Do All Energy Companies Have Standing Charges Now?

CGORST

I never used to pay a standing charge but all of a sudden, the only plans I am being offered by Eon have standing charges. Do all energy companies do this now?

I queried it with Eon and they said it was like this because most customers want a standing charge but to be honest I live on my own and I begrudge having to pay even if I don't use any energy!

bryanb

No Ebico don't but only useful for low users

Nick_C

I'm with Scottish Power, and although there appears to be no standing charge there is really. The first x units are paid for at a higher price than units above a threshold. I think this was the deal for any tariff that didn't include a standing charge. The utility companies have fixed costs in supplying you, regardless of how much energy you use, and a standing charge (or a higher rate charge on the first x units) is the fairest way of recovering it.

Rather than being fixated over a standing charge, use an on line comparison site such as http://www.which.co.uk/switch/ to see who will give you the best deal overall. It doesn't really matter how the bill is calculated, its the bottom line that really matters.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi CGORST,

Just thought I'd explain a little more about what the standing charge covers.

The standing charge has replaced the primary and secondary way of billing, this was where you would pay a certain amount of units used at the high primary rate, all other units were billed at the secondary rate.

The costs that make up the standing charge were previously charged through our two-tier pricing system through the first/primary rates charged, customers have therefore always paid for these costs but in a different way.

Customers wanted a simpler way of billing, so we changed this so customers now pay a daily standing charge and then an amount for all units used.

A standing charge is applied on a daily rate. It covers things like meter reading and maintenance, and the cost of keeping you connected to the electricity and gas networks.

All of our tariff's at the moment have a standing charge.

I hope this explains a little

Helena

Nada666

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Customers wanted a simpler way of billing, so we changed this so customers now pay a daily standing charge and then an amount for all units used.

Which is not simpler. Stop repeating this lie.

Nick_C

Nada666 wrote: »

Which is not simpler. Stop repeating this lie.

Personally, I think a standing charge is simpler than having different prices below and above a threshold. Different companies can operate different thresholds, or even have different thresholds within the same company for different tariffs.

Not a lie, just an opinion, and one that I am sure many will agree with.

Your hostile attitude to a company representative taking time to answer a question and provide information isn't really helpful.

moneyspendexpert

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

The costs that make up the standing charge were previously charged through our two-tier pricing system through the first/primary rates charged, customers have therefore always paid for these costs but in a different way.

A standing charge is applied on a daily rate. It covers things like meter reading and maintenance, and the cost of keeping you connected to the electricity and gas networks.

All of our tariff's at the moment have a standing charge.

Hi,

I am currently with EON and I was forced to have a pre-payment meter fitted to recover unpaid bills and pre-pay for my gas usage. There wasn't a SC when the meter was fitted, but the pre-pay way of using gas seemed to be working quite well and not that bad afterall.

Thats UNTIL I received a similar email as above from my EON supplier that a "simpler" SC was now going to be applied!! I didnt switch to this "simpler" daily SC scheme.

My meter is now nothing more than a debt collection unit as I have decided not to use gas, as the daily SC charge builds up and puts me in more debt. Can a meter be installed just for the purpose of recovering debt and also daily SC for collecting debt.? I dont use gas anymore.

The none SC way was more "simpler" as I "kind of" or "looked like" I only paid for the gas I used. Now I pay everyday SC for gas I dont use.

Is it not the case that very low gas consumers were not using enough units to recover the SC on the 2 teir system.?

sry to muddy this thread with too much of my current issues.

joncombe

moneyspendexpert wrote: »

Hi,

Is it not the case that very low gas consumers were not using enough units to recover the SC on the 2 teir system.?

Yes. Basically the assumption appears to be that there is overall no price change from going from two tier rate two a single rate and a standing charge. However the assumption is based on using all the higher priced units. Low users often won't use all the higher priced units and so if you didn't get into the lower priced units, you WILL be paying more under the new pricing structure. It's basically a price rise targeted at low users.

As you can see from the Helena, the E-on Rep:-

The costs that make up the standing charge were previously charged through our two-tier pricing system through the first/primary rates charged, customers have therefore always paid for these costs but in a different way.

It's not true that "customers have always paid for these costs". If they didn't use all the units at the higher price then they didn't before.

Nick_C

Perhaps some customers were not paying enough to cover the standing charge. If that was the case, it shows it was an unfair system. The energy companies need to cover their fixed costs, and if some people were not paying enough to cover the costs of supply then the rest of us were subsidising them!

Nada666

Nick_C wrote: »

Personally, I think a standing charge is simpler than having different prices below and above a threshold. Different companies can operate different thresholds, or even have different thresholds within the same company for different tariffs.

Not a lie, just an opinion, and one that I am sure many will agree with.

Your hostile attitude to a company representative taking time to answer a question and provide information isn't really helpful.

I do not dispute that Ofgem ought to have enforced a standardised threshold across all tariffs. But a variety of standing charges is not any simpler than a variety of tier 1 prices.

Nick_C

Nada666 wrote: »

I do not dispute that Ofgem ought to have enforced a standardised threshold across all tariffs. But a variety of standing charges is not any simpler than a variety of tier 1 prices.

In your opinion