Should I switch to a company without a standing charge?

NullDrone

I am using about £4 a month for gas but my standing charge is £20, I want to cut this down so I pay next to nothing and it keeps the stress away having to look at bills, I am with SSE and want to move to EquiPower which is recommended on this site, but what are the charges like? Will I end up paying more?

I pay around £20 every 3 months for standing charge on my electricity, whereas I spend £36 on my electricity usage, is their any way I can cut this? Will it be worth it? I know it seems petty but in the future if I know how to get the cheapest electricity it'll save me a lot in long run.

Robin9

NullDrone wrote: »

I am using about £4 a month for gas but my standing charge is £20, I want to cut this down so I pay next to nothing and it keeps the stress away having to look at bills, I am with SSE and want to move to EquiPower which is recommended on this site, but what are the charges like? Will I end up paying more?

I pay around £20 every 3 months for standing charge on my electricity, whereas I spend £36 on my electricity usage, is their any way I can cut this? Will it be worth it? I know it seems petty but in the future if I know how to get the cheapest electricity it'll save me a lot in long run.

Look on their website

JJ_Egan

No standing charge = higher per kwh tariff as its just built in to the unit cost .
You have to work out your own usage and see if no sc saves money or not .

HappyMJ

NullDrone wrote: »

I am using about £4 a month for gas but my standing charge is £20, I want to cut this down so I pay next to nothing and it keeps the stress away having to look at bills, I am with SSE and want to move to EquiPower which is recommended on this site, but what are the charges like? Will I end up paying more?

I pay around £20 every 3 months for standing charge on my electricity, whereas I spend £36 on my electricity usage, is their any way I can cut this? Will it be worth it? I know it seems petty but in the future if I know how to get the cheapest electricity it'll save me a lot in long run.

Don't forget winter. With Ebico you'll pay a lot more per unit with no standing charge. Your winter bills could be much higher than now.

modsandmockers

NullDrone wrote: »

I am using about £4 a month for gas but my standing charge is £20, I want to cut this down so I pay next to nothing and it keeps the stress away having to look at bills, I am with SSE and want to move to EquiPower which is recommended on this site, but what are the charges like? Will I end up paying more?

I pay around £20 every 3 months for standing charge on my electricity, whereas I spend £36 on my electricity usage, is their any way I can cut this? Will it be worth it? I know it seems petty but in the future if I know how to get the cheapest electricity it'll save me a lot in long run.

Your energy usage is similar to mine. The Ebico/EquiPower/EquiGas tariffs are all managed by SSE, and it is very simple to switch from SSE to Ebico. I now pay £1 a month to Ebico (via SSE) for gas. But my electricity is now supplied by EDF, and I pay them £25 a month. Looking at energy bills should be no more stressful than looking at your supermarket till receipts. You know what you should have paid, you know how many items are on a 3for2 deal, or a bogof, and you know how many items were picked up on the reduced to clear shelf. It's all itemised on the till receipt, and if there are any errors, you go to the customer services desk before leaving the store.

Robin9

This is the same OP age 21 who is seeking advise on another thread as to where to buy a property abroad to make his fortun out of his life savings of £8400 but can't master comparison sites.

AndyPK

https://www.uswitch.com

Work out from bills what you use over a year and enter onto the site

footyguy

^^^

Yes, consult a comparison site to find the best deal for you.

It doesn't matter how the tariff is made up, and similarly it's pointless looking at individual components of any tariff.
What is important is what is the cheapest annual cost to you ... and a comparison site will give you a complete list in order of annual cost.

modsandmockers

footyguy wrote: »

It doesn't matter how the tariff is made up, and similarly it's pointless looking at individual components of any tariff. What is important is what is the cheapest annual cost to you ... and a comparison site will give you a complete list in order of annual cost.

That is certainly true at the time of working out which company and which tariff is likely to be the cheapest over the following year or two. But in order to check that you are being billed correctly, you need to know the name of the tariff, and the prices. Neither the comparison sites nor the energy companies automatically provide prices up-front - the customer has to drill down in order to get that information. The energy industry is very happy for their customers to continue to believe that energy bills are unintelligible and therefore unchallengeable. It isn't true!

MSE_Dan_L

There's some useful points on this thread. For most people the no standing charge tariffs on the market (I believe currently there is only EBICO, but earlier in the year Npower had some tariffs without charges) are more expensive unless you're a very low user.

On Cheap Energy Club we've a filter on the top right of the results page where you can opt to only view tariffs which have a zero standing charge. This should allow you to quickly see whether it is the right tariff for you.

Slightly off-topic, but I suppose in theory it is possible to really push your savings and swap back and forth to the no standing charge tariff dependant on the time of year (e.g. prior to summer move to the no standing charge, ahead of the winter switch to a cheap tariff) in situations where you primarily use your gas for heating, although this would be tricky to manage. Not sure if anyone is following this approach?

modsandmockers

MSE_Dan_L wrote: »

On Cheap Energy Club we've a filter on the top right of the results page where you can opt to only view tariffs which have a zero standing charge. This should allow you to quickly see whether it is the right tariff for you.

I think that a large number of energy users would fail to understand the significance of the question, and would not understand why there is only a single company in the 'list' of results. If Ebico offers the best deal for any individual user, then surely they will appear at the top of the 'general' list anyway?