Switched Energy and now bills are bigger!!!

phld

Before Christmas I used the various switching sites to compare tariffs and switch my Electricity and Gas from Atlantic to Npower. All the sites claim that I would save around £130 per year by doing this.

I've just had my first bill from Npower, only to discover that I've paid over £80 more for the first quarter than I would have done if I had stuck with Atlantic. Have I just been very naive by following these sites?

I've been back on the comparison sites and they all say that I'm on the best deal still with Npower. Is it just that Atlantic don't appear on these sites? I've been through as many as I can find and they al come back with the same answer or going with Npower.

Anyone else had the same experience?

HappyMJ

Have you taken the deferred discount into account in your calculations? At least £105 will be paid back to you after 12 months. This adds to your quarterly bills in the lead up to your anniversary date then reduces the bill after that date.

spiro

You say you have paid £80 but is that for the same number of kwh for gas and elec, if not its irrelevant. That would be like saying I filled up my car last week and it cost £50 but this week it only cost £30 but one week you used 50ltrs and the next 30lts.

phld

Thanks all.

I have taken the Kwh from this bill and applied that to the Atlantic prices from their current prices on the website, and that is how I have come up with the £80 difference.

I have also applied these costs in relation to previous bills for the summer months to see if Npower would work out cheaper in the long run (we used to pay a standing charge, but don't now) and it still comes out higher, to the degree that the yearly increase will be greater than the £100 discount that Npower are offering.

yoda011087

More than likely, the Npower seasonal weighting* has something to do with a higher winter bill than expected.

It means however that your gas bill will be much smaller in the summer compared to other suppliers.

If your consumption remains roughly the same as what you gave when comparing, then your forecasted savings will still work out over the year.

* See https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/95/kw/seasonal%20weighting/session/L3RpbWUvMTMyOTQ3NzQyMi9zaWQvM1FCY1VWUWs%3D

phld

Thanks yoda011087

That looks like it! So I must learn to read the paperwork more closely! Just a bit of a shock to get such a large bill!

jalexa

HappyMJ wrote: »

Have you taken the deferred discount into account in your calculations? At least £105 will be paid back to you after 12 months. This adds to your quarterly bills in the lead up to your anniversary date

Not in the case of NPower, at least for monthly billing. The "deferred discount":eek: is credited monthly but not earned until 12 months. If a customer switches before earning a "deferred discount":eek: any discount already credited will be clawed back in the final bill.

dogshome

Your winter n'power bills are high because of their "unique" billing system

1) On your No Standing Charge tariff you are charged a fixed number of high price units a year which pays your 'Service Charge' - Most suppliers even these out over the year and charge them daily for however many days the bill covers, but not n'power - They load them up in the Winter and allocate less to Summer bills, which pushes up your Winter billing

2) The Switch sites will accurately tell you what your yearly cost will be, but, n'power have a big Cash-back feature which kicks in after you have been with them for 12 months and the Switch sites include this when quoting your annual cost.

The problem is you are paying towards this with every Direct Debit you make, and if you Switch before you have been with n'power a year and have made 12 consecutive Direct Debits, you will not get the cash back.
In addition to this, the cash-back will only appear on a bill issued after you have done the 12 months, so in effect your 12 months bills are higher than the Switch sites say they are, and by the time you do get the cash-back you are already well on the way to paying for the next one

macman

Don't be fooled into thinking that an NSC tariff will be cheaper. The higher unit rates cancel out all the saving, unless you are a very low user.
It may simply be the case that you used a lot more gas than expected during the quarter (especially in the last month)-have you actually checked your kWh consumption against the same period last year?