Why is prepayment so much more than DD

Wolf3

Sorry for being thick but when is the standing charge taken,

Overnight, about 2 am if i remember correctly.

SwanJon

For Gas

Wolf3 wrote: »

Overnight, about 2 am if i remember correctly.

For electricity 1% (so about 2p for British Gas) of the weekly amount comes off every 101 minutes.

MillicentBystander

Said it before, if every household in the UK was on PPMs the nation's gas and electric consumption would plummet overnight.

Cardew

fabricator wrote: »

Has ofgen ever looked into the actual cost.
Since having the meters fitted i have never spoken to a customer agent.
meters would i assume get changed at same life span of others.meters
Meters would get read the same time as normal meter if they get read at all i dont get bills quarterly only once a year showing what i have spent ( so less paper )
when i buy gas or electric BG knows how much i have bought its computerised so no one has to send me reminder or chase me for arrears,i would say its more expensive to have a normal meter,the way i look at it i give my money for gas up front then use it,someone on a normal meter uses gas that BG has lent you then has to wait for their money,banks charge interest on loans so if they are giving gas and waiting for their money is a form of credit and should cost more

Both Ofgem and Parliament have looked closely at pre-pay meters.

Pre-pay meter tariffs cost considerably more to administer than credit tariffs and so pre-pay meters are subsidised by other customers - termed cross-subsidy.

This was a political decision - or rather political pressure on the companies - because in general pre-pay tariffs are used by the poorer members of society.

Nada666

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Said it before, if every household in the UK was on PPMs the nation's gas and electric consumption would plummet overnight.

Perhaps, but the following night notices of a massive price increase would be sent out to maintain the [STRIKE]profits[/STRIKE]integrity of the networks.

MillicentBystander

Nada666 wrote: »

Perhaps, but the following night notices of a massive price increase would be sent out to maintain the [STRIKE]profits[/STRIKE]integrity of the networks.

Preaching to the converted here, Nada666. Which is why I always react cynically to the industry/Govt telling us to consume less in order to spend less on our gas and electric bills. We all basically know that once an industry like gas and electric is in private hands they simply must maintain profit/dividend levels no matter what.

lstar337

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Preaching to the converted here, Nada666. Which is why I always react cynically to the industry/Govt telling us to consume less in order to spend less on our gas and electric bills. We all basically know that once an industry like gas and electric is in private hands they simply must maintain profit/dividend levels no matter what.

Sickening.

We have reduced our consumption so much this year, dropped nearly 2500kWh from our bill. We won't make much if any saving though, because price rises have gobbled it up!

The advice of reduce consumption to reduce your bill, is total crap!

Faith177

My PPM costs me a lot less than my dd use too.

I had a dd for electric at £85 a month back in 2006. British Gas told me this was for both gas and electric then sent me a £680 bill for the period June 06-June 07. After many muck ups on British Gas's part including losing the payment I made in full I decided to go on to PPM so I could control my bills.

Average spend now on my PPM is £20 a month on gas and £40 on electric. I have a calor gas fire which costs £32.99 and last 6 weeks on average so a lot better for me.

matelodave

Frequently PPMs are more expensive because they are also recovering arrears as well - the unit & standing charge rates should be about the same as the standard variable tariff.

fabricator

In my case i,when i got into bother with money i phoned BG and asked if i could go onto a PPM as it would make my situation easier to manage, they told me they are only fitted if you have arrears which i didnt so they told me to stop paying my bills and ignore reminders until it got to a min of £360 then phone back and they would get one fitted so this is what i had to do and swalec told me exactly the same
I cant see how a computerised system for PPM's can cost more than DD system