Standing charges and "cheaper" tariff?

mapcr77

Hi,
I'm very confused about the standing charges and how they are accounted for comparisons. According to the Cheap Energy Club, I could do with switching providers. However, on the face of it, I am on a rather cheap tariff for gas, at about 7p per day standing charge and 3.5p kWh.
Most of the "cheaper" tariffs have standing charges of 20p or more. So surely that implies a much higher price, even if the kWh rate is lower?
Using Martin's analogy about standing charges being like line rental it sounds like moving from a 10 pound per month line rental with 80 p a minute calls to a 20 pound a month rental with 40 p a minute calls.
Maybe I'm just thick but I'm finding tariffs very confusing...
Cheers!

CashStrapped

Concentrating on the standing charge is a bit of a red herring.

Just because one tariff has a very low standing charge does not mean it will be cheapest overall. Nor does a high standing charge mean it will be the most expensive. Energy firms cleverly balance out the two [the standing charge and pence per KWH}and in many cases this has little effect on the overall tariff for the average user.Think of it more as a marketing gimmick in most cases.

In theory a low standing charge and higher tariff may benefit someone who has very low use and is away from the property a lot and vice versa. This does not always work in practice.

This is why you get the best comparison results if you use your actual annual KWH figures (rather than DD values or complete guesses).

If you use your actual annual KWH use, the comparison site takes into account the standing charge when comparing. So the cheapest for your annual figures (if you are consistent in your use) will indeed be the cheapest available at that point in time.

One firm, Ebico, has no standing charge, but they compensate for this by having very high pence per KWH rates. However this tariff would most certainly benefit people who have an empty property for most of the year.

[Deleted User]

mapcr77 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm very confused about the standing charges and how they are accounted for comparisons. According to the Cheap Energy Club, I could do with switching providers. However, on the face of it, I am on a rather cheap tariff for gas, at about 7p per day standing charge and 3.5p kWh.
Most of the "cheaper" tariffs have standing charges of 20p or more. So surely that implies a much higher price, even if the kWh rate is lower?
Using Martin's analogy about standing charges being like line rental it sounds like moving from a 10 pound per month line rental with 80 p a minute calls to a 20 pound a month rental with 40 p a minute calls.
Maybe I'm just thick but I'm finding tariffs very confusing...
Cheers!

Have a look at Zog Energy who are coming in with the best of both worlds, low standing charges and tariffs eg in my area 10p standing charge and 2.6p/kwhr incl vat. Gas only