Standing Charges guide - official forum discussion

MilkyJoe

EnergyTwist wrote: »

I suggest you consult a comparison site.

For a usage of £20 per year on the previous Ebico zero tariff that had no mimimum charge (about 306kWh), there are about 35 tariffs from a range of suppliers that would allow you to buy the same quantity of gas for less than £104 per year. Prices start from about £60 per year (before you consider possible cashback)

You may be better off overall on a dual fuel tariff, so check that possibility too.

I use this site's comparison energy club. Apparently I'm on the cheapest. I'm pretty sure they don't take into account the minimum charge so it's confusing to compare their findings. I've looked into disconnecting and the charge means I may as well just pay for gas.
It looks like you have some knowledge of tariffs, can you point me to one or 2 that you mention, as the ones I've checked the standing charge puts the amount I'll be paying back into the at least £100 range. The only one with no standing charge I can find is Utilita, and the extra I'll be paying for electric seems to make up for the little I'll be paying for gas. I only typically use around 2 kWh a day in electric so their 2 tiered rates (which they say 2 kWh a day is their switch to the cheaper rate) make it confusing also.


P.S. I meant £25 a year, but close enough.

meldrew58

Pjeff wrote: »

Just tried to sign up to Ebico.
Their 'zero standing charge' Green V4 claims to have no standing charge.
However they now have a minimum annual charge of £108!


Remaining option seems to be Utilita - their ZSC seems valid but to get it you have to sign up to their expensive (30pkwh) electricity.


Thinking of signing up & then directly moving the electricity to a better provider.


Anyone have any better ideas?


Cheers

Been with Ebico for 12 months as property empty and for sale. Their new Green Fixed 4 does still offer no standing charge but you have to meet their "minimum overall spend" which is £52 for electricity and £104 for gas even if you don't actually use any at all! Not very ethical.
Think Utilita offer no standing charge but you have to have Smart Meter and not sure if there's any minimum spend as their website is really unhelpful - wonder why.

Kitchen_Sink

meldrew58 wrote: »

Been with Ebico for 12 months as property empty and for sale. Their new Green Fixed 4 does still offer no standing charge but you have to meet their "minimum overall spend" which is £52 for electricity and £104 for gas even if you don't actually use any at all! Not very ethical.
Think Utilita offer no standing charge but you have to have Smart Meter and not sure if there's any minimum spend as their website is really unhelpful - wonder why.

Utilita does have some tariffs that require you to have smart meters, and sometimes a PPM

However, they also have a tariff for traditional credit meters.

It's a 2 tier tariiff, iirc, and charges something like a quid for the first kWh used per day for electricity. :eek:
Gas is also highly priced.
Other than that, there is no minimum charge provision.

Consult a couple of good comparison sites to find the best deal for you.
e.g. Benight indicated quite a good deal for the OP of this thread last weekend
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6090218/gas-bill-increased-x-5-ebico (post#5)

PDJ_Shed

Not mentioned in the article is that although the supplier, e.g. ebcio do not charge a 'daily charge' they do have a minimum yearly charge £52 for Electric £104 for Gas, I expect others do as well, so if no gas is used effectively charged £2 per week 28.5p per day.

So not really zero standing charge.

 

