I've just saved nearly 50% on my electricity bill

HayleyB_2

Following MSE advice, I searched the comparison sites and was offered a saving of 35% for moving from npower to British Gas - pretty impressive, I thought. I then tried moneysupermarket and found that by changing tariff with npower itself, I could save almost 50%. I don't know whether to laugh or cry - laugh because of the huge saving, given that I use a lot of electricity; or cry because of the way that npower has clearly ripped me off. Big lesson - try more than one comparison site. Thank you MSE!

maz1964

Thanks hayleyB
thats great news, ive got this on my list to do, just getting the time to do it , and i will now thanks for the inspiration

have fun, ciao for now MAZ

IvanOpinion

When switching try to keep in mind that it is anticipated that there could be price hikes of about 15%. Therefore you need to be canny when doing comparisons .... it may be worthwhile looking at todays fixed/capped rates which may currently be higher but may not be affected by a price change versus variable rates that are likely to rise.

There are some very good fixed/capped rates still available ..... but for how long ... energy for such fixed rates will have been bought in advance ... some have been about for quite a while and are probably coming to an end of their quota.

Just because something comes to the top in a price comparison site does NOT mean that it is the cheapest or best deal for you.

Ivan

IvanOpinion

Also I don't think it is fair that you think NPower has ripped you off. They supplied you with what you signed up to .. the onus is on the customer to determine what package is best for them and sign up to it ... and if a better package comes along then the onus is still on the customer to notice it (in a highly competitive market they generally do not hide their deals).

Ivan

Cardew

You might have your Direct Debit reduced by 50%, but that is meaningless as a way of working out savings. All that will happen is that a big debit balance will be built up, which you will have to pay back.

The only way is to compare the price of a kWh and then the various discounts that are applied for dual fuel(if you have gas) payment by DD etc.

I very much doubt if you will get 50% difference in any tariffs between the major utility companies.

You need to enter the anual amount of kWh you use(and not monthly payments) into the various comparison sites. to get a better comparison.

sammyw

HOw do you find the terms and conditions of all the different tariffs? I am with npower standard rates for gas and electricity. I've got a list of all their other rates now and am trying to find out what they all mean but there is nothing on their site to say what 'sign online 11' means or what this will do to the £80 duel fuel discount etc.
I am getting very frustrated as looking on the e-on site they want the monthly amount we're paying and not the actual fuel usage - I want to know their rates but there's no page listing them.
Can anyone help? Do i have to spend ages on the phone to find these out?

espresso

sammyw wrote: »

HOw do you find the terms and conditions of all the different tariffs? I am with npower standard rates for gas and electricity. I've got a list of all their other rates now and am trying to find out what they all mean but there is nothing on their site to say what 'sign online 11' means or what this will do to the £80 duel fuel discount etc.

All suppliers list their tariffs e.g. here

sammyw

thanks espresso - thats what i have printed out as we are with npower, but i can't find that sort of page on any other power site. I was looking at the price of sign online 11, but that will go up with any price hike. Do you think opting in for their capped rate til July 09 is best? or paying more and going fixed until 2011?