Standing Charges for Elec & Gas

s3pc1989

Hi there.
Anyone know the latest position with the imposition of standing charges for all customers on gas and elec. I look after a small flat for a friend who is away abroad on long term work secondment. He returns about once a month for about 5 days. Hence uses a tiny amount of Gas and Elec. We moved him onto a no standing charge tarriff about 6 months ago but the provider has said they are withdrawing and all customers must pay a standing charge - which will more than double the bills. They assert it's ruling from Ofgem.....?

Question - anyone know of a gas and elec provider who has guaranteed no standing charge at least for the next 9-12 months? I'm sure this must affect lots of people / second home owners / elderly etc etc

Thanks

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


Ebico have no standing charge for either gas or electricity.


Their unit prices are quite high - especially electricity - so are only suitable for those with low consumption.

Bark01

Npower don't have one for electricity but you need to be on a standard meter and pay by DD

s3pc1989

Hi - thanks both - the current supplier didn't have a standing charge until recently - but now introduced one - I suppose my question is also whether Ofgem has FORCED suppliers to intro a stndg charge or whether they are using the rationalisation of tariffs to impose them?
thanks

daveyjp

No they haven't been forced to. What they have been forced to do is reduce the number of tarriffs, meaning most have gone down the SC route.

kingrulzuk

Ebico have no standing charge for either gas or electricity.

Gas price is 5.57p per KWH including VAT.

Elec price 17.63p per KWH including VAT (2p more then what i was paying before but no 27p a day standing charge)


Hope this helps

DragonQ

daveyjp wrote: »

No they haven't been forced to. What they have been forced to do is reduce the number of tarriffs, meaning most have gone down the SC route.

That's not accurate. The reason standing charges are now ubiquitous is that two-tier pricing has been banned, leaving standing charges as the only real way of obfuscating energy costs (and reducing the burden of competition). Nothing to do with the number of tariffs.

Tariffs that never had two-tier pricing to begin with, like Ebico's, are obviously unaffected.

[Deleted User]

For my money, the government should ban regressive pricing on all commodities that are environmentally or socially damaging:

Gas/electricity standing charges.
RV water tariffs.
Road tax.
BOGOF at the supermarket.......

flyingjock1

daveyjp wrote: »

No they haven't been forced to. What they have been forced to do is reduce the number of tarriffs, meaning most have gone down the SC route.

From Ofgens own site ref retail market review
Summary of RMR proposals for domestic consumers

Simpler

The reforms we propose are designed to make the market simpler by:

• eradicating complex and confusing multi-tier tariffs
• creating easy to compare uniformity by making sure that all tariffs have a standing charge (which can be zero) and a unit rate
• aiding comparison between suppliers through the creation of a standard tariff information label
• limiting the number of different tariffs offered by a gas or electricity supplier to just four core tariffs
• making sure dual fuel discounts remain and are applied uniformly across all tariffs
• allowing suppliers to keep customers on tariffs that no longer exist (dead tariffs) only if they offer value for money; if not the customers should be transferred onto the cheapest variable deal

so i think they did insist on standing charges.

kingrulzuk

jack_pott wrote: »

For my money, the government should ban regressive pricing on all commodities that are environmentally or socially damaging:

Gas/electricity standing charges.
RV water tariffs.
Road tax.
BOGOF at the supermarket.......

Jack-pot I agree with you.

All this is just the con wich the government has to stop.

s3pc1989

Thanks all - sorry for the delay - looks like I need to investigate Ebico and N Power.... Appreciate the help