tristansummers

I feel I desperately need to share my experience here to protect others.
As has been stated, the minimum spend of £52 brought in in v5 of Ebico's tarriff means it is no longer really a zero tarriff, and inapproriate if like me you have a garage supply using about £6 a year of electricity. Ebico sya below that it costs too much to maintain the account. I am not sure how they figure that out! What exactly does it cost them to continue to supplu electricity to an account they already supply?
So you are stuck with Utilita as the only zero-tarriff option in the country.
Upon switching I supplied a meter reading of 191. 
I then recieved an estimated end reading of almost 250 units more and subsequent charge of £40 taken by Ebico.
There is a minimum amount of 250 units that apparently cannot be refunded as it is"too low"
After much arguing however, Ebico agreed to refund this to me.
A week later however Utilita, despite having a three month reading of only 8 units (199) supplied to them, again over estimated (472)  with a bill for £50. This is also over the 250 unit threshold.
There seems to be a total lack of understanding of low use properties but more disturbingly a deliberate attempt to fraudulently claim extra funds.
This minimum contestable amount needs to change.
I suspect many would not notice this charge, just as many will over pay a standing charge for electricity they are not using.
As soon as another supplier offers a zero tarriff I shall switch again but as yet I am stuck.
"As the currently implemented change of supply reading has been verified by both suppliers, we are unable to dispute the reading if it is within 250 units."
Utilita have not been answering the phone since the Covid-19 lockdown and if they take these funds from my account I shall call the police

MWT

tristansummers said:

Utilita have not been answering the phone since the Covid-19 lockdown and if they take these funds from my account I shall call the police

I wouldn't waste your time with the police, they are not going to be interested in a contract dispute.

I would however write a complaint letter to Utlita and post it to them, make sure you mark it as a complaint.

Provide them with a current meter reading and tell them that you want it to be used for your bill and to make sure that their annual estimate is in line with your proved consumption.

It may not help a lot in the short term but it is the first step on being able to take this to the ombudsman.

Ultimately though, there is no profit in your account for any of these providers, so don't be surprised if the options you have for no standing charge suppliers dwindle and eventually vanish altogether... 

Talldave

Take photographs of every meter read and send them the photos. Then complain/ombudsman if they still ignore.

rp.

Utilita cannot supply to anyone with a SMETS2 meter, which essentially applies anyone who has had a smart meter installed by any of the Big 6 within the last 18 months. Their telesales people are trained to blame Ofgem for this, which I consider rather disingenuous. 

Ebico, as everyone has already mentioned, enforce a "minimum standing charge" of £52 per annum, which is therefore not a standing charge at all. Again, just another bad faith marketing scam. These clowns should be ashamed of themselves.

For anyone with low kWh usage who does not want to be paying through the nose for their standing charge, uSwitch seems to currently offer a Shell "Energy November 2021" tariff with a 16.044p per day standing charge and a 15.839p per kWh unit charge. This tariff is not however listed on Shell's own website, so it is not possible to verify that there is no minimum annual charge.

Edit: PS: For anyone paying the current average standing charge of crica 28.00p per day, this 12.00p per day difference would save nearly £45 a year.

Gerry1

rp. said:

For anyone with low kWh usage who does not want to be paying through the nose for their standing charge, uSwitch seems to currently offer a Shell "Energy November 2021" tariff with a 16.044p per day standing charge and a 15.839p per kWh unit charge. This tariff is not however listed on Shell's own website, so it is not possible to verify that there is no minimum annual charge.

Edit: PS: For anyone paying the current average standing charge of crica 28.00p per day, this 12.00p per day difference would save nearly £45 a year.

That's an offer that can be safely ignored !  Outfox The Market's Clean VE 3.0 tariff has a standing charge of 7.72p per day (£28.17 per year).

999pez

Gerry1 said:

rp. said:

For anyone with low kWh usage who does not want to be paying through the nose for their standing charge, uSwitch seems to currently offer a Shell "Energy November 2021" tariff with a 16.044p per day standing charge and a 15.839p per kWh unit charge. This tariff is not however listed on Shell's own website, so it is not possible to verify that there is no minimum annual charge.

Edit: PS: For anyone paying the current average standing charge of crica 28.00p per day, this 12.00p per day difference would save nearly £45 a year.

That's an offer that can be safely ignored !  Outfox The Market's Clean VE 3.0 tariff has a standing charge of 7.72p per day (£28.17 per year).

Unfortunately Outfox are onto Clean VE 4.0 now - electricity standing charge: £0.1760 per day, £64.24 PA.