Npower discounts

Lad

Hi,

After using some price comparison websites, Npower has come up as the cheapest dual fuel supplier for me. However, this only works out after the discounts have been applied. I had a look on their website and it says that an annual discount applies if you pay by Direct Debit continuously for 12 months. If I leave part way through a 12 month period, would the annual discount still be given on a pro rata basis or will I forfeit any discount given under the annual discount? (There are other discounts given under the tarriff I looked at and it does mention a pro rota discount for these but I can't see the same being mentioned for the annual discount)

Thanks.

andover_2

Lad wrote: »

Hi,

After using some price comparison websites, Npower has come up as the cheapest dual fuel supplier for me. However, this only works out after the discounts have been applied. I had a look on their website and it says that an annual discount applies if you pay by Direct Debit continuously for 12 months. If I leave part way through a 12 month period, would the annual discount still be given on a pro rata basis or will I forfeit any discount given under the annual discount? (There are other discounts given under the tarriff I looked at and it does mention a pro rota discount for these but I can't see the same being mentioned for the annual discount)

Thanks.

I am with Npower. The discount is paid on the anniversary of the commencement of your account. There is no pro rata payment.

antw23uk

I wouldnt touch N-power with a barge pole. The company is appalling. BEWARE.

mel48rose

Im with NPower and i've never had any problems with them.

jubilee14

I am with Npower and did the request to switch to new fixed tarrif about two weeks ago and i have had nothing i am moving wihtin Npower but did it through comparison website. starting to think it hasnt happend meanwhile i am on standard variable rate.

Lad

andover wrote: »

I am with Npower. The discount is paid on the anniversary of the commencement of your account. There is no pro rata payment.

I suspected this may have been the case. Thanks for confirming.

I've read a few negative comments about Npower so am a bit iffy going with them but they are coming up tops for me. I appreciate that there will be problems for some people but I'm also thinking that the vast majority of customers don't have problems. Another supplier that came up was EDF and they also have negative comments but when I was with them, I had no problems. The last supplier on the shortlist is Ebico - again good and bad written about them!

tommy100

Another 'dishonest' tactic of NPower is that when they calculate a customer's monthly payment they adamently refuse to include the annual discount (credit) alongside the estimate of future usage/charges (debit) so the monthly payment is artificially raised. This means NPower hold more of customers' money than they are entitled to which makes them even more immoral profit. They claim it is because the customer might stop paying by DD and thus lose the discount entitlement. But they are happy to use usage charges which can only be estimates so should equally predict that the DD payment will continue. Also NPower only calculate bills twice a year leading to less accurate predictions of future usage and amendments to monthly payments. This whole NPower discount is a scam.

Nada666

tommy100 wrote: »

Another 'dishonest' tactic of NPower is that when they calculate a customer's monthly payment they adamently refuse to include the annual discount (credit) alongside the estimate of future usage/charges (debit) so the monthly payment is artificially raised. [...] This whole NPower discount is a scam.

That is not my experience. They only (rightly) exclude the discount after the first year. I have never not received the lower debit then. It is debatable to say that credits not yet received should be included. Those that have been received are taken into account.

It is something to be noted for month thirteen onwards - but to dismiss the policy as unfair or a scam is not correct.

Nada666

tommy100 wrote: »

Also NPower only calculate bills twice a year leading to less accurate predictions of future usage and amendments to monthly payments.

Also, I disagree that this is not in the customer's favour. Halving the number of opportunities per year for a company to dictate a strange new debit means you will have to haggle a truer debit on fewer occasions. The predictions will NOT be any less accurate (indeed, I would argue they ought to be more accurate.)

bendipa

tommy100 wrote: »

Another 'dishonest' tactic of NPower is that when they calculate a customer's monthly payment they adamently refuse to include the annual discount (credit) alongside the estimate of future usage/charges (debit) so the monthly payment is artificially raised. This means NPower hold more of customers' money than they are entitled to which makes them even more immoral profit. They claim it is because the customer might stop paying by DD and thus lose the discount entitlement. But they are happy to use usage charges which can only be estimates so should equally predict that the DD payment will continue. Also NPower only calculate bills twice a year leading to less accurate predictions of future usage and amendments to monthly payments. This whole NPower discount is a scam.

No it isn't. The whole idea is that you are encouraged to stay with them for a year. It's explained to you quite clearly online or when you are switching to them and you register by customer service.At the end of the year when you get your discounts and it works out noticeably cheaper than rival energy suppliers, I'm happy.

SnowMan

bendipa wrote: »

No it isn't. The whole idea is that you are encouraged to stay with them for a year. It's explained to you quite clearly online or when you are switching to them and you register by customer service.At the end of the year when you get your discounts and it works out noticeably cheaper than rival energy suppliers, I'm happy.

The point you are missing is that some of the tarriffs they offer don't last for a whole number of years and so it is impossible to achieve the quoted comparison site cost and there is no warning to tell you this.

Let's take a hypothetical 18 month fixed rate tarriff with exit penalties just to explain this.

Npower know that the comparison sites use a 12 month comparison. That 12 month comparison won't take into account that for the following 6 months the cost will be about £50 higher because of the loss of the accrued direct debit discount for half a year, for someone switching away at the end of the 18 month tarriff.

When a consumer chooses an npower tarriff from a comparison site there is no warning that 'this comparison cost is nonsense because it is not achievable' and so you are wrong to say it is explained quite clearly when you switch.

Npower are aware of this and how it distorts fair comparison. So it is quite clearly a scam. They rely on weak regulation to get away with it.

That doesn't mean that npower won't work out a good deal allowing for their scam. In fact I got a very good deal out of their go fix 8.