Npower is the worst energy provider

We’ve written before that most households should switch energy supplier on a regular basis – typically once a year. Indeed the average UK household could save roughly £200 a year by switching to the best gas and electricity deal for that home. The savings will be especially large if you have never switched before.

However, as is often the case, price isn’t the only factor to consider when you switch supplier. It’s also important to think about the service you’ll receive. So it’s worth looking at some new research from Which? that looks at what  customers think of their energy provider.

More than 10,000 people took part in the survey and customers were asked to rate their provider for value for money, customer service, complaints handling, accuracy of bills and how they help their customers to save energy.

Here are the results:

As you can see that Npower comes bottom of the table. Perhaps that’s not that surprising given that the company was fined back in December for making persistent nuisance calls.

It’s also worth noting that the other large energy providers are at the bottom of the table with EDF Energy, Scottish Power and British Gas all scoring 50% or lower. At the top of the table you’ll find much smaller companies such as Good Energy and Ecotricity.

What’s more important?

In some ways, the Which? survey may make your life tougher not easier. When you compare energy providers you may find that the company with the lowest tariffs scores badly in the Which? survey.

On the other hand, getting more information is normally a good thing. With that information you can decide whether price or customer service is the most important factor for you. And anyway, you might be lucky and find that Good Energy – the company with the highest score in the survey – offers the lowest tariff for your particular household.

And if you found that, say, Npower was £2 a year cheaper than Good Energy, we’d recommend that you pay just that little bit extra for better service from your supplier. Going with the UK’s worst energy provider probably isn’t a smart move.

You may also like the fact that Good Energy produces its own energy from certified renewable sources such as wind and water. As the company then sells this energy back to customers, Good Energy’s prices tend to be more stable than the big boys’.

Ecotricity works in a similar way and says it was the first company to offer green electricity back in 1996. Any profits it makes go back into the funding the creation of new sources of green energy – also called ‘Bills for Mills.’

Switch

If you fancy signing up for a green energy tariff, it’s still worth using an online comparison engine as you can then see all the environmentally friendly deals in one place.

And regardless of whether you’re a ‘greenie’ or you couldn’t care less, it’s still worth switching this winter if you haven’t already done so. If you made the switch today, you could be on a new tariff in the beginning of March. That will give you plenty of opportunity to save some cash before the good weather hopefully comes in the summer.

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