O/T Energy Prices...

[Dysie]

Have received my latest statement from npower & they are increasing my monthly direct debit for combined gas/electric to £254 pr month (from 01.11.09)!! This is from £151. As of 25.09.09 I was £134 in debit & they get another £151 tomorrow - so I'll be more or less even with them.

I live in a standard semi with GCH that goes on for 2hrs in the morning & 3hrs in the evening & it got it's first airing since April only last week.

Are these charges normal/excessive & is it time to 'Uswitch.com'?

Consumer advice always seems constructive on SV so any help will be gratefully received.

[Shrimpman]

i thought i was paying too much @ £89.00 p/month duel fuel with scottish power but £254 sounds very excessive

[PUNKISDEAD]

Serious overpayments being paid there mate, if you arent in arrears, get in touch with bombay and find out whats wrong , alternately just move into a b and b and rent your house out.

[Curly]

As others have said, this debit hike seems really excessive!
I'm with NPower and only pay two fifths of that and am £70 in credit for both gas and electric.
The problem with NPower that most people who've been with them have told me about and
I am finding out too,(although not as severly as you) is the overcrediting on accounts.
They seem to always want you to be about £100 in credit for gas/electric so they have your money.
If your something like £60 in credit for both gas and electricity for over 12months, they automatically refund the money to your bank, but if they use estimates at any time of the year
they can easily manipulate the figures to their favour.
They do give you £100 every year you stay with them for dual fuel bills, but I don't know
whether they have the cheapest gas/electricity rates at the moment.
You might find that setting your thermostat to a comfortable temp and leaving it on all the
time uses less fuel than having your system work hard for a few hours twice a day, and having
to use lots of energy to get the house up to temp from cold all the time.
Is your house well insulated? you could be chucking money away.
If you can work out your own usage for a 12month period, it's always worth checking
the comparison websites. Moneysupermarket.com and Uswitch are ok.
What have you got to lose? except £254 a month
Some of the sites give you a cashback for using them, out of the money they get from the
energy companies.
Just remember that while switching over, you may pay nothing for a few months, then have to pay a bit over the odds at the start to get back in credit.
I really would look around if I were you. Your new bill is equal each month to the highest
rate of council tax around here!

[rebus]

Im with npower and have duel fuel £121 a month i pay,it can depend also on what tariff you are on,they have many!!!!!.I use paperless billing and recieve £80 back at the end of each year,
I am also one of those with time on my hands and am searching all the time for the best quotes for all my utilities and expenses,
Dont know if this is any help,
just two of us in the house,by the way but i am there all day every day with the heat on.
Hope you can get it sorted
ken

[Gnasher]

http://www.uswitch.com has a fairly good calculator to decide whether you can do better. Being in credit or just a bit of debt is a good time to switch, no large final bill to pay, so now would be a good time for you Dysie.

You need to go through your last 18 months of bills and work out approximately how many units you are using per year, the more accurate you can get that, the more accurate the information uswitch will give you about alternatives.

How long have you been with npower? If you've been with them over 12 months then you have proved that at least once during the year you are about even with your payments so the increase is excessive.

If you've only been with them since early this year then they will have decided that over the summer months you have broke even with your payments and that's not enough to cover the winter months. In this case most of the increase will be for gas and some for electric.

Whatever, I've never heard of someone paying so much in a standard semi. Does anyone use electric heaters? Loft insulated? Walls insulated? Have your neighbours tapped into your electric supply to run a cannabis farm? If you're using a lot of electricity, with the amount it's costing you I'd suggest getting one of those meters that shows how much you are using at any time then you can go around the house turning stuff off and instantly see what effect it has gadget by gadget.

[The Bay]

I live in a 3 bed townhouse, and pay £117 a month duel fuel with n-power, who want to up my payment to £170 a month for the winter, which I find a little excessive.

I've personally never had a good time with n-power, earlier this year they wanted £535 in arrears (based on their 'estimate'), and after weeks and weeks of arguing the toss someone came to read the meter and I was actually £196 in credit. Unfortunately, u switch reckond n-power give me the best deal financially, but again (in my own experience), the worst customer service.

[The Bay]

I live in a 3 bed townhouse, and pay £117 a month duel fuel with n-power, who want to up my payment to £170 a month for the winter, which I find a little excessive.

