British gas or NPower? Could anyone give me some advice please?

We've currently moved to a flat with NPower gas and electricity supply. We used to be British gas customer, and now we've become Npower customer with deemed contract. We still can turn back to British gas but now are confused whether we should do so.

Npower said they are cheaper than British gas in combined Gas and electricity, while British Gas sent a guy to our place, trying to convince us to stay with them, saying we are paying 20% more of standing charge with Npower.

We've got Gas heating, Gas hot water, eletric cooker which will be soon replaced by a Gas cooker and electric shower and we live in a two beds flat, so anyone pls can give us an advice if I should stick with British Gas or switch to Npower?

Many thanks.

Lyn

i can't compare N Power to British Gas as i've never had them, but we are with N Power for our gas and electric and have been since June. We have been paying £15 each per month for them which i didn't think was too bad, however, on Friday we received a letter saying that the electric was going up to £35 per month which is a bit ridiculous. Haven't received anything about the gas though (yet). They estimate your usage at first so i suppose we are using more than what we were estimated. still a bit steep though methinks.

We recently used

http://www.uswitch.com

Typed in the amount of gas and electricity used over the past 12 months (so that's why we keep all our bills around!) and it stated that we would save about a third if we switched to Atlantic electricity and gas.

We have BG for gas and powergen for electricity.

That said, we still haven't been contacted to make the switch but its only been a week.

It also gives green alternatives, which were suprisingly not much more expensive.

I read an article by some bloke at the Sunday Telegraph which recommended Enery Helpline as showing a greater range of suppliers. Apparently some websites will only display those that pay them commission.

http://www.energyhelpline.com/

I think quite a few of the companies the newer gas/electric companies, seem to underestimate your useage and set a very small monthly DD amount on a regular basis. If I was cynical, I could come to the conclussion that it is to keep you with them as a long as possible as you will owe them quite a bit of money and won't be able to pay it back in one go and so can't change over companies. Seemed to happen to me and parents.

Sorry, I hate to be one of those people who bleat on about a particular company, but after personal experience I wouldn't touch N Power again with a 10ft bargepoll.

They provided my gas and elecricity for 18 months in Sheffield, and I can honestly say that their service was beyond crap. They routinely got my bill wrong by estimating it instead of using the accurate readings I gave them. They spent most of the 18 months trying make me pay a bill that was the responsibility of previous tennants. And when I terminated my contact with them they 'lost' my final payment and demaned I pay again. I spent four months battling with them over this, because my bank gave me written proof than N Power had cashed my cheque, but they refused to provide any explanation, and even threatened to take me to court.

Throughout all these issues their customer services staff were inept, inconsistant, and totally unconcerned.

dont know about any other provider but dont go near n power, im having a mare with them and i know i am not on my own. the customer service is shocking, they seen friendly enough but they tell you lies.

I will join Jbee with the complaints and say hell will freeze over before I touch British Gas.

Since leaving home a while ago I have a HUGE list of examples that have convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that British Gas are complete numpties!

Billing me for the flat next door, taking over 6 months to sort out which meter they are supposed to be reading and refusing to accept any interim payment to reduce any bill that may eventually come in then threaten legal action when I wouldn't cough up the stupid amount they finally came up with.

This farce was repeated in another property.

Where their customer service staff think they are working I don't know just remember not to talk to them about gas...or your account...or how to pay, because they get confused.

At this precise moment in time British Gas would have to supply me with free gas in order for me to change. Because whether they offer me discounts on my phone bill, free shopping vouchers and lower prices than anyone else....by the time I have finished talking to their so called customer service representatives I will have paid the same amount as their competetors and will be left with more hair on my head and lower blood pressure.

British gas....don't like em

You think you've got problems!! in our cellar, we have ALL 3 leccy meters for the 3 seperate flats, PLUS one for the shop PLUS the gas meter for the shop, so we get every meter being read at different times, meter men traipsing through at stupid o'clock, the place is a **** up, our gas meter is actually outside our flat, gas supplied by BG, with one problem, they claim they dont supply gas to our flat, so i rang transco and asked them who did, BG came the reply, so i rang back BG, gave them some reference number to check the property, but nope, they were adamant they did not supply our gas, so someone is, god only knows who, as for the leccy, Npower, right royal palava with them, west midlands Npower sent us a bill, well over £100, this isnt right, we thought, so i checked the readings and they were nowhere near, rang up, gave em a load of grief, got a reduced bill for around £30 for the month, then a few days later we got a bill from Npower yorkshire!!!! wtf:loopy: head, elbow, ass sprang to mind, so we had a token meter fitted to regulate the bills, much easier, but we keep getting balliffs knocking for the previous tenant who did a runner, so i keep my passport to hand now to prove who i am, the problems are still ongoing!! :rant: to top it all yorkshire water are trying to get me to cough up for 6 months use of a water meter that we dont have, even the letting agents say there isnt one

i had problems with Npower, said i owed them money when i never did, so i switch over to another company, and they were worse than useless, change to southern electric, not by choice, my silly husband signed us up with one of their door to door salesmen, signed a contract without realising what it was, and didnt tell me until after the cooling off period that you get, in the end i went to the uswitch website and finally settled on scottish power, and even they managed to **** it up by telling me that i wasnt paying enought on my monthly direct debit, and that it was going up to £93.50 a month, WHAT!!! £55 a month is not enough, and i'm over £100 in credit, and they still wanted more, luckily got that sorted and they have been very reasonable since "touch wood".

Why arent I surprised? If this werent so serious I'd think it was an hysterically funny comedy of errors. The problem is these companies are far too big, totally unaccountable and individual complaints all too often buried under a heap of crass incompetence.

I have every confidence the conciliation procedures and regulatory bodies inculcate the level of crassness embodied in the organisations they are supposed to regulate.

And the worst thing of all we are then spoon-fed a batch full of mythical nonsense that Corporate Britain, regulators and the like are acting with record efficiency, effectiveness and supremacy.

I'm a really low electricity user so NPower are ok for me however they have recently upped my direct debit from £13 a month to £23.

I did go on Uswitch and I worked out I could probably save about £4 a year switching to Atlantic General but I can't be bothered. I send my meter readings online and they've frozen the unit price until 2007 so I'm relatively content.