NPOWER with a 17% hike in prices - Here we go

Poppycat

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506205&in_page_id=1770



"The big European energy companies treat Great Britain like Treasure Island,' he said.
"They raid the UK's North Sea for gas supplies when it is cheap but then levy punitive prices when demand is higher.
"This move suggests something is very badly wrong, not only in the GB energy market but in Europe as well. There is no actual shortage of gas across Europe, we have new pipelines to bring that gas to the UK, greater storage capacity and terminals to bring in supertankers full of liquefied natural gas."

melbury

But of course these whacking great increases won't have any impact at all on inflation figure because Mr. Brown wants that kept low so that BOE can instigate further base rate cuts and thus help him win the next election!!

Seems to me that if anything is likely to up the rate of inflation, it just gets kicked out of the equation - laughable really.

magyar

melbury wrote: »

But of course these whacking great increases won't have any impact at all on inflation figure because Mr. Brown wants that kept low so that BOE can instigate further base rate cuts and thus help him win the next election!!

Seems to me that if anything is likely to up the rate of inflation, it just gets kicked out of the equation - laughable really.

Says who?

The CPI 'shopping basket' includes average fuel prices across the country.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/elmr/04_07/downloads/ELMR_April07_Wingfield.pdf

viv0147

magyar wrote: »

The 'estimated savings' malarkey is a little meaningless, but if you've got a fixed until 2009 deal I'd be happy with it right now. If E.ON were the cheapest when you searched, then you're probably best sticking with this for now.

Are you tied in for any period?

To be honest I am not sure I haven't had the paper work yet I didn't notice anything though.

dellxps

viv0147,

just to confirm you're definitely not fixed into a contract. the tariff you're on fixes your prices. you are free to change supplier and change tariffs within e.on without penalty. currently e.on does not offer any fixed term contract tariffs.

Vicster

Hello,
I'm a newbie to all this switching and am confused! I can't believe that the first swictch I have ever done has been to Npower just as they put up their prices!!!
I gather from this thread that it is best to wait and see what happens before switching again - am I right in thinking that you can switch at anytime? Does Martin usually post some advice when things like this happen? If so, I'll wait for that. I was with southern electric before and thought I'd be saving £140 by switching to Npower. I'm on the ONLINE GAS/ELECTRICITY SOL tarif - that will be affected by the price rises, won't it??

Thanks
Vicster

briskly_2

magyar wrote: »

Says who?

The CPI 'shopping basket' includes average fuel prices across the country.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/elmr/04_07/downloads/ELMR_April07_Wingfield.pdf

I've just had a quick look at the CPI "shopping basket". It only seems to have allocated around 5% of the total basket to household services, of which fuel bills only seem to make up a fraction ( a few % I think). If the average gas and electricity bills are going up to £1050, as has been quoted from Npower's latest hike, they will make up around 6-7% of someone's take home pay if they earn £20,000. Anyone arning less than £15,000 will be clobbered like mad - especially as they lose another £200 a year from Gordon's tax grab when the 10% tax band dissapears in April. Why can't the government slap an immediate windfall tax on Npower, paying out the receipts to the elderly and the poor?

furby-2003

Chester_Draws wrote: »

With price rises of this magnitude, I would take a meter reading tomorrow, and email to them , keeping a copy for yourself.

You can just imagine how estimated bills might roll in too low so they can claim higher costs on the next one.

This is a good idea but your estimates dont change just because of a price increase they are based around your routine reads if you have them.

lisyloo

With regards the room temp for babies, we have tried turning the heating off at night, but daughter/grandaughter's bedroom has 2 outside walls and is very cold at night,

Hi Karen,

We fitted a room thermostat, which wasn't expensive or complicated.
It emasn that we can keep the heating permanentlly ON but set the termperatures for different time.
We have 4 periods per day on ours - morning, day, evening and night.

We set it to 16 degrees at night.
In our house it hardly ever comes on, but if there was a very cold night then it would at least keep the house to a minumum temperature.

Of course if your house has some insulation type problems then it's going to make it more expensive.
I'm just saying that you can keep it on all the time, but at a much lower temperature during the night.

harryhound

I am with Scottish Power and have an account called "Price Fall On Line".

I do remember getting a leaflet that seemed to cover every account and area that Scottish Power served; which made it a bit like one of those instruction sheets written in 20 different languages, possibly deliberately, like the 4 pages of terms and conditions you get with a credit card:rolleyes:.

Can anyone tell me or better point me at an explanation of what this deal actually offers if anything in the face of rising prices.



Harry.

Should I "over read" the meter now;) Only joking of course.....................
Those of you with National Power may well have a "deferred rebate" - a kick back if you manage to stay for 12 months (like a cash back credit card?) so beware of losing that by switching at the wrong time.
Did I read somewhere that switching is to be limited to once a year OK if price rises are too.

For those who use electricity for heating applications, I think I'm right in saying that by the time other fuels have been turned into electricity that has arrived at your heater, then 66% of the heat has gone up the cooling tower, down the river , or drifted off after warming the feet of the birds on the line.

Finally, as an electricity only customer with no gas, I am, or rather was, supposed to already be paying 40% more, than you lucky people with gas, for my energy. I do know that the nearly pure carbon anthracite in my bunker at 266 a tonne (1.86 a hod full) won't be going up in price, not for 9 months anyway. The coal man said I should stick with the Welsh stuff as the cheaper stuff from China was a b*gg*r to keep alight.