npower standiing charges

oldandgrumpy

I don,t know if I have missed a thread, but npower customers may be interested that their tarifs have changed as of 1st May, due to government interference/ intervention on multiple incomrehensible tarifs. ALL tarifs carry a daily charge now, the gas standing charge is 44p per day!!!!.... that is 12kwh per day you pay, before switching the gas on! All my efforts to reduce our bills went out of the window on the 1st May. Needless to say, I switched. But how long will it be before all the companies adopt the npower cynical solution to government pressure?

DragonQ

Ebico have no standing charge but fairly high unit rates so are only really suitable for low gas users.

I went with Scottish Power for electricity because of their lack of a standing charge (in that particular tariff anyway). No idea how long that'll last. It's a tariff mainly for higher users but still works out as the cheapest even if my electricity usage was to halve!

Nada666

oldandgrumpy wrote: »

But how long will it be before all the companies adopt the npower cynical solution to government pressure?

Most already have - npower is one of the last companies to implement this. Note that they still have a flat rate discount - so if you choose a £85 standing charge rather than £135 or £160 tariff then npower may still be a viable option.

joncombe

As others have posted ebico, utility warehouse and Scottish power offer tariffs with no standing charge. I found that when npower introduced the standing charge it put my fuel costs up by around 30%. I complained but npower made it clear they couldnt care less so I also went elswhere. The ofgem proposals don't actually require energy suppliers to implement a standing charge but npower like to claim they do. I dont understand why npower set the charge so high. In my experience their standing charges are almost double those of other major suppliers.

dogshome

Hmmm - 44p a Day
If that's a direct replacement for n'powers infamous 'Gas Sculpting' on their NSC tariffs, it shows that n'power were not only costing their customers extra cash during the winter, but all year round

Nada666

You are forgetting that npower give low users six times the discount most other suppliers do for paying by direct debit. Plus they have other tariffs with more sensible standing charges (£85 for gas). And there are other suppliers who charge £200 and more for standing charges.

Lots of people hate on npower but they have offered the cheapest tariffs (cheaper than Ebico) for low users for a great number of years. They may now have partly left this segment but I do not see many other of the big six rushing in to take their place.

DragonQ

Nada666 wrote: »

You are forgetting that npower give low users six times the discount most other suppliers do for paying by direct debit.

Really? I got 6% single fuel or 8% double fuel with E.On when paying by direct debit and using online billing. What does nPower offer?

Nada666

DragonQ wrote: »

Really? I got 6% single fuel or 8% double fuel with E.On when paying by direct debit and using online billing. What does nPower offer?

Yes, but other companies typically offer 6% discount proportionate to your usage - so, say your dual bill is £300 then you only receive an £18 discount (£24 at 8%) - whereas npower give you a flat £105/110 discount regardless of consumption.

DragonQ

Nada666 wrote: »

Yes, but other companies typically offer 6% discount proportionate to your usage - so, say your dual bill is £300 then you only receive an £18 discount (£24 at 8%) - whereas npower give you a flat £105/110 discount regardless of consumption.

Fair enough. The only discount I get right now is £10 per year for doing online billing with Scottish Power.

Weird example though, does anyone in this country have an annual dual fuel bill of £300? :rotfl:

bxboards

I switched too - my gas is £21 a month, and I rarely actually use anymore than £15 a month in gas, so my account is always in credit.

The new standing charge would have added a minimum of around £175 a year, or accounted for about 75% of my annual payment, with zero consumption!

I switched the to the Scottish Power no standing charge tariff - nPower's 45p standing charge is very high and appears to be higher than any other standing charge by other suppliers. I don't mind paying a higher unit cost, because coming into summer the gas won't be used at all, and is unlikely to be used again until mid-November.

The letter I got from nPower was VERY cheeky, telling me 'you've told us tariffs are too compiicated' and how I'd benefit, when I had told them no such thing at all and had at no stage complained and could they tell me who they'd spoken to about by account and when? They admitted I'd never told them any such thing on the phone!

Nada666

DragonQ wrote: »

Weird example though, does anyone in this country have an annual dual fuel bill of £300? :rotfl:

Don't understand. What is strange about that usage/cost?