Beating them at their own game?

rb157

I have been with British Gas for a year and am moving to NPower and therefore need to clear my bill. 'm not sure how this has come about, but on my electricity the Bil has been about £600 for the year, and I have been paying £11 per month. So rather than the usual complaints of the utilities company gaining interest I have had the upper hand and had £460 gaining interest over the year. However the best bit I think is that In clearing the debt, I can pay by credit card which with cashback gains me another 1%. It is hardly going to change my life, but I'll be having a couple of pints on British Gas.
Not sure how easy this is for people to achieve, but I know that I bartered for my monthly payments to be low when I set up and then have questioned the accuracy of their review when they have upped my DD.

Anyone else do this successfully and does it work with other things? e.g. can I sign up for DD with my mobile and pay off with credit card, therefore not getting penalised for not paying by DD, but then getting the cashback by paying by cc?

Richard

financially_abused

I think you may have scored an own goal by going to NPower. Have you not heard about their record of unfair charging and nil customer service?

rb157

Maybe, but they are currently about £350pa cheaper than nearest rival, so happy to take the risk on Customer Service. What Do you mean by "unfair charging"?

DGJsaver

rb157 wrote: »

Maybe, but they are currently about £350pa cheaper than nearest rival

Dont believe that for one second

sorry mate


and see the `sculpting` thread

mute_posting

rb157 wrote: »

Maybe, but they are currently about £350pa cheaper than nearest rival

On who's calculations?!?!

The only way to know is to work it out yourself by multiplying the number of units you have used in the past 12 months by their "super-duper" unit rate (after deducting the higher-rate units and working these out seperately if required) and adding in the standing charge where relevant.

Is quite easy for them to fudge the figures to make it look like you will save big - one of the more recent cons was on DD ammounts (i.e. by telling people they will lower their current suppliers DD but failing to mantion that they'll issue a big bill after 12 months for the units not covered by the DD ammount)

I'm sure you have heard the advice "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" - I'd say that applies in 75% of cases with coNpower.

MP

rb157

Annualised usage:

Gas - 2408 Units (*2.38*1.02264*39.2522/3.6)= 63902KWh (Opening meter reading 30/04/07 12659, closing 15/05/08 15067)
Electric - 6620 KWh

Prices Offered by each company (NP online Dual fuel and BG clickenergy 4 dual fuel with 10% discount offered):
British Gas
Gas tier 1: 5.813p to 2680KWh, tier2: 2.438,
Electric tier 1: 21.459 to 500KWh, tier 2: 9.282

N Power
Gas tier 1: 6.165p to 4572KWh, tier 2: 1.713
Electric tier 1:11.22 to 728KWh, tier 2: 8.93

Costs
BG Gas Cost: £1648.39, Electric Cost: £675.35, Total £2323.75
NP Gas Cost £1298.19, Electric Cost: £633.45, Total £1931.65

Saving: £392.10



On top of this my usage last year is slightly higher than expected and there is about £16 benefit to be added to BG due to Dual fuel and DD discounts.

I've also checked this on USwitch where NP v BG click Energy 5 shows a 284 saving (so OK, I should have said £350 against my current offering, but £284 is not a million miles off).

If I've calculated something wrong, then I want to know, but I think that this all adds up correctly, my only doubt is that the gas KWh looks high compared to the Electric, but I've worked the figures many times and am sure that this is correct.

Richard

Cardew

rb157 wrote: »

Annualised usage:

Gas - 2408 Units (*2.38*1.02264*39.2522/3.6)= 63902KWh (Opening meter reading 30/04/07 12659, closing 15/05/08 15067)

If I've calculated something wrong, then I want to know, but I think that this all adds up correctly, my only doubt is that the gas KWh looks high compared to the Electric, but I've worked the figures many times and am sure that this is correct.

Richard

63,902kWh of gas?? over 3 times the UK average?

What is the 2.38 for? should that not be 2.83? which makes it 74,471kWh

You are sure you have an Imperial gas meter?

Could you have a Metric meter?(with 5 digits)

If so you leave out the 2.83 and your 2408 gas units will be approx 26,315kWh

rb157

Thanks, and yes you are absolutely right it should be 2.83, which is why when I did that calculation it was less than when I did it last night, but couldn't see where it was wrong.

That is probably where I got £350 saving to the nearest rival from.

As for the Metric vs Imperial meter, I obtained the calculation from my gas bill ("How we convert gas units used to kilowatt hours" section - including the 2.83 metric conversion), but my meter is metric (just been out to check and it has m^3 on it). I think that the information that BG are providing on their bills is pretty poor, however unfortunately they have been charging me correctly.

It shows I think however that even if you do use price comparison services, that it is easy to get it wrong and end up with a bad deal. In my case however it is still about £125 cheaper going to NPower. Perhaps the moral is to add up your annual cost or KWh rather than look at start and end meter readings and calculate from them.

Thanks for your post, it has been really helpful to me, but won't change my move to NPower.

Richard

Premier_2

rb157 wrote: »

... In my case however it is still about £125 cheaper going to NPower....

Are you sure?

I've just done a very quick check using 2 different comparison sites (to check accuracy) and 2 different electrical areas ( to cover varying electrical costs) and both suggest a saving of about £80-£90 with npower vs BG Click 5 (Click 4 tariff wasn't given)

Also, be aware that £84 npower discount is applied yearly in arrears, which suggests to me if you leave mid-year you'll not receive that discount. Based on other reports of npower, (see sculpting thread) I wouldn't be surprised if npower start redefining how long a year is either.

Your choice though...

mute_posting

rb157 wrote: »

Thanks, and yes you are absolutely right it should be 2.83, which is why when I did that calculation it was less than when I did it last night, but couldn't see where it was wrong.

That is probably where I got £350 saving to the nearest rival from.

As for the Metric vs Imperial meter, I obtained the calculation from my gas bill ("How we convert gas units used to kilowatt hours" section - including the 2.83 metric conversion), but my meter is metric (just been out to check and it has m^3 on it). I think that the information that BG are providing on their bills is pretty poor, however unfortunately they have been charging me correctly.

Hmmm

If your meter is metric, surely BG (or you!) shouldn't be converting to metric by multiplying it by 2.83?!?!?

If so is that maybe why you appear to use almost 3 times the average?

Which I think (bear with me - it has been one of those days!) means that your savings (for gas) will only be 1/3 of what you think? yes? no?

HTH

MP

EDIT

My last assumption appears to be backed up by Premier...

rb157

Correct £125 as opposed to £350. However my confusion has come from the bill showing the calculation including the metric conversion factor, but in the actual calculations this is not applied. I just followed the algorithm shown, rather then working back the calculations that they had applied on my last monthy bill.

On now going back to the last bill the actual calculation excludes the meric conversion, but the description of how to perform the calculation includes it.