Is Uswitch really reliable?

Katykat

Last year after quite a few years with Eon I switched via Uswith to NPower. Eon calculated that our monthly DD should go up from £75 to £90. NPowers quote through Uswitch was £78. We've been paying this amount for 6 months and yesterday got 1st statement. It's going up to £114. During this time its been warm so not much use of heating with combi boiler, hardly any use of tumble dryer and we were also away for 1 month with just timer lights , freezer and Sky box on. There have been several changes over last couple of years to account for some rise - OH retiring and being indoors, having baby grandson here 2 days a week, fuel price rise and running one more radiator in new downstairs toilet. On the flip side, I've been more cautious about energy saving, turning switches off limiting use of washing machine, oven etc but it was still a shock to get this latest rise.
Would I be wrong to think that energy companies may fiddle the figures when people run their details through comparison companies just so they can get your custom, then a few months in, hit you with an increase?

Nada666

Establish a typical annual usage in kWhs for your current home. Round it up to a memorable amount. Use those two figures for comparisons and ongoing check-ups.

If for your home it is 16,000 kWh and 3,000 kWh then what matters is how much that usage costs on your tariff. Variations in debit instalments are neither here nor there - they can vary more wildly than expected or hoped.

Nada666

One other consideration is npower's annual discount of £105. This would have been included in your initial payment amount but may not have survived a review - so you can knock off £8.75 per month.

Plus you may have switched to a variable tariff so there could have been a price increase.

Cardew

Katykat wrote: »

Would I be wrong to think that energy companies may fiddle the figures when people run their details through comparison companies just so they can get your custom, then a few months in, hit you with an increase?

As said above you must use your annual kWh consumption when using comparison websites; and then you will get accurate results.

You need to bear in mind that comparison sites sole reason for existing is to get commission from persuading 'punters' to switch supplier. If you give a figure of £xxx a month(instead of kWh) then the results are open to 'interpretation' and you are very likely to end up switching to a new supplier with a lower initial Direct Debit.

Telephone almost any comparison website, act dumb, and give a monthly DD figure and you will be asked a few meaningless questions and Bingo a new tariff with a lower initial DD will be proposed.

nPower

Katykat wrote: »

Last year after quite a few years with Eon I switched via Uswith to NPower. Eon calculated that our monthly DD should go up from £75 to £90. NPowers quote through Uswitch was £78. We've been paying this amount for 6 months and yesterday got 1st statement. It's going up to £114. During this time its been warm so not much use of heating with combi boiler, hardly any use of tumble dryer and we were also away for 1 month with just timer lights , freezer and Sky box on. There have been several changes over last couple of years to account for some rise - OH retiring and being indoors, having baby grandson here 2 days a week, fuel price rise and running one more radiator in new downstairs toilet. On the flip side, I've been more cautious about energy saving, turning switches off limiting use of washing machine, oven etc but it was still a shock to get this latest rise.
Would I be wrong to think that energy companies may fiddle the figures when people run their details through comparison companies just so they can get your custom, then a few months in, hit you with an increase?

Hi Katykat,

Is your latest bill based on actual readings or are they estimated. If they're estimated, just pop us a call and give us some up to date readings.

If they are actual and you're worried about the increase, we're here to discuss this with you. Our customer service team on 0800 073 3000 can talk over your account with you, while our Energy Efficiency team can discuss ways to save energy on 0800 02 22 20.

Best wishes,

Adam

Katykat

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Katykat,

Is your latest bill based on actual readings or are they estimated. If they're estimated, just pop us a call and give us some up to date readings.

If they are actual and you're worried about the increase, we're here to discuss this with you. Our customer service team on 0800 073 3000 can talk over your account with you, while our Energy Efficiency team can discuss ways to save energy on 0800 02 22 20.

Best wishes,

Adam

Thanks for this. It's estimated. We have taken the readings and it is slightly overestimated for electric but about right for gas. I'll do as you suggest. Cheers.

matelodave

As said above you must use kw figures when using comparison sites. That said, the energy companies' computers aren't all that clever (or perhaps they are too clever:() as they will review your usage throughout the year with the aim of trying to balance it out to zero (or a bit in their favour) by the end of their charging period or year.

This sort of works if you use a fairly constant amount of energy all year but most of us don't. We all use more in the winter and less in the summer so our usage is skewed - I know within a few kw/h what I'll be using every month and what it totals to in a year so, without much effort, I can work out what my direct debit should be so that it balances out. However Scottish Power (and I'm sure others) panic if they see me going into debt and try to recover it before it gets out of hand which means that my DD goes up and down like a yo-yo as I use about 5 times more electricity in the worst winter months winter than I do in the summer as we are all electric).

I read the meter weekly and give a reading to SP on the first of the month to ensure that I don't get estimated bills, which would be stupidly horrendous if they based it on my winter usage and grossly under if they used my summer usage

If I could start the year at a sensible time then it wouldn't look so bad but my present deal started in September and finishes in November so it ramped up a debit very quickly because of the winter - they then upped my DD for three months and now it's gone down again and likely to go down even more as I'm now already in credit and will be to the end of my deal, when no doubt I'll be going somewhere else and claiming a refund.

You do need to take charge and do your own meter readings and send them to your supplier regularly to ensure that you don't get silly estimates - you will also get a record of what you are using so you'll be able to use the comparison sites properly when its time to sort out your next deal

Katykat

I phoned NPower and they are sending a revised bill based on our readings. I also did the online survey about our energy use and it gave recommendations but to be honest, we already have most of these in place ( new boiler, cavity wall insulation etc. the guy advised downloading their app and sending monthly readings in, so this would tally with all your advice folks. Will do this. Thanks

techno12

Agree with matelodave.

I've been with NPower for 8 years and my DD yo-yos wildly twice a year. Today was the first one where it's been set to £91. It was previously £35. My account is already in credit (I'm now supplying monthly reads and it updates accordingly), so there's a huge surplus building up ready for the winter when they'll probably halve the DD again as usual.

I'm just used to it now, but its annoying.

Why they can't just produce a nice fixed figure is beyond me, as my usage is pretty similar from year to year.

Katykat

Techno, could the variations with your payments be due to you sending monthly readings? I'm beginning to wonder if it might be a negative action for me now.

Katykat

Adam- would you be able to enlighten me a little? I have used the energy use tracker on Npowers website and I'm confused about one of the readings in May, we used 200kw of electricity and 600kw of gas ( approx). However, we were away from 27th April to 22nd May. We left on- combi boiler set to 15 degrees room thermostat ( as far as I'm aware the temp in our well insulated house did not drop below 15, it doesn't even in winter). Porch light on constantly, low energy 7w bulb; 2x 7w lamps on timer switches for 3 hrs each evening; fridge freezer; Sky box recording some programmes; - Does this sound as though we should have used 200kw elec and 600kw gas? We were back in the house from 22nd May, so would have 10 days normal usage.