I've personally never had a good time with n-power, earlier this year they wanted £535 in arrears (based on their 'estimate'), and after weeks and weeks of arguing the toss someone came to read the meter and I was actually £196 in credit. Unfortunately, u switch reckond n-power give me the best deal financially, but again (in my own experience), the worst customer service.

[Mike Blackstone]

We're with Scottish and Southern Energy, as after being with British Gas, and then Scottish Power, they offer us the best deal at present.

[P/T Indie]

i thought i was paying too much @ £89.00 p/month duel fuel with scottish power but £254 sounds very excessive

Your about the same as me with dual fuel on British Gas however my payments are never right they charged us £6.50 a month gas for a year then realised so put it up to £60 a month. Even in winter when the g/f has the heating on all the time we "use" about £70 duel fuel and thats with an old fashioned boiler which costs a few quid to run.

[Plain Peter]

We pay £57 a month by DD to British Gas for dual fuel.
We're on their Websaver tariff, and are never in the red.
Don't use radiators in rooms you hardly use.
Tell the heater when you need it, ie don't be lazy by putting it on timed.
Keep the heating in the room, ie close the doors.
Try not to let all your heating escape upstairs.
Don't leave everything on standby when not in use.
Use a slow cooker.
With more advanced washing powders you can easily get away with a 30 deg wash as against a 40 deg wash.
Bin the dish-washer.
Bin the tumble-dryer.
Don't leave the iron on.
Don't use the micrwave so much, ie think ahead, and get the frozen grub out of the freezer in the morning for your evening nose-bag. No need to defrost then.
Get to know your kettle. Only boil the water you need.
Wear a jumper.
If you live in town, use the computers in the Library, after all you're paying for them in your Council Tax.
Seriously, invest in a couple of wind-up torches.
Blimey there's 1000s of other little economies that you can make, they all add-up.

[Suzi Quatro]

Soon after Labour came to power in 1997, Brown made tackling fuel poverty a priority. This government made a pledge to completely eradicate it by 2016.
Sadly that commitment has never come to the forthfront of Government Policy. The energy
companies continue to rip of the customers with sky high energy bills while customers on poor wages struggle to make ends meet paying these bills. We have a situation where more than a quarter of all famalies will be living in fuel poverty this winter, the number will set to rise.
Our M.P has done nothing on this issue yet she will be aware of it. Perhaps as oppose to claiming for espensive furniture as well as fighing for obsolete buildings on the sea front which to be quite honest would be more cost effective to demolish, she should be fighting on behalf of the poor people who are finding these high energy prices a challenge.
All that I ask for is that this issue isa taken more seriously instead of being put to the bottom of the pile. Maybe the Government are scared of these energy companies not backing them financially, who knows.

[George Dawes]

will just have to put up with it till the next election, like anything anything else there's nothing you can realy do about apart from vote



last month i worked on a house in carnforth with that solar roof heating it cost them £2000 or maybe £3000 to buy and they had huge savings and hot water etc running all the time


i know it's expensive but i think it's the way forward id like us to become more like Sweden and become more self sufficient and in more ways one

[Posh]

If you're going to use Uswitch you'd better hurry up. All the rumours suggest they're likely to go bust, close the site and keel over soon. A combination of loads of copycat sites, sheer costs of advertising the site plus long-term tie in deals has meant they've seen a big fall in revenue. An American private equity firm bought Uswitch from its founders for £220 million and they've already written off £216 million of their investment. Also talk of GoCompare being in trouble too.

[campdave]

Don't use the micrwave so much, ie think ahead, and get the frozen grub out of the freezer in the morning for your evening nose-bag. No need to defrost then.

I use the microwave to heat up the extra portions of meals we cook at the weekend

We've got one of those electricity meter things that clips onto your box and gives a constant readout of how much electricity we are using at any one time. We've used less than £20 a month since we got that, over a year ago (couple in a terrace).

[North Stand Shrimp]

The reason why these compare sites are struggling is because competition between suppliers has almost been irradicated!

The energy companies are all pretty much charging the same, last nights watchdog showed only a £30 difference between the main 5 over a year. The government gave up OFGEMS powers several years ago saying it would free up the energy companies to be more competitive and in turn the consumer would get a better deal. it did the opposite. What is it with this government freeing up private business to do what they want just to be really shocked that later down the line they do what they want, which is to make as much money as possible in any means they can! this policy has lead to the banks getting out of control, leading to a financial meltdown and the energy companies laughing at us all the way to the bank.

