Who doesn't charge standing charge?

unlucky67

I have a renovation property - empty obviously not using much power - had it with BG with a standing charge - just found out the standing charge has been increased - means I will be paying £90 each for Gas and Elec a year -£180! I only used 70 kWh elec and 373kwh gas in the last 6 months! Last year I did use quite a bit in winter as had the electricians and then plasterer there for a couple of days each with the gas fire and an electric heater on full blast on almost 24 hrs a day ! (now I have solar panels and a woodburner I can light so even with workmen in it shouldn't be that much) Do intend to be living there by next summer so not looking to be tied into something long term (maybe standing charge is good for higher usage) but do think I probably will save money if I switch - at least part of the £90 standing charge for 6 months!... Looking at comparison sites it seems to give me a saving for the year etc -but I'm interested in knowing who does and doesn't have a standing charge, how much it is etc - does anyone know where I can find that information out?

macman

All suppliers shortly have to introduce SC's on all tariffs, though they can set them at zero.
Since what matters is the annual cost, use the comp sites to find the best tariff regardless of SC's.

undaunted

There may be others but ebico and green energy certainly both offer no standing charge tariffs

unlucky67

I'll look at ebico and green energy ...
Speaking to BG today they said they were forced to charge the standing charge by Ofgem and I repeatedly asked if Ofgem had said they had to charge £90 a year and they avoided answering
She also told me that BG had not forced the SC on their existing customers until they had to - implying it was to be kind to us ...
Then later worked out that on my main property I should be slightly better off paying SC than the two tier I was on ...hmmm... mixed messages or what? :rotfl:
Knew BG wasn't the cheapest but in my experience they do have good customer service (unlike Hydroelectric who I hate with a passion, closely followed by Scottish power...and Npower were not particularly great - and I think it was Eon who used to have dodgy door to door sales techniques...) but I think the difference could be so great that I will be able to tolerate poor customer service!

Neil49

Ebico charge 17.37p per unit for electricity and 5.57p for gas (inc vat) and that's it.

https://www.ebico.org.uk/

No standing charge, so if you have low usage then they are well worth investigating. I have also found their customer service to be very good. You may find some communications come from SSE which can be a bit confusing but they are the suppliers of power to Ebico.