B Gas Discount ?

alared

Searching for a new electricity supplier comes up with BG websaver 3 tariff as cheapest.
Could someone explain how the discount works please?

Standard Charge - Electricity
Standing charge £0.00

Unit Rates 1
29.6331p
Up to 500Kwh per annum
Unit Rates 2
10.6260p
Unit Rates 3
Economy 7 Rate
4.7376p

Discount:
£35.89 (1.429 p/Kwh on tier 2 and night units (if applicable) electricity up to £40.00 per year).

All costs are inclusive of VAT.

I`m assuming that when I use my first 125kwh at unit 1 prices, the unit 2 price gets deducted by 1-429 as does the 4-7376 econ7 price.

KimYeovil

It has always been my impression that the discounts are only calculated over a quarterly basis (whereas the how many units are charged tier 1 and how many tier 2 is calculated on a pro rata daily basis.) The discount is also capped on a quarterly basis (at £10 + £3.75).

(But this is just my impression. I await correction.)

(These clauses:

2. For two rate meters, the two rate prices apply. The Tier 1 day rate applies to the first 125 kWh per quarter of day consumption and all subsequent consumption is charged at Tier 2. Night means a period, or periods, determined by us (and as may be varied from time to time), totalling 7 hours (at present between 22:00 hours and 08:00 hours) and the night rate applies accordingly.

3. A dual fuel discount is given where British Gas supplies both gas and electricity to the same property (and the accounts are in the same names). No dual fuel discount is available to customers with token or smartcard electricity meters. Only one dual fuel discount per property. Where electricity is supplied through a credit meter, a discount of 0.537 p/kWh off quarterly electricity Tier 2 rates (and night rates where applicable) up to a maximum of £3.75 per quarter appears on the electricity bill.

4. Electricity customers paying by Monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount off their quarterly Tier 2 consumption charges (and night rates where applicable) of 1.429 p/kWh up to a maximum of £10 per quarter.

do suggest that if you use 124 kWh or less of day units in a quarter then no matter how many night units you use you will not receive a discount. And after you have used 125 kWh day units subsequent day units and all retrospective night units qualify for discounts (up to the caps).)

alared

KimYeovil wrote: »

do suggest that if you use 124 kWh or less of day units in a quarter then no matter how many night units you use you will not receive a discount. And after you have used 125 kWh day units subsequent day units and all retrospective night units qualify for discounts (up to the caps).)

KimYeovil

Thanks for your interpretation of their T&C`s,that`s the way I read it as well.
I was more concerned about the night units discount because this represents about 45% of my usage.
As with all things to do with BG,nothing is straight forward and simple.
Undecided whether to bother switching or not to a company that continues to massage the numbers.

Thanks again.

SwanJon

There's nothing like keeping things simple is there?
This discount approach seems to have come in with last year's price changes - previously the DF discount was per day so if you used very little it could end up with BG paying you. Glad I don't have to deal with that side of things any more.
The 125kwh/quarter is calculated daily (so if you had a bill for 2 months it would be more like 82kWh etc).
This works out as 1.4 kWh/day at the higher price, then the discounts etc kick in so I'd imagine that you'll reach that most days.
If my maths is right, if you use more than 2500ish T2/night units you'll get the maximum discount.
Also remember that websaver 3 has an exit fee (£30?) if you leave before a set date, and it's prices are not fixed.