When the wholesale prices went up last year, the energy companies put their prices up straight away, even though they had already bought their energy months in advance at a lower rate! now that the wholesale prices have come down the energy companies are giving the excuse that the energy they are selling us is in esscence the energy that they bought months ago at the higher price and therefore are not going to reduce bills.
The worrying factor in all of this is that regardless of the fact that OFGEM are powerless, there is definitely a case to be answered by the power companies for price fixing! All the main companies are getting their power at a similar cost, they are all selling it at a similar cost and are all making big profits! The fact that not one of these companies will stand out from the rest and lower their prices to gain market share shows that their interests are now firmly in making the most money out of the consumers they have.

This is why USWITCH are buggered, there is no competition for them to interest consumers into switching suppliers.

I say we all take peter's advice. use less energy by being more savvy and show the energy companies that if they won't play fairly, we won't use their energy! In the last year I have re-lagged my loft, changed all the bulbs to energy savers, bought a one cup kettle(only boils enough water for one cup at a time), always shower instead of a bath and use a wood burning fire instead of the central heating. I't all adds up and I've seen a noticable reduction in my bills.

[Mike Blackstone]

Don't use the micrwave so much, ie think ahead, and get the frozen grub out of the freezer in the morning for your evening nose-bag. No need to defrost then.
Get to know your kettle. Only boil the water you need.
Wear a jumper.
If you live in town, use the computers in the Library, after all you're paying for them in your Council Tax.
Seriously, invest in a couple of wind-up torches.
Blimey there's 1000s of other little economies that you can make, they all add-up.

And if you have a OAP bus pass, you can keep warm all day by riding all over the place on the buses, Thus saving on heating bills at home.

[John L]

Don't use the micrwave so much, ie think ahead, and get the frozen grub out of the freezer in the morning for your evening nose-bag. No need to defrost then.
Get to know your kettle. Only boil the water you need.
Wear a jumper.
If you live in town, use the computers in the Library, after all you're paying for them in your Council Tax.
Seriously, invest in a couple of wind-up torches.
Blimey there's 1000s of other little economies that you can make, they all add-up.

And if you have a OAP bus pass, you can keep warm all day by riding all over the place on the buses, Thus saving on heating bills at home.

Surely though, Mike, this saving is negated by having to buy countless brews and pies at all these non-league grounds you visit?

[Plain Peter]

And if you have a OAP bus pass, you can keep warm all day by riding all over the place on the buses, Thus saving on heating bills at home.

But isn't that at a cost to every local Council Tax payer?
My brother uses his pass to go all over the shop.
Multiply that by millions, which then has to be paid for out of our taxes.

[P/T Indie]

I need Peter to give my a g/f a lesson in energy saving I am sure the hole in the ozone layer is the biggest right above our house.

[Plain Peter]

I need Peter to give my a g/f a lesson in energy saving I am sure the hole in the ozone layer is the biggest right above our house.

Aye, and what we don't squander probably pays for a nice holiday.
That in itself saves on our domestic energy consumption, if we ain't there then we ain't using it.
Off to Istanbul next month for a week of culture and kebabs.
Then to Myanmar (Burma) for the whole of February.
So that's a fair whack out of our winter usage
At the moment me and Doris are round our daughter's using her electricity

[Gnasher]

The energy companies are all pretty much charging the same, last nights watchdog showed only a £30 difference between the main 5 over a year.

It's at the stage now where the only reason to switch is to either go for a more eco-friendly supplier or there's a financial incentive to switch. I used to switch a few times per year, I made more money through cashback deals than any savings any of them could offer over their competitors.

[Dysie]

Thanks for all the useful and constructive replies.

Having trawled through all the comparison sites etc. E-on turned out to be the cheapest for me, based on my annual consumption for both fuels. With an on-line account.

npower admitted they had over calculated for next year (I was on their most expensive tariff, thanks to one of you for pointing that out to me) however they still couldn't match e-on's figure.

So the 'switch' has been registered @ less than half the price npower wanted me to pay each month - and less than i've been paying this past year!

GOOD TIMES .........