Price Cap and Stay warm tarriff

sara1880

I have just got off the phone from N-power after reading about their stay warm offer they are about to start on July 14th 2008 ( new customers can start on the stay warm now, exisiting customers start in July)
This is for people which meet one of the following criteria
Over 60
Child under 16 in the house.
Earnings under 13k a year
Disabled

The offer entitles you to £250 per annum off your fuel prices.Plus if you sign up to them for the monthly direct debit you get an additional £80 off per annum

I just signed up to them for both the Capped 2011 and stay warm. their prices are similar if not a smidge better than what i was paying with Scottish power so just thought i would share this info with you guys.

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this.

Sara :j

dellxps

Good to hear npower are doing something positive for a change- but i do hope they won't be calling the tariff 'stay warm' as it's going to end up confusing people as E.ON also have thestaywarm tariff for elderly customers.

sara1880

lol its actually called spreading warmth!!

Cardew

I made some enquiries(both on-line and on the phone) on behalf of some older friends of mine.

I think you will find that 'spreading warmth' does not offer anything off your bills - let alone £250.

If you struggle and get behind on your bills then you are referred to the 'First Step' team that can juggle your payments and in extreme cases write off some of your outstanding debt.

However my understanding is that it does not give to any entitlement to any rebate or indeed any cheaper tariff.

I am not being critical of NPower's initiative, but it is not(from what I have gathered) anything like the OP's description.

DGJsaver

I think npower need to sort themselves out from the bottom up before coming out with dubious tariff offers

sara1880

if you go to the N-power website the details are on there.

You will receive £250 off your bills per annum. I talked it over and over and over with the customer service guy, plus there is a 14day ( from date of receiving the contract) get out clause and from there on in you can cancel at any time you like, you are not bound into any contract at all.

The elderly only offer they have is different.

sara1880

just thought i would share the info i first read( before i actually phoned N-Power )with you all.
What is the Spreading Warmth tariff? – It is a new tariff from npower that delivers a total dual fuel annual discount of £250 Exc. VAT (£125 per fuel) to our vulnerable customers with limited incomes.

In addition to significant savings from the tariff, these customers could also benefit from npower's Spreading Warmth 'whole home' approach, helping them save money and energy, including a benefits entitlement check, payment method advice and access to free energy efficiency advice and measures.



When is it available? – The new tariff is currently due to be available from 14th July 2008.




When will the discount be paid? – Generally, the discount will be paid on the first npower bill issued after 1st January 2009. If you are a dual fuel customer, the discount will be paid as a discount of £125 on each bill issued after 1st January 2009. Prepayment customers who sign up to the new tariff will be communicated to separately regarding how their discount will be paid.




Who is eligible? – Existing single or dual fuel customers currently on npower’s standard, Fix for Free or Fixed 2011 tariffs (all payment methods included), who have an annual household income of less than £13,500 and meet at least one of the eligibility criteria below:

• Aged over 60
• Have a disability
• Suffer from a chronic illness
• Have children under the age of 16

Cardew

sara1880 wrote: »

if you go to the N-power website the details are on there.

You will receive £250 off your bills per annum. I talked it over and over and over with the customer service guy, plus there is a 14day ( from date of receiving the contract) get out clause and from there on in you can cancel at any time you like, you are not bound into any contract at all.

The elderly only offer they have is different.

Yes I can see it now(I am pretty sure it wasn't there on the NPower link I went to this morning) So apologies.

I also spoke to 3 people at NPower(again this morning) and all said there was no such scheme.

This offer states "a total dual fuel annual discount of £250" and your opening post staed that there was £80 direct debt discount on top of the £250.

Being cynical I wonder what the catch is??

sara1880

i was like you and a bit cynical about it and i asked that question to them they just said no catch and i would be able to check the contract through properly before the final move took place.

maybe they are doing damage limitation after being told off earlier this year??!! just a guess on my part though, trying to pull back in some customers after getting some bad press.

jimbob99_2

Hi,

Ive contacted N-power on a couple of occassions regarding their "spreading warmth" tariff , both by phone and email, however im getting conflicting answers to the following wonder if anyone can confirm.

"My salary is around about £5000 before tax and if I added my working tax credit, child tax credit and child benefit it used to put me under total of £13500. But now due to an increase in my WTC & CTC it has put me over the eligible figure."

My question to them was what income is included when working out eligibility does it include all benefits or just some or even just my wages. I have had differing answers from them and no written response from an email I sent them. They seem to not want to reply in written form. One operator said it was only my Gross Wage , another said it was everything including all my families benefits, if the latter is the case then I wish I hadnt had a WTC increase.

sara1880

I would say the best thing to do would be to just ask if you can join the Spreading the warmth and then provide them with any information they may ask for ( they didn't actually ask me for anything) then let them decide if you are eligible.