anyone understand a gas + elec bill?

jayprent

Have just been advised that npower are putting up my monthly dd from £26 pm to £38, which seems a little excessive considering my last quarterly gas bill was only £10. (but this was through summer so no heating)

Back to my point though, i am looking round at the old swapshop of providers but a bit confused as to whether i pay a standing charge or not?

On my bill it states first 29 at 8.36p next 129 at 2.488p. So what does this actually mean? Is the 29 a standing charge? Or is this what everybody gets? Just not sure whether to put what price plan I'm on in these comparison sites.

Thanks!!

frugallass

does the 29 and 129 represent the amount of days?

mine usually says something like 101 days @ howevermanypence

Premier_2

You probably don't pay a specific standing charge, but the cost of that standing charge is split over the first initial units used.

This is referred to in most tariffs/comparison sites as tier 1 and tier 2.

In your case 29 units are charged at the higher tier1 price of 8.36p per unit and the remaining 129 units charged at the tier2 price of 2.488p per unit.

The bill should explain how long the period billed covers - I guess it's not very long as 29 units is not very many to be charged at tier1 price, but they are usually calculated pro-rata to the number of days the bill covers.

The advantage is if you use less than the tier1 level of units in any period, you obviously don't pay the full standing charge you would otherwise be required to pay.

notbritishgas

Premier wrote: »

You probably don't pay a specific standing charge, but the cost of that standing charge is split over the first initial units used.

This is referred to in most tariffs/comparison sites as tier 1 and tier 2.

In your case 29 units are charged at the higher tier1 price of 8.36p per unit and the remaining 129 units charged at the tier2 price of 2.488p per unit.

The bill should explain how long the period billed covers - I guess it's not very long as 29 units is not very many to be charged at tier1 price, but they are usually calculated pro-rata to the number of days the bill covers.

The advantage is if you use less than the tier1 level of units in any period, you obviously don't pay the full standing charge you would otherwise be required to pay.

The reason for the small number of Tier 1 units is due to npowers method of "seasonally weighting" the number of tier 1 units charged, whereby most of the 4572 annual units are paid for in the winter months and hardly any during the summer months.

jayprent

Jeeeze! No wonder so many people get stuffed with their bills, why do they make it so damn complicated!!!

I think i get it now - thanks for your help guys!!:T

DirectDebacle

jayprent wrote: »

Jeeeze! No wonder so many people get stuffed with their bills, why do they make it so damn complicated!!!

I think i get it now - thanks for your help guys!!:T

If you or anyone else wants to know how to work out an npower gas bill then look at post #692 here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=822299&page=35

Good luck.