Sunday 19 October 2008

Electricity and gas prices

I had a shock recently when my gas bill arrived through the letterbox. On opening it, I found a letter that seemed far too pleased to tell me that from the next month, my gas bill would be increasing from £48 per month to an astonishing £83 per month!

What's more, my electricity was going up from £25 to £30 per month. This is with Npower, who have been in the news recently for hiking up their utility prices.

Now last year, after paying a set amount each month, I ended up in credit by about £150 as well, so all in all, they were pretty much going to double my prices. 100% increase on what I paid last year for my gas. Shocking.

Two days later, a poor unfortunate knocked at my door. He was from Scottish Power and asked if he could do a tariff review to see if he could save me money. Poor guy never knew what hit him. He was dragged in off the street and sat down with my bills shoved haphazardly in front of him.

After looking at them, checking his latest prices, he shook his head, said he didn't know how Npower had come to these figures and told me exactly what I would be paying with Scottish Power. His workings out on my current usage were £40 for gas and £20 for electric.

That works out at £13 a month cheaper on last years pre-price hike figure (£156 a year) OR... and this is the biggie... from switching to Scotish Power from Npower for this year, it would save me a whopping £636 a year.

Shame on you, Npower!

Oh and I get 10% off at Argos with a discount card.

...And Scottish Power are one of the greenest energy suppliers in the UK, so that helps my carbon footprint.

So, needless to say, I switched. If all is well and I haven't been duped somewhere along the way, I shall keep you posted, but so far, so good!