npower - tariff comparison

AMEH_2

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,

Nada666

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

(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

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.

AMEH_2

Thanks Everyone, that's been really helpful.

scaredofdebt

I'd be very surprised if npower are cheapest for anyone, check the price comparison sites.

Nada666

scaredofdebt wrote: »

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

scaredofdebt wrote: »

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.)

hillcats

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 !