

Simply build your own gasometer, and store all of your gas needs for the year in March.

It'd only need to be around 15m in diameter, and 12m high.

microsmith_2

Our monthly dd is based on our usage, at the moment its £132.00 on the other tariff its gonna be £101.00, if i keep looking till march (ish) and see what happens with the market then i will look again, its only gonna cost me an extra £31.00 a per month that i wait, you never know i might get a good deal if the other big 6 cut prices too, i can jump on it save hopefully more!

Spiggle,

Interesting what you said about switching without penalty, i will look into that whilst price checking, unfortunately submitting meter readings has always been last on my list but i will from now on update as often as i can.