We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

npower - tariff comparison

Options
As I approach the end of my current tariff, beelieve it or not I think npower are offering the best deal for me at the moment. However I have a choice to make - do I go for their Online Price Fix May 2016 - Electricity & Gas @ £64.12 per month with:
Electricity TCR: 14.63p/kWh
Gas TCR: 4.26p/kWh
or
Price Fix February 2017 - Electricity & Gas @ £64.15 per month with
Electricity TCR: 14.99p/kWh
Gas TCR: 4.54p/kWh

I can see the units prices seem to be lower for the May 2016 tariff but wondered if I'm missing something else? Would love some advice please,

Comments

  • Nada666
    Nada666 Posts: 5,004 Forumite
    At 3p per month difference the longer fix is the more sensible choice (also considering there are no exit fees with either tariff.) (Slightly cheaper fixes with other companies are only 2015 fixes.)

    (Your modest usage and the largish difference in standing charge means the longer fix with higher unit prices is as cheap for you.)
  • Nada666
    Nada666 Posts: 5,004 Forumite
    (Double check, however, with a larger 'normal' winter usage for you too as at least one of the next three winters is likely to be far colder than recently - make sure the cost won't diverge too much.)
  • naedanger
    naedanger Posts: 3,105 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    AMEH wrote: »
    As I approach the end of my current tariff, beelieve it or not I think npower are offering the best deal for me at the moment. However I have a choice to make - do I go for their Online Price Fix May 2016 - Electricity & Gas @ £64.12 per month with:
    Electricity TCR: 14.63p/kWh
    Gas TCR: 4.26p/kWh
    or
    Price Fix February 2017 - Electricity & Gas @ £64.15 per month with
    Electricity TCR: 14.99p/kWh
    Gas TCR: 4.54p/kWh

    I can see the units prices seem to be lower for the May 2016 tariff but wondered if I'm missing something else? Would love some advice please,

    It is worth bearing in mind npower's customer service has been ranked the worst in the UK by Which.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/11100390/Npower-worst-company-in-the-UK-for-customer-service.html (So they beat Ryannair for being bad at customer service.)

    If the savings are significant you may still wish to take the risk of using them.

    The problems arise if things go wrong. In my case I asked npower to take over my energy supply in October 2013. They switched someone else's electricity supply into my name and, even although they admit their mistake, are still billing me for this supply. (So I now have the joy of getting two separate electricity bills.) It is over 100 days since the Ombudsman gave them 28 days to fix the problem and they are still in no rush to fix the problem and they ignore my emails. Obviously in my case I wish I had never tried to save money by switching to npower.

    My case will not be the norm, but it is clear if you search on google that they do create big problems for a lot of their customers.
  • Thanks Everyone, that's been really helpful.
  • I'd be very surprised if npower are cheapest for anyone, check the price comparison sites.
    Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,108
  • Nada666
    Nada666 Posts: 5,004 Forumite
    I'd be very surprised if npower are cheapest for anyone, check the price comparison sites.
    Why would you be surprised? For anyone? Not for everyone, but you specifically extend this to anyone. A bizarre claim.
  • naedanger
    naedanger Posts: 3,105 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I'd be very surprised if npower are cheapest for anyone, check the price comparison sites.

    Since they are worst for customer service why would anyone go to them unless they were cheapest?

    (Actually it would not surprise me either if they were not the cheapest since large companies seem to be able to charge more simply because they are familiar to people.)
  • Just changed our supplier from NPower and now using Flow Energy.
    NP are indeed very poor when it comes to customer service and I would certainly not recommend them to anybody... Very poor show !
    ORIGINAL MORTGAGE AMOUNT £106,454.00 (Started Sept 2007)
    NOV 2021 O/S AMOUNT £1,694.41 OUR DEBT REDUCED BY £104,759.59 by std regular, over-payments & off-setting.
    BofE +0.19% Tracker Repayment Offset Mortgage Discounted Sept 07-10 then increased to BofE +0.62% until 2027
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.7K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.7K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.4K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.8K Life & Family
  • 256.8K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.