Standing charges on utility bills

Brian61uk

I know a lot has been said about ever increasing bills with gas and electric bills but I would like to mention the stupid standing charges we pay. I am with NPower, recently moved from EDF and my standing charges on electric are 36.40 per day makes £11.05 per month and up to £132.60 per anum and the gas standing charges are 23.30pence per day is £7.22 per month making a 12 month payment of £86.64 add the electric of £132.60 makes going on the bill £351.84
Per anum. Now why don't all these Utility firms look at this to reduce bills that would be a great place to start considering that they all moan that they have to pay for the gas and electric and pass it on to us. I remember years ago with some utility firms you could get with no standing charges so why not now. Just a thought. Brian61uk :T

vintagebrighton

You can, Ebico has no standing charges but a slightly higher unit price.

Andy_WSM

Brian61uk wrote: »

I remember years ago with some utility firms you could get with no standing charges so why not now. Just a thought. Brian61uk :T

Because OFGEM have been campaigning to make things simpler for us, the consumers, and this has resulted in less Tariff's to choose from and the standing charges being reintroduced. The undesired consequence for us, the consumer, is higher prices. OFGEM think they are bloody wonderful because they met their objective.

It's what we all wanted - apparently. Although I don't recall being polled.

Meddling Government for you...

mavryc

spoke to british gas today about standing charge being applied mentioned ebico was told that under new regs ebico will have to apply standing chagre from december
all the campains to get rid of standing chares and now they are back through back door

Nada666

Ofgem has declared that such despicable left-wing progressive nonsense should be stopped. Lots of consumer organisations such as Age UK welcome this massive increase to the less-you-use-the-more-you-pay phenomenon. The BBC refuse to discuss it. According to polls consumers are delighted to pay £20 or £30 per month even before they switch on a light-bulb.

(Ebico et al will be allowed to charge a 0p per day standing charge. But as they take on more and more customers the pricing will become unaffordable.)

Cardew

mavryc wrote: »

spoke to british gas today about standing charge being applied mentioned ebico was told that under new regs ebico will have to apply standing chagre from december
all the campains to get rid of standing chares and now they are back through back door

True Ebico will have a standing charge of 0p(zero) a day, which if my arithmetic is correct is 0p(zero) a year!

As stated above, apparently the Tier system of charging for gas/electric was too complex for customers to understand. So to simplify tariffs Ofgem have recently 'outlawed' 'no standing charge'(NSC) tariffs.

So now we have a system that is perhaps easier to understand, but far more difficult to work out what is the cheapest tariff for a customer. Is it better to have a high daily standing charge(DSC) and a lower unit(kWh) price or a low DSC and a higher unit price? also to understand how the various discounts are applied.

To know the cheapest tariff you need to know your exact consumption in kWh.

Is it cheaper to get gas and electricity from separate companies? Will Company X supply gas only?

Of course you can use a comparison website to give you the answer. However if you know how to use a comparison website, you had no difficulty with the tier system!!

molerat

There is even more meddling to come with % discounts being replaced with fixed £ discounts which will no doubt result in an effective price increase for the majority but may swing the balance slightly back in the favour of the low user.

Nada666

molerat wrote: »

There is even more meddling to come with % discounts being replaced with fixed £ discounts which will no doubt result in an effective price increase for the majority but may swing the balance slightly back in the favour of the low user.

(I may be wrong) but I do not think that applies to direct debit discounts - they will still (by most) suppliers be levied as a percentage off actual pro rata usage (but it will be confusingly listed as already included in the price for a kWh). I doubt many suppliers will follow npower and give £95 to each and every customer regardless of use. I don't even see how they will maintain that anomaly for long.

Mulder00

Would really love it if all companies just had a flat rate for gas and electricity. No tiers, no standing charges, no admin fees, no exit charges and nothing that makes it nearly impossible to compare one company with the next.

The problem with the current system or any system where the comparison isn't direct is that it's based on how much you think you will use. You might use more or less, which means you could have got a better deal elsewhere. You are never in a position where you know upfront whether you will get value for money.

LesU

Andy_WSM wrote: »

It's what we all wanted - apparently. Although I don't recall being polled.

Meddling Government for you...

Wasn't there a poll on this very forum last year or earlier this year, which gave a result showing quite a large majority saying they would be willing to pay more for a simpler tariff system?
I couldn't quite believe it at the time for a poll on a Moneysaving forum.

Horseunderwater

My increase is almost 100% due to the standing charge rates now being applied. 26p/day for both Gas/Electric as I am with BG. For the gas that works out at £94.90 extra per year and for the electric an increase from 17p/day so another £32.85 for that extra or in total £127.75 per year. My rates for my pre payment meter have barely gone up at all, so the rise is all about standing charges for me and I suspect this is the case in almost all of the rises that are happening.
What I am wondering is just how you can find out from the units you clock up on the meter to how these convert to Kwh's. Does anyone know how to do this?