MSE News: Government's cheap energy plan unveiled

penrhyn

To translate, we will remove the cheapest tariffs and make more money out of all you suckers. Because the government is telling us to!

Consumerist

penrhyn wrote: »

To translate, we will remove the cheapest tariffs and make more money out of all you suckers. Because the government is telling us to!

Since we'll have no choice in the matter, we're hardly suckers. Just victims.

mbailey

As true moneysavers this is going to cost us more. Yes may be this is a selfish attitude, but that is the reality of the change.

psychic_teabag

Wywth wrote: »

But that is a maximum of 4 tariffs per supplier, which to compare apples with apples, we would need to multiply by the number of suppliers (lets assume the 'big 6' plus the 'little 8'- although there are probably more than that)and that would still result in a baffling 50+ choice of tariffs for a customer to still chooose from.

Are we going to get an explosion of small subsidiary companies to allow the big companies to get round the 4-per-supplier limit ?

Wywth

mbailey wrote: »

As true moneysavers this is going to cost us more. Yes may be this is a selfish attitude, but that is the reality of the change.

But do remember, that in a poll of 3500 MSE'ers last year, the vast majority wanted simplification, even if is some cases that meant higher prices

http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2012/10/18/the-pms-energy-plans-exactly-what-people-want-but-will-he-do-it/

Wywth

psychic_teabag wrote: »

Are we going to get an explosion of small subsidiary companies to allow the big companies to get round the 4-per-supplier limit ?

Perhaps, unless they define a supplier as each with their own unique supply licence.
As Ofgem say they will enforce the rules through the licence, won't that be the only way they can effectively define a supplier?

Joyful

This part is interesting.... While there will be a maximum of four tariffs, suppliers can offer different variants of these depending on how people pay. So they could include discounts for direct debit or a premium for pre-payment.

It would be justifiable as Prepayment customers cost a lot more to service for the suppliers so I hope we do not see an increase in their prices. Currently most suppliers charge them at the same rate as a standard credit tariff and often lose money on them.

apnorf

I wonder if "cheap" is the correct term and how will this plan make energy cheaper?

keith1950

As true moneysavers this is going to cost us more. Yes may be this is a selfish attitude, but that is the reality of the change.

Hi, approximately 15% of us bother to switch and can save up to 20% so we will end up paying more for our utilities - the savings pot will basically be the 20% we save shared out between everyone so 15% of that 20% will roughly equate to around 3% saving .
Which means the average saving will be less than £40 per year/ £3 per month.

The average punter won't even notice the difference !!

backfoot

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi, approximately 15% of us bother to switch and can save up to 20% so we will end up paying more for our utilities - the savings pot will basically be the 20% we save shared out between everyone so 15% of that 20% will roughly equate to around 3% saving .
Which means the average saving will be less than £40 per year/ £3 per month.

The average punter won't even notice the difference !!

Thank you Andrew Mitchell.