New Home Owner-Unsure Energy Tariff

K8S-84

Purchased first home Feb 2014, it has been standing empty ever since, due to future renovations. The previous home owner was an elderly gentleman who only had gas heaters-(No Central Heating-Boiler etc.) I used the same Gas & Electric supplier (EoN) as I didn't have a basis of how much energy was gonna be used/use. When I called Eon I told her it was gonna be empty for at least a year and she recommended a fixed one year tariff which was fine just to see what sort of charges i'd get for first year. Have been charged between £30-£50 each quarterly for 0 use over the past year. - Is this right? What am I paying for exactly? Is there a cheaper tariff that doesn't charge so much for 0 use? I paid Bills online when I supplied the same Meter Readings, I didn't want to setup on Direct Debit incase an estimated reading bill amount went out, but is it cheaper on DD? If so, why?

joeblack9

You will be paying for standing charge if your usage is zero ,all the information will be on your bill.

Nada666

Standing charges are (typically) £95 per fuel per year. Direct Debit discounts are now only applied to the standing charge so, yes, you would have received a 30 to 50% reduction. There is a range with different prices from different suppliers - with Eon's standard tariff the difference is 50% extra (£210 vs £140). Other suppliers will charge from £0 with a higher unit charge or more than £200 - it is up to you to switch to a suitable tariff.

You are paying to be billed, to have telephone centres to receive billing queries and, to some extent, for maintaining and providing the infrastructure. It does not matter whether you use 10 kWh per year or 10,000 kWh per year - the costs are (to a large extent) exactly the same to provide the pipes or provide a statement. You also have to subsidise the costs of those who do not pay and so receive zero percent loans (or have their bills written off) or have expensive meter demands - those costs are mostly levied on those on the standard tariffs.

macman

If it's going to remain empty then switch to Ebico to reduce the standing charges as much as possible, Unfortunately that's what you should have done a year ago.

footyguy

Use a comparison site to find the best deal for you.

Suppliers usually offer discounts for those willing to pay by direct debit reflecting the lower cost of collecting and processing such payments.
e.g. nPower will discount your annual standing charge to nothing (on at least one of their tariffs) if you agree to pay this way.

Nada666

footyguy wrote: »

e.g. nPower will discount your annual standing charge to nothing (on at least one of their tariffs) if you agree to pay this way.

npower have now withdrawn those tariffs. They now charge from 10p per day (after discount).[STRIKE] (But that is still relatively cheap particularly as both gas and electric are that charge.)[/STRIKE] Scrub that. Not 10p for each.

footyguy

Nada666 wrote: »

...Scrub that. Not 10p for each.

Correct.

nPower still have a no standing charge for electricity, but it's just under 10p a day for gas.

Also I see Green Energy/Tap tariff coming up with zero standing charge, and they seem to be cheaper than Ebico in the regions I looked at.

As I said:

Use a comparison site to find the best deal for you.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

K8S-84 wrote: »

Purchased first home Feb 2014, it has been standing empty ever since, due to future renovations. The previous home owner was an elderly gentleman who only had gas heaters-(No Central Heating-Boiler etc.) I used the same Gas & Electric supplier (EoN) as I didn't have a basis of how much energy was gonna be used/use. When I called Eon I told her it was gonna be empty for at least a year and she recommended a fixed one year tariff which was fine just to see what sort of charges i'd get for first year. Have been charged between £30-£50 each quarterly for 0 use over the past year. - Is this right? What am I paying for exactly? Is there a cheaper tariff that doesn't charge so much for 0 use? I paid Bills online when I supplied the same Meter Readings, I didn't want to setup on Direct Debit incase an estimated reading bill amount went out, but is it cheaper on DD? If so, why?

Hi K8S-84 and welcome to the forums.

Already some great advice on here. Thanks guys. Thought I'd pop on and confirm a couple of things.

This certainly sounds like daily standing charges. As Nada says, these are made up of the fixed infrastructure costs we pick up when supplying energy to properties. They include things like meter reading and maintenance as well as the costs of keeping properties connected to the gas and electricity networks.

