npower real increase is nearer 20%

charlies_mum

MikeR71 wrote: »

I am currently looking to switch away from scottish power. I have done a comparison and the cheapest deal based on my consumption seems to be npower's fixed price January 2014.
However, I tried to ring them a few times from Friday and the waiting times are far too long. Also, listeining to people here about their service, I am thinking maybe it's best not to touch npower with a barge pole.

I used their callback service, and they called within the specified time and were extremely helpful. However, their fixed price deal was more expensive than Scottish Power, so I have opted to leave them and go to Scottish Power with a fixed price until April 2015.

unsure

I had the same discussion with npower. When I looked at the figures it was clearly a 9% increase on the unit charge while the daily standing charges had gone up by nearly 50% on one tarriff. I reckon the total increase was about 20%The call handler could only keep repeating " the unit charge has only gone up 9%" -- couldn't tell if they were being deliberately obtuse or were under instructions to keep repeating the company mantra regardless! Either way, I've now moved to Ovo-- got a 12 month fix and a possible £200 saving.

MikeR71

charlies_mum wrote: »

I used their callback service, and they called within the specified time and were extremely helpful. However, their fixed price deal was more expensive than Scottish Power, so I have opted to leave them and go to Scottish Power with a fixed price until April 2015.

Do you know if the SP deal is for existing customers too? I will have to call them myself and ask as my fixed price deal ends end of November.

unsure wrote: »

Either way, I've now moved to Ovo-- got a 12 month fix and a possible £200 saving.

Do you know if OVO are an independent company or a subsidiary? For example, sainsbury are a subsidiary of British Gas.

undaunted

charlies_mum wrote: »

Received my letter from Npower stating that my electricity is going up 14.8% per annum and my gas 15.8%. My account is currently almost £300 debit (only found out by checking online and a new meter reading is showing), and they have increased my monthly direct debit by £90 without notification (yet)

Tried to phone them to discuss, and the currrent waiting time is over an hour !

Needless to say I will be switching. Will I need to pay the £300 balance before I can start to switch ?

Edit : Just done a price comparison on Energy Helpline, and Npower are coming up as the second highest saving. According to them, I could save £169 by switching to Npower's Energy Online Jan 2014 tarrif, so waiting for a callback from Npower so I can ask if I can change to that.

Not necessarily before you start the switch but if your chosen provider attempts to start the switch & your £300 has been billed & outstanding for more than 28 days Npower will block the transfer. If you can pay it it would probably be easiest to do so asap

unsure

MikeR71 Ovo are an independent company. They came out well on a comparison site and my next door neighbour, who has been a customer for a couple of years, says they are easy to deal with (...unlike npower!). They have a UK based call centre (only operates 9-5.30 though) and they offer 3% interest on accounts in credit.
see here for further details
http://www.ovoenergy.com/save/gclid=CKjMjcCTqbMCFebLtAodvkwAhA

Hope that helps.

Bark01

p_and_j wrote: »

Just got my npower signonline 24 price increase letter telling me that the "annual bill" electricity increase is 20.2% and gas is 17.9% (not the Npower. 8.8% gas, 9.1% electricity rise as per the MSE website and elsewhere).
Needless to say I don;t think that I will be staying much longer with npower.

As per their press release the % changes are headline figures and only cover :

'Average national standard prices – based on Ofgem Standard annual consumption 16,500kwh gas and 3,300kwh electricity averaged across Britain'

So unless you are on core and use typical consumption the % change you see may vary. It would be a fairly long press release if they had to state what the % was for each product at various consumptions.

Its the same answer what ever the supplier. Sometimes the % might be weighted by customer numbers or average across payment types, but one thing the headline figures never cover is products that are not the suppliers core offering.

I'm actually surprised they have included the correct % for your product in the letter they sent you, or did you work that out?

confuuzed

charlies_mum wrote: »

Edit : Just done a price comparison on Energy Helpline, and Npower are coming up as the second highest saving. According to them, I could save £169 by switching to Npower's Energy Online Jan 2014 tarrif, so waiting for a callback from Npower so I can ask if I can change to that.

MSE & moneysupermarket.com both show npower Energy online Jan 2014 as one of best deals I should go for. Only when I put same consumption into calculator on npower site did I see the smallprint at the bottom.... 'prices valid as 12th September 2012'. Could they really be able to still be quoting at these prices - their price rise announced in October & taking effect later in November ? If so, any saving will not exist when the price change is implemented.

The_Green_Hornet

confuuzed wrote: »

MSE & moneysupermarket.com both show npower Energy online Jan 2014 as one of best deals I should go for. Only when I put same consumption into calculator on npower site did I see the smallprint at the bottom.... 'prices valid as 12th September 2012'. Could they really be able to still be quoting at these prices - their price rise announced in October & taking effect later in November ? If so, any saving will not exist when the price change is implemented.

The Energy Online January 2014 tariff is unaffected by npower's latest price rises.