Standing Charge vs No Standing Charge

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  • danadanny wrote: »
    Hi all,

    just wondering what is the difference between electric tariffs with standing charge and one with no standing charge?

    how should one go about choosing?


    thank you


    For fun, I've just done the arithmetic to compare the quarterly cost of electricity from my provider using (a) their standard tariff which includes a daily standing charge, and (b) their standard tariff which does not have a daily standing charge. In the figures below, I show the difference between (a) and (b) for different quarterly consumtion rates:

    Consumption Saving if no Stg Chg [tariff (b)]
    100 u/qtr £12.36
    200 u/qtr £7.74
    300
  • Aaagh! I posted it before finishing...

    Here are the full comparisons, for units consumed per quarter. They suggest that, for a tariff offering the option of a standing charge or no standing charge, it is cheaper at low rates of consumption to go for the non standing charge basis.

    Units Saving if no St Chg
    100 £12.36
    200 £7.74
    300 £3.72
    400 66p
    500 66p
    600 96p
  • Arran83 wrote: »
    I am sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but rather that than create a new one with the same questions...

    So I am a single man, I have just bought my first 2 bed apartment, it is a new build with an Energy Rating of B...
    It is also a 1st floor so I have an apartment below me, and one above me... So hoping for some residual heat coming through....

    I am well up for seeing how little I can spend on utilities and everything else, infact I love the challenge of reducing as far as I can... I have been brought up in a large house where the boiler has never been man enough to heat the place fully, and would always take 3 hours to get anywhere close...

    So I have learnt to put on an extra layer, and I have a bit of a threshold for the cold...

    So I will only ever be using the heating when I REALLY need to, and as for electricity I intend to use as little of that as possible...

    So would I be better of going for a tariff with a standing charge but less pennies for the units... Or would I be better off going for something without the standing charge but more pennies per unit? From what I have read in this thread I may be better of without a standing charge but I'd love some reassurance if possible...

    Thanks
    Better to opt for a tariff with No standing charge. Then you are completely in control of your own expenditure. Nothing worse than trying to be economical and then being charged even when there has been no usage. Npower are trying to charge me £16 per month when I'm not using any electric or gas because I'm away on holiday.
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036
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    andrew4ap wrote: »
    Better to opt for a tariff with No standing charge. Then you are completely in control of your own expenditure. Nothing worse than trying to be economical and then being charged even when there has been no usage. Npower are trying to charge me £16 per month when I'm not using any electric or gas because I'm away on holiday.

    Welcome to the forum.

    The post to which you have replied is over 3 years old.

    The difficulty we are all facing is the Ofgem(The Regulator) edict that the tier system is 'too complicated' for some people to understand and Utility companies should use a standing charge.

    It is not clear how this will be implimented in future, but some people will finish paying considerably higher charges.

    For instance those with holiday cottages, or people who turn off the gas for the summer months. Also those people who only use gas for cooking.

    There is a firm - Ebico - who use neither the Tier System or a standing charge. However they are only competitive in pricing if you have low consumption.
  • Inigo_Montoya
    Inigo_Montoya Posts: 1,214
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    this is useful reading

    http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/Simpler%20energy%20tariffs%20107.pdf

    It appears they are only planning on banning 'no standing charge' on 'standard' tariffs - unfortunately this means ofgem could force ebico to introduce a standing charge which will apparently be set by ofgem

    they are not planning on placing any restrictions on fixed term tariffs so there is hope yet for people wanting a no standing charge tariff

    I wonder if Ebico could get round the ban by saying their tariff is for a fixed term ?
  • Nada666
    Nada666 Posts: 5,004 Forumite
    they are not planning on placing any restrictions on fixed term tariffs so there is hope yet for people wanting a no standing charge tariff

    There is very little chance of this happening. Pretty much every new tariff and every cheapest tariff is now standing charge only.
  • Candy53
    Candy53 Posts: 2,548
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    I'm on the standard tariff with Eon.

    In 2012 I was told by a rep, and there was also an announcement on their website saying that the standing charge would only affect new and switching customers, not existing ones.

    This isn't so. I emailed them the other day asking about this, and they went on about how much better it will be, and it's what customers want. They said they will let me know when they 'change things over'.

    I told them I was inflamed by it, but I was told 'it's just like the line rental on the phone'. Yeah, how right they are! The line rental is now way higher than calls for a low user, and the standing charge will go the same way.

    It will go up year after year, until we're all paying more charges than the electricity we use! Everyone is trying to save energy/cut it down to keep bills down, but I don't see it making much difference now.


    Candy
    What goes around, comes around.
  • zerog
    zerog Posts: 2,478 Forumite
    this is useful reading

    http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/Simpler%20energy%20tariffs%20107.pdf

    It appears they are only planning on banning 'no standing charge' on 'standard' tariffs - unfortunately this means ofgem could force ebico to introduce a standing charge which will apparently be set by ofgem

    they are not planning on placing any restrictions on fixed term tariffs so there is hope yet for people wanting a no standing charge tariff

    I wonder if Ebico could get round the ban by saying their tariff is for a fixed term ?

    Ebico's standing charge will be 0p per day - at least that's what we should be hoping for.
  • Nada666
    Nada666 Posts: 5,004 Forumite
    zerog wrote: »
    Ebico's standing charge will be 0p per day - at least that's what we should be hoping for.
    But are tyically 50% more expensive for the users with dual fuel needs. And that's today. Once they have a monopoly after summer how much higher will they ratchet the prices? We are talking about an SSE brand,* after all - very trustable.

    * more or less
  • Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc
    Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc Posts: 6,558
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    Candy53 wrote: »
    I'm on the standard tariff with Eon.

    In 2012 I was told by a rep, and there was also an announcement on their website saying that the standing charge would only affect new and switching customers, not existing ones.

    This isn't so. I emailed them the other day asking about this, and they went on about how much better it will be, and it's what customers want. They said they will let me know when they 'change things over'.

    I told them I was inflamed by it, but I was told 'it's just like the line rental on the phone'. Yeah, how right they are! The line rental is now way higher than calls for a low user, and the standing charge will go the same way.

    It will go up year after year, until we're all paying more charges than the electricity we use! Everyone is trying to save energy/cut it down to keep bills down, but I don't see it making much difference now.


    Candy

    Hi Candy

    The information you were given in 2012 was correct at that time. However, this changed after our price increase on 18 January 2013.

    At this time, we introduced Standing Charges across all our tariffs.

    Standing Charges replaced our previous two tier charging structure where the first amount of kWh used were charged at a higher rate.

    It isn't an additional charge but another way of covering the costs of things like maintenance, reading the meter, keeping supplies connected to the network and making sure the meter is safe.

    We do understand this change won't please all of our customers, particularly those with very low/no usage. Feedback has told us, though, a majority of our customers prefer this method of charging.

    Sorry you're unhappy with this change Candy but hope this is of interest.

    Malc
    Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to [email protected] This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
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