We don't have any tariffs with zero standing charges (not sure about the other suppliers) but paying with a Monthly Direct Debit will lower them. In these cases, we give a payment adjustment of about £35 per fuel per year. Most arrangements are reviewed each quarter but we'll only make changes, if necessary, at the mid-term and annual reviews. At the other times, we'll let you know if we think a change is needed but leave it up to you to make any adjustments. All changes are confirmed in writing.

As you're online, you can keep an eye on the arrangement through the Direct Debit Manager on our website. This lets you alter the payments should circumstances change. Might come in handy once renovations are underway.

Hope this helps and all the renovations go well.

Malc

mnw1888

Hi


the following advice for EON rep is !!!!!!!!
"This certainly sounds like daily standing charges. As Nada says, these are made up of the fixed infrastructure costs we pick up when supplying energy to properties. They include things like meter reading and maintenance as well as the costs of keeping properties connected to the gas and electricity networks."


The rep should have told you about Standard licence condition SLC 22A.a(b) which states "
22A.2 In respect of supplying electricity to a Domestic Customer under a Deemed Contract or Domestic Supply Contract, the licensee must ensure that all Charges for Supply Activities are incorporated within:


22A.2(a) where the Domestic Supply Contract or Deemed Contract is for a NonTime of Use Tariff:


(i) a single Standing Charge; and/or


(ii) a single Unit Rate; and


22A.2 (b) where the Domestic Supply Contract or Deemed Contract is for a Time of Use Tariff:


(i) a single Standing Charge; and/or


(ii) Time of Use Rates. "
In other words there is nothing in law preventing EON offering a no standing charge tariff. It up to the owner to press this point home with EON or switch to EBICO or npower who have such tariff's, not good choices for other reasons, but if EBico ( note this is backed by SSE) and npower can offer no standing charges nothing prevents EON doing the same. Malc shame on you for not telling the customer the truth about non standing charge rates.


You make save around £ 100.00 per year going else where and not having standing charges, you do not have to pay these costs.

Nada666

mnw1888 wrote: »

if EBico ( note this is backed by SSE) and npower can offer no standing charges nothing prevents EON doing the same. Malc shame on you for not telling the customer the truth about non standing charge rates.


You make save around £ 100.00 per year going else where and not having standing charges, you do not have to pay these costs.

Nonsense.

It is Ofgem who have made this decision, not the suppliers. npower have already withdrawn most of their tariffs as did First Utility. The chances of npower continuing to offer this for their electricity is close to zero.

mnw1888

Nada666 wrote: »

Nonsense.

It is Ofgem who have made this decision, not the suppliers. npower have already withdrawn most of their tariffs as did First Utility. The chances of npower continuing to offer this for their electricity is close to zero.

I note you have responded to a limited part of my reply so I have taken the liberty to copy from the Npower web site as of today's date the following :- .




Why are npower introducing Standing Charges?

We'd like to make life simpler for you.

With that in mind, and meeting Ofgem's guidelines, we've changed the way we charge for our energy - we've introduced a daily standing charge. This is in addition to your electricity and/or gas unit rates which apply to the amount of energy you actually use, and both will appear separately on your bill.

Our daily standing charge is simple - it helps to cover the fixed costs of supplying energy to your home. The standing charge will be discounted if you choose to pay by direct debit. We've made it easy to see what the daily standing charge is on your bill - the other figures you'll see relate to the number of energy units you've actually used (or we've estimated that you've used) and the cost for those units based on your chosen tariff.


Indeed Npower even quoted on such a tariff very recently so not sure why you believe they have withdrawn such tariff's.


But I am unclear as to why you mention First Utility not something I spoke about, but in any event Ofgem allows non standing charge tariff's under SLC 22A.2 (a) & (b):-


22A.2(a) where the Domestic Supply Contract or Deemed Contract is for a NonTime of Use Tariff:
(i) a single Standing Charge; and/or
(ii) a single Unit Rate; and


22A.2 (b) where the Domestic Supply Contract or Deemed Contract is for a Time of Use Tariff:
(i) a single Standing Charge; and/or
(ii) Time of Use Rates.