New house - switching provider

kilby_007

Hello,

We're just moving into our new house- got the keys last Friday and took readings of the meters. The electric and gas are both with NPower.

My partner has had a bad experience to the tune of £7000 in the past with NPower where the OFT had to get involved. So we want as little as possible to do with NPower!

I'll get to the point - what do we need to do to get our eletric & gas from a different supplier? Do we ring NPower first? We will probably go with Scottish power, who we are with at our current (soon to be old) property. We also want to make sure we're not cut off at any point or if we are, then it's for the least possible amount of time. Excuse my ignorance but this is our first home.

keith1950

You need to register with Npower on a standard tariff and give them your readings.

You are then free to go online , the same day if you wish , and start a switch, which takes on average 5 weeks.

You can't switch if you don't have a supplier to switch from and the account at the house needs to be finalised by you taking over the supply.

kilby_007

keith1950 wrote: »

You need to register with Npower on a standard tariff and give them your readings.

You are then free to go online , the same day if you wish , and start a switch, which takes on average 5 weeks.

You can't switch if you don't have a supplier to switch from and the account at the house needs to be finalised by you taking over the supply.

Thanks, that makes sense. But a P.I.T.A having to deal with NPower. Of all the times we dealt with them in the past, they never got anything right. Also, my estate agent informs me that the old house owners never took a meter reading and hadn't lived at the address in 5 years, so I can see there being issues... can't wait...