BBC NEWS | Business | Double-digit rise in Npower bills

I was under the impression that the hikes we saw in 07 were being reversed

 

Still paying the same rate we were in 2005

So nerr to you Lewis!

 

Is it the total bill that's going up 17% or just the price of the gas component?

As SJ_S BG froze the price of my gas until 2010 some time ago, looking like a really good deal now

 

Npower is the supply business of UK-based RWE Npower, itself a subsidiary of German energy group RWE.

RWE Npower also operates a number coal, natural gas, oil-fired and renewable energy power stations across the UK.

Its most recent full-year financial results show that RWE Npower made an operating profit of 512m euros (£383m) in 2006.

Bugger ! I'm an Npower customer. Verdammdtes deutschen !!

So which of the others is cheapest at the moment ?

 

tell you what... n-power cant be doing that badly with profits to be able to sponsor wembley, the cricket, and everything foofing else

if prices rise with every company, so be it, unless we all protest or whatever, but im sooo glad i move from this bunch of german owned tossers. their customer services is worse than bt

british gas will do me with their indian call centres.... thats only when things go wrong.

 

As long as this is reflected in inflation figures and I get a big fat pay rise next year I don't mind

 

Weren't NPower offering very competitive rates to people a couple of years ago? I was very close to ditching British Gas that almost doubled their rates then. May be, I did a wise thing by sticking to British Gas? I dunno. All these energy selling companies (so many have mushroomed in last few years!) seem as bad as one another.

 

It is difficult to believe that the other energy suppliers won't follow suit.

Les

 

Just before Christmas Sky were ringing me daily to try and get me to change. I wasn't in a position to discuss on any occassion due to me either been at work or an inconvenient time at home to dig out Npower bills for comparison etc. Plus I was ok with Npower and at the time thought the price difference would probably be too little to make me change.

Anyone else had Sky ring them? Hope they ring back soon now as this situation has made me think about changing.

Nick

 

Sky do gas and electricity Any more rises and I may have to consider changing to pikey power

 

Just binned my annual £80 discount (payable ONLY once you achieve 13 months) with N Power after 7 months and switched to SWALEC.

They suggest they are cheaper than N Power's PRE INCREASE tariff by £270 pa for me & also wont be bumping their costs up till at least Nov 2008. This should help avoid the 'creaming off' of disgruntled N Power customers for a month by competitors, followed by a sharp similar hike.

GOD! This keeping your house warm business has turned into such a game by now. What it must cost them to administer al these switches and us to check the fine-print! Blx to them all!

D

 

As Gas prices are linked to oil then we can all get ready for higher gas bills.

The vast majority of electricity generation in the UK is from gas and coal. The world spot price of coal is linked to the oil price as well due to electricity generation in other countries. On top of that China has a massive shortfall and is importing vast amounts of coal pushing the price up further.
We only have the capacity to supply a few million tons a year from our own mines but require 200-300million tonnes to keep the lights burning.

On top of all that there is a political shift starting to happen in the Eastern block were most of our gas and the majority of our future gas will come from. Some can see that a few will get mega rich for a few decades until the gas fields are groaning. They are actually using the UK as a model on how to waste gas on electricty generation for short term gain when we had enough to last a couple of centuries.
The political shift in some of these smaller countries is to stop exporting and build a cheap industrial and manufacturing base that will have cheap energy for centuries along with cheap energy for the population.
How Mosco and the EU will view this time will tell.

Cheers
Lee

 

Well, I signed up for the price fix thing until 2009. I was beginning to think that I was going to get shafted for my peace of mind, but I'm feeling a bit better about myself now.....

Is it me or is this country becoming more and more expensive?

Dan

 

Fat chance of that! Inflation will somehow remain at 2-3% despite everything other than satnav's rising in price sharply! (funny that satnav's were included in the CPI calculation last year... )

 

from my first ever place I rented to my current my rent has all but doubled since 2000, not to mention council tax but hey it doesn't matter because it's not counted in inflation figures and since 2000 I have had a 1,9% rise and a 2.2% rise and thats it. Guess it is my fault or working in the private sector

 

Utility bills are NOT included in the version of the RPI used to calculate inflation (presumably because it made the results look bad). Interestingly, I believe the iPod IS included.


M

 

How is it that we sell gas to the continentals only to buy it back at a vastly inflated price?

Les

 

It just makes you hate politicians doesnt it? Irrelevances like I Pod & Sat Nav are counted in place of much more real essentials that people have no control over - like Council tax and keeping your house warm. All for the sake of deluding the electorate. The more I learn the more I just think they are a bunch of crooks that will hoodwink us at any self-serving opportunity.

D

 

Cos we enjoy being taken forcefully from behind. Oh that and we're stupid!

 

Thanks, I was beginning to wonder!

Les

 

I wish they would mention what the huge profits are that these power companies make when they talk about the increases. They are nearly all foreign owned too.
I hope they lose millions of customers, greedy bar stewards.