npower standiing charges

littlereddevil

I have received a letter from npower today saying the charges are going up on 1st July. My new standing charges are 39.1 for electricity and 25.1 for gas inc vat

Nada666

zerog wrote: »

Well my dual fuel bill for this year will be £150. Wife and I live in 1 bed flat in London.

£150 does NOT include £106 cashback from topcashback, £105 DD discount, £50 compensation for repeated failure to issue bills, and £10 credit for the seasonal weighting**

If they weren't introducting the 47p daily charge I might even stay with npower...

** can't be bothered to explain fully, but selective submission of accurate meter readings seems to have confused their computer system

zerog wrote: »

We don't have a TV. The rest have used 1700kWh electricity in the past 12 months. 1300kWh gas has been used for the shower and the hob.

Believe it or not, the biggest energy user is my computer, as when I went away on my own for 1 month my wife's consumption that month was much lower.

zerog wrote: »

I already explained it in my post. Maybe I shouldn't have said bill, but cost to me.

You state your bill/cost for the year will be £150. You state that that EXCLUDES discounts, cashbacks, community chest cards in your favour. You state your consumption is 1300 and 1700 kWh. This does not add up. Or have I misread (or have you miswritten) the second paragraph of the first quoted post?

oldandgrumpy

I have just had a conversation with a Scottishpower customer adviser, who has informed me that the Online FIxed Price Energy August 2014 offer will be guaranteed despite the efforts of the government to enforce changes.
After July 30th 2014, SP will no doubt adopt the standard of daily charges. However, the market will once again become copmpetitive, and the best deal will need to be negotiated. It appears that multiple tariffs will still exist, and no doubt the less forthcoming companies will need to be forced to offer/advertise the best deals. My experience with npower was to be given the impression that there was only one tariff, take it or leave it.

joncombe wrote: »

Yes I would be interested to see the reply since I have also switched to Scottish Power. The fact that standing charges vary so much between suppliers in the same region show they are clearly not being used to recover the "fixed costs" as suppliers claim because if the fixed costs were indeed fixed they'd be about the same for each supplier.

Nada666

oldandgrumpy wrote: »

I have just had a conversation with a Scottishpower customer adviser, who has informed me that the Online FIxed Price Energy August 2014 offer will be guaranteed despite the efforts of the government to enforce changes.

After July 30th 2014, SP will no doubt adopt the standard of daily charges. However, the market will once again become [competitive], and the best deal will need to be negotiated. It appears that multiple tariffs will still exist, and no doubt the less forthcoming companies will need to be forced to offer/advertise the best deals. My experience with npower was to be given the impression that there was only one tariff, take it or leave it.

You've got me scratching my head with confusion. The first highlighted clause - that is a facetious joke, yes? The second statement - uh, npower have a ridiculous number of tariffs with different labels. Or are you pointing out many of them are the same price?

oldandgrumpy

According to Scottispower customer services, the August 2014 price guarantee is valid to 2014, and the para 8 referenced in the terms and conditions does not apply to retrospective government legislation.

joncombe wrote: »

Yes I would be interested to see the reply since I have also switched to Scottish Power. The fact that standing charges vary so much between suppliers in the same region show they are clearly not being used to recover the "fixed costs" as suppliers claim because if the fixed costs were indeed fixed they'd be about the same for each supplier.

oldandgrumpy

No joke, facetious or otherwise. The terms and conditions for the SP Fixed Price deal are sent when you apply to switch. Para 8 states that the deal is only guaranteed if the government don't force them to change! If npower have a number of tariffs, are they all clear and available for comparison purpose? The npower adviser didn't mention any other tariffs even when I told her I was switching. And ALL standing charge tariffs penalise the low energy consumers...some to the extent of 100% plus cost hikes.

Nada666 wrote: »

You've got me scratching my head with confusion. The first highlighted clause - that is a facetious joke, yes? The second statement - uh, npower have a ridiculous number of tariffs with different labels. Or are you pointing out many of them are the same price?

Nada666

oldandgrumpy wrote: »

No joke, facetious or otherwise. The terms and conditions for the SP Fixed Price deal are sent when you apply to switch. Para 8 states that the deal is only guaranteed if the government don't force them to change! If npower have a number of tariffs, are they all clear and available for comparison purpose? The npower adviser didn't mention any other tariffs even when I told her I was switching. And ALL standing charge tariffs penalise the low energy consumers...some to the extent of 100% plus cost hikes.

But you suggested that 'the market will once again become competitive'. That is laughable nonsense - I assumed you were being sarcastic. I see nothing in Ofgem's proposals that will promote competition. Customers unwilling or unable to use current resources will be just as paddleless in the future.

I agree that Scottish Power could choose to interpret the anti-two-tier directive as a way to alter existing contracts. I don't think there is anything particularly praiseworthy in them not doing so now.

The npower tariffs are available for comparison.

ALL standing charge tariffs penalise low users - as do ALL two-tier tariffs. Of course, if the SAME tariff is available in a SC and an NSC version then the NSC version is to be preferred (and that is for all users, not just low users.)

I am certainly not on the side of standing charge tariffs and I am not defending npower's massive charge. I just pointed out that the details are not as stark as headlines may suggest. Compare, for example, the Co-op's enormous £314 standing charge for not paying by direct debit.

oldandgrumpy

Ok Nada, just to put this to bed, npower have only one tariff I can fin in the top 50 on gocompare, their go save. The standing charge and costing rates them 10th in our area, and, competitively, below British gas and way below Flow energy. I think the misconception is that there are mant npower tariffs but yoiu will only be offered the one in your area.
sleep well,

Nada666

You must have a weird post code. Or Go Compare is weird.

Here are some of npower's currently available for new applicants tariffs:

online price fix Aug 2014
energy online Aug 2014
online price fix Dec 2014
go save
juice
standard
price fix Dec 2015
price fix Sep 2016

I've no idea why Go Compare only list Go Save - they only list that one in my region, too. I'll have a closer look later.

Nada666

Nada666 wrote: »

I've no idea why Go Compare only list Go Save - they only list that one in my region, too. I'll have a closer look later.

They do not appear to be accredited for a start. But bearing in my mind who the accreditation is given by I wouldn't hold that against them.

But the "Show only tariffs that we can switch you today?" toggle seems broken - regardless of which I choose I just receive the same fifty quotes - so my first suspicion is that they only provide tariffs where they can pocket a referral fee (note the absence of Ebico or Co-op Energy but inclusion of Spark, Flow and Voldemort).

So much for the title of their page - "gocompare 100% impartial energy price comparison".