Standing Charges guide - official forum discussion

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in Energy
Hi all,
This is an official discussion thread for our new Standing Charges guide, and we'd love your feedback. Have you got any pointers on the guide you'd like to pass on, any success stories from following its tips, or any info that'd help other MoneySavers? If so, just click 'reply' to post.
Thanks for your help,
MSE Rose
This is an official discussion thread for our new Standing Charges guide, and we'd love your feedback. Have you got any pointers on the guide you'd like to pass on, any success stories from following its tips, or any info that'd help other MoneySavers? If so, just click 'reply' to post.
Thanks for your help,
MSE Rose
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? What? A rather strange opening sentence. From "pretty much every single one of hundreds of tariffs has an alternative NSC version" to "there are two or three".
Earlier in the article it explained that there are tariffs with a zero standing charge - so the 1,800% rise is just nonsense.
Generally those with low consumption are better off with a low DSC and higher unit cost; whilst it is the opposite for those with high consumption. For anyone wanting to know their cheapest tariff it is necessary to predict exactly your consumption in the year ahead.
It also means that to get the cheapest outlay for duel fuel customers you need to check getting gas and electricity from different companies. It was rarely cheaper in the days of two tier tariffs - it is now.
And the long term problem is that the cost burden of these users is no longer distributed evenly amongst all suppliers - they are now shouldered by one or two.
Any one supplier has a range of tariffs for the energy it supplies to a particular area. This energy comes through the same pipes and wires for all its tariffs and the maintenance of that infrastucture is the same according to the agreement for that supplier. The charges may differ across suppliers but not within a supplier.
What an energy company does is to play games between the standing charge and the price of the fuel. This only adds to the confusion as far as the customer is concerned.
MSE should investigate and campaign for one standing charge per energy supplier. This would then create transparentcompetition between suppliers for their energy charges and add to pressure on the infrastructure companies with their costs being more open to scrutiny. It would also make the actual cost per Kwh much much easier to compare bewteen suppliers.
It would seem that Ofgem, the Government and the Energy suppliers are all in cahoots to retain as much confusion as possible in this area.
In addition, when energy prices were rising, energy companies cited the fact that gas pricse were linked to the price of oil. Where has that link gone now that oil price has fallen so markedly? The argument is very quiet. We need to put more public pressure on the energy market.
I think that you will find that what you are suggesting might break current Competition Law. As I understand it, Ofgem requires all energy suppliers to impose a Standing Charge - however, Ofgem goes on to say that the charge may be set to zero.
From an energy user's perspective, tariffs with a zero standing charge but high unit price suit those who use low amounts of energy. Conversely, those who use high, but sometimes variable amounts of energy, are happy with higher standing charges and lower unit prices.
I appreciate that a single standard standing charge might make the calculations a bit easier but, that said, they aren't that difficult. I sense that this is a campaign that is probably dead in the water from the start.