Social tenants and switching...

ralphtown

I,m a housing association tenant and currently have British Gas duel fuel on a pre-payment scheme.

I want to know what the attitudes are of the energy companies to social tenants wishing to switch to monthy DD,paperless.

There is no debt on the meters and these were installed by the last tenant.

Anyone out there switched to monthly DD as a social tenant??

RALPH.

Nada666

They will take your custom. There is no problem.

You may have to pay to have the meters changed and if you have poor credit the supplier may ask for a deposit (returned with interest after a year).

But, in general, there is no particular problem (in fact, since social tenancies will in general be longer term than private tenancies there will be less prejudice.)

SwanJon

This is probably a good place to start:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/switch-prepaid-gas-electricity

I'd back up what Nada has said, first step is to give them a call/email/letter to see what they say.

ralphtown

Cheers guys

My main issue right now is trying to use the comparison sites.
They all compare like for like and I know I could save a minimum of £200 a year by switching to a monthly DD,as British Gas have a standing charge.
I,m trying to find a deal with no standing charge with a discount for monthly DD and paperless bills.

E-On had a product several years ago but I can,t find it now.

If I can fix the bills for 2 years as well,then that would be good.
The only reason I,m still with British Gas is I,m waiting for my Winter Home Discount.
Which is £135 worth of free electricity for homes with qualifying conditions.
Its available to non-prepayment customers too.
Check it out if you don,t know about it.
Next year it will be £140 and £145 the year after.
I have a person here with Autism,that qualifies me.

let me know what your best monthly DD deal is.

RALPH.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

ralphtown wrote: »

Cheers guys

My main issue right now is trying to use the comparison sites.
They all compare like for like and I know I could save a minimum of £200 a year by switching to a monthly DD,as British Gas have a standing charge.
I,m trying to find a deal with no standing charge with a discount for monthly DD and paperless bills.

E-On had a product several years ago but I can,t find it now.

If I can fix the bills for 2 years as well,then that would be good.
The only reason I,m still with British Gas is I,m waiting for my Winter Home Discount.
Which is £135 worth of free electricity for homes with qualifying conditions.
Its available to non-prepayment customers too.
Check it out if you don,t know about it.
Next year it will be £140 and £145 the year after.
I have a person here with Autism,that qualifies me.

let me know what your best monthly DD deal is.

RALPH.

All suppliers (with the exception of ebico IIRC), have a standing charge. A few years ago when there were 2 tier tariffs, you were still paying a standing charge, it was just absorbed into the tier 1 unit cost.

Unless you are a particularly low user, the standing charge doesn't make a financial difference. What matters is what you pay annually. Enter your usage into a price comparison site, and look for who is cheapest, regardless of their tariff methodology.

Cardew

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

All suppliers (with the exception of ebico IIRC), have a standing charge. A few years ago when there were 2 tier tariffs, you were still paying a standing charge, it was just absorbed into the tier 1 unit cost.

Unless you are a particularly low user, the standing charge doesn't make a financial difference. What matters is what you pay annually. Enter your usage into a price comparison site, and look for who is cheapest, regardless of their tariff methodology.

You are quite correct that with the tier charging system it generally didn't matter as long as you consumed the tier 1 allocation - usually 500kWh or 900kWh electricity and 2,800kWh or 4572kWh gas.

However that tier 1 allocation was calculated pro-rata on a daily basis. Many on MSE reported for the two summer quarters they turned off their gas completely and paid nothing for gas in those 6 months.

The situation now with a daily standing charge(DSC) is much more complicated IMO. This is because of the huge variation in the DSC which can vary from 10p a day to 45p a day and also the discount structure.

Whilst a DSC tariff might be easier to understand, it is impossible to know which is the cheapest tariff without knowing exactly your annual consumption in kWh.

e.g. which is cheaper pay 10p DSC and 4.923p/kWh or 45p DSC
and 4.07p/kWh?

The answer is that the 'break-even' point is 15,000kWh pa.

So below an annual consumption of 15,000kWh opt for the lower DSC. However the varying discounts offered on the various tariffs can further complicate matters and alter the 'break-even' point.

Obviously this can all be calculated by a comparison website - provided you know your annual consumption in kWh. However those who were baffled by the Tier structure, and needed simplified tariffs, are probably unable to work out how to convert gas units to kWh and determine annual consumption in kWh.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Cardew wrote: »

You are quite correct that with the tier charging system it generally didn't matter as long as you consumed the tier 1 allocation - usually 500kWh or 900kWh electricity and 2,800kWh or 4572kWh gas.

However that tier 1 allocation was calculated pro-rata on a daily basis. Many on MSE reported for the two summer quarters they turned off their gas completely and paid nothing for gas in those 6 months.

The situation now with a daily standing charge(DSC) is much more complicated IMO. This is because of the huge variation in the DSC which can vary from 10p a day to 45p a day and also the discount structure.

Whilst a DSC tariff might be easier to understand, it is impossible to know which is the cheapest tariff without knowing exactly your annual consumption in kWh.

e.g. which is cheaper pay 10p DSC and 4.923p/kWh or 45p DSC
and 4.07p/kWh?

The answer is that the 'break-even' point is 15,000kWh pa.

So below an annual consumption of 15,000kWh opt for the lower DSC. However the varying discounts offered on the various tariffs can further complicate matters and alter the 'break-even' point.

Obviously this can all be calculated by a comparison website - provided you know your annual consumption in kWh. However those who were baffled by the Tier structure, and needed simplified tariffs, are probably unable to work out how to convert gas units to kWh and determine annual consumption in kWh.

I agree, OFGEM's "simplifications" have done nothing of the sort.

The point I was making to the OP (and I think you are echoing it) is not to reject a tariff purely because it has a DSC, that could be a costly mistake.

Joyful

Also if you qualify for the warm Home discount remember that not all suppliers do it and also the criteria may change between suppliers.