Standing charge comparison

As above, it's irrelevant because there are too many other variables than just SC's and unit rates. The comp sites take into account all these factors for you-you just need your annual usage and postcode.
If you are a low user seeking an NSC tariff, then Ebico is really your only option.

macman wrote: »

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If you are a low user seeking an NSC tariff, then Ebico is really your only option.

That's odd, because when I invoke the 'No Standing Charge' filter on the CEC for me, it throws up a couple of traiffs from Solarplicity for dual fuel, and they are considerably chaeper than Ebico.

They also do gas and electricity seperately.

Also Green Energy comes up for electricity only

Is the CEC incorrect in this ??? :huh:
I looked at the tariff details and that confirms there is no standing charge (according to the CEC)

Btw, I wouldn't suggest anyone does invoke the 'No Standing Charge' filter when doing a comparison - if a tariff offering a no standing charge is cheapest, it will be at the top of the list :money:

Edit: Utilita sort of offer a zero standing charge tariff too.
But what they effectively do is add the the an equivilent amount to the first kWh used per day
e.g. for gas, the first kWh will cost say 30p, and all the rest about 3p each
But at least if you use nothing, you pay nothing. Otherwise it's not really worth considering. But unless you do use nothing, a zero standing charge tariff may not be the best option for you anyway, as I indicated earlier

JerryFr wrote: »

I know the comparison sites will either estimate or use real annual usage, then find the cheapest options.
But with a given annual usage, a new tariff with a low standing charge would cost more if usage increases, conversely a new tariff with a higher standing charge (with a lower kWh cost) would exhibit a lower cost increase.
I would be looking for a low standing charge and then make lifestyle changes to reduce my usage, hence wanting to see standing charge comparisons clearly (not hidden in the tariff description).

As I indicated earlier, consult a comparison site to find the best deal for you.
Use your lastest anticipated annual consumption figures for such a comparison.

Good luck!

I can see both sides to this discussion - the comparison sites will give you the cheapest overall options, but to get there you generally have to enter a lot of details (not always relevant to the enquiry) which some people are reluctant to do, especially if they feel it will result in junk mail and spam.

Some people (like me) prefer to use a spreadsheet to keep track of the best deal because some of the assumptions made in the comparison sites don't fit with my personal circumstances.;)

It would be useful to some people to have a maintained list of zero or low standing charge tariffs - for example the poster the other day who was considering having her supply cut off because she was unaware zero standing charge tariffs existed. But the number of people who would benefit from this would be relatively small.

A parallel example would be the maintained lists of accounts on the savings and investments board. If you are looking for a specific type of account you can check there to see what the market is currently offering. Picking an account from one of the lists might not give you the best return on your money, but the lists do bring together details of the interest rates from the market and helps to inform choice.

That might be the answer to your question JerryFr, as there appears to be no single source of data, perhaps you could start one on here and see whether it takes off? It would be more complicated than the ones on the savings board though because the tariff prices vary between supply regions.

At the very least a maintained list of tariffs which have zero standing charge, or perhaps less than 5p per day, would be useful to some people - and may perhaps encourage consumers currently paying high standing charges on low consumption to actually take the next step and do a full price comparison.

There's nothing like finding you are paying 20p per day for something others are paying 0p per day for to trigger the urge to compare prices... even if it turns out the 20p per day package is still the cheapest option.