MSE News: Millions on standard variable tariffs for over three years

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I must confess to being one of those stuck on a standard tariff. In fact Pre Payment - with Ebico which was in fact the cheapest and beat any others hands down for small users like me. But Ebico has come to an end. SSE took over an put it on a standard tariff and my bill was to rise by £200 a year for both gas and electric.

I need a tariff with a low or zero standing charge and the quotes I got from Scottish Power were best with a low approx 8p a day standing charge on a fixed rate deal. So I had the prepayment meters taken out and normal meters put in.

Basically the hike from SSE when Ebico ended with them was all standing charge at a whopping 27p a day. Even their so called cheaper deals were not exactly cheap - not for me anyway. The new Ebico zero tariff was to prove more expensive than SP paying a standing charge.

I think SP is only very slightly more expensive than what I was paying as an old Ebico low user. Also I like the SP online web page for account management. Very comprehensive.

There is an exit fee of £30 per fuel if I need to leave SP but I can move tariffs within SP with no penalty. Not sure if you can move to their standard tariff with no exit fee and the switch to thus avoid the fixed rate exit fees.

SpotlandRules

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

I must confess to being one of those stuck on a standard tariff. In fact Pre Payment - with Ebico which was in fact the cheapest and beat any others hands down for small users like me. But Ebico has come to an end. SSE took over an put it on a standard tariff and my bill was to rise by £200 a year for both gas and electric.

I need a tariff with a low or zero standing charge and the quotes I got from Scottish Power were best with a low approx 8p a day standing charge on a fixed rate deal. So I had the prepayment meters taken out and normal meters put in.

Basically the hike from SSE when Ebico ended with them was all standing charge at a whopping 27p a day. Even their so called cheaper deals were not exactly cheap - not for me anyway. The Ebico zero tariff was to prove more expensive than SP paying a standing charge.

I think SP is only very slightly more expensive than what I was paying as an old Ebico low user. Also I like the SP online web page for account management. Very comprehensive.

There is an exit fee of £30 per fuel if I need to leave SP but I can move tariffs within SP with no penalty. Not sure if you can move to their standard tariff with no exit fee and the switch to thus avoid the fixed rate exit fees.

Yes you can change to their standard tariff and then leave. I did exactly that after 6 months with them.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Out of interest which providers do people on this thread use and which tariff are you on?

worried_jim

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Out of interest which providers do people on this thread use and which tariff are you on?

Do a comparison every August, takes 5 mins. Been with Affect Energy for two years now and fix each year. They are based across the road and I've tweeted them a couple of times and had quick responses. As long as they stay competitive I'll stay with them but as soon as a competitor becomes cheaper I'll be off. I've been with 6 different companies over the last ten years and never had an issue with any or transferring.

The most I've paid is £78pm (n power) and currently £52pm, price has been coming down over the last four years.

robin58

spiro wrote: »

I think you are generalising too much. I know koads of elderly people who have pc's etc through choice and very IT literate. What surprises me is the number of people who are more put off by not wanting to pay by DD. Surely especially if you are low income pay the same winter and summer is a better way to budget than end up with a large winter bill not long after Christmas.

I think that has something to do with the fact that the Gas and Electric companies take too much off of you in the first place for a so called 'cushion' to be able to pay the bills over the year.

Personally I would like it in my pocket making money, not thiers.

But you try and get it credit back from them! It's like pulling hen's teeth.

matelodave

I tell them what I'm going to use and they give me an appropriate Direct Debit amount. I monitor what I use and usually I'm within a few quid of my estimate by the end of my contract.

It's not difficult to get your direct debit adjusted if it's too high or too low.

Most people are just too bone idle to sort out their bills and whinge, whine and blame someone else when they think they are being hard done by.

victor2

robin58 wrote: »

I think that has something to do with the fact that the Gas and Electric companies take too much off of you in the first place for a so called 'cushion' to be able to pay the bills over the year.

Personally I would like it in my pocket making money, not thiers.

But you try and get it credit back from them! It's like pulling hen's teeth.

It tends to depend on when your contract starts. A well managed one, paying by monthly DD, will be in credit at the end of the summer and have a debit balance at the end of winter. In my experience, they aim for a zero balance at the end of the contract, so that can affect the calculation.
Having said that, I'm on the MSE/CEC collective fix with BG, ending next month. BG have just refunded the small credit I'd built up over the summer and said they were increasing my DD significantly to cover future estimated cost. That was of course based on the assumption I would go onto their standard variable tariff when the fix ends. I phoned them up, told them to leave the DD where it is, as it will more than cover my usage this month (even after the refund) and I'll be leaving them when the fix ends.

So I suppose the moral is that you do have to be prepared to manage your account on DD payments, which is too much for many people.

Cardew

I am unclear of the reason for continually raising the subject of millions remaining on the expensive Standard tariffs with all companies. Is it a criticism of the Utility companies? or simply an observation?

One thing is absolutely clear. If a campaign to get many of these customers to ditch Standard tariffs was successful, it wouldn’t be the Utility companies that would pay for customer’s lower bills by way of reduced profits.

If, say, 1 million customers switched to cheaper tariffs and saved an average of £200 a year, who would pay for the £200 million loss of revenue?


It is pretty obvious that other tariffs would increase to recoup that £200 million.



So at the moment it is simply cross-subsidization where those on expensive Standard tariffs are paying for those of us on the cheaper tariffs.



It is the same issue - in reverse - where we all pay for those customers on subsidised 'social' tariffs.

Caddyman

I've been with Npower for several years now and never actually had a problem with them, save for them failing to understand that I know my projected energy consumption better than they do and their stubborn interference sometimes in wanting to alter my direct debit downward when in fact if it just remains the same every month, it will work out exactly right. Trouble is, computer doesn't quite seem to get that! I had a refund of £30 the other week, which is just blind stupid because my winter bill will swallow that up. You just can't tell these people sometimes!

But seriously, I personally have no intentions of shifting away from Npower. In June last year, I switched to their cheapest fixed rate tariff for two years. There is absolutely nothing at present, including the tiny independent companies, that can beat my current Npower dual fuel tariff. In one year alone, I switched tariffs with Npower at least 3 times when they kept offering up new cheaper tariffs. It didn't even cost me a penny in phone calls, just ten minutes of having a chat.

As for swapping to other companies, well there'd have to be a really significant saving per year for me to bother. I'm not interested in switching to a small fly by night independent company offering up a tariff that is £20 cheaper per year than my current tariff. For me, I can suck up that little extra cost. Don't get me wrong, if when my current two year exceptionally low fix comes to an end and another of the big six has a cracking tariff, I'll happily kiss Npower goodnight and move.

For many householders, there just simply isn't the will to bother sitting down and seeing how much they could save. It's like it's just not important. You'd think that the prospect of a potential saving of over a couple of hundred quid a year might be tempting, but some people just can't be bothered, it's that simple.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Caddyman wrote: »

I've been with Npower for several years now and never actually had a problem with them, save for them failing to understand that I know my projected energy consumption better than they do and their stubborn interference sometimes in wanting to alter my direct debit downward when in fact if it just remains the same every month, it will work out exactly right. Trouble is, computer doesn't quite seem to get that! I had a refund of £30 the other week, which is just blind stupid because my winter bill will swallow that up. You just can't tell these people sometimes!

But seriously, I personally have no intentions of shifting away from Npower. In June last year, I switched to their cheapest fixed rate tariff for two years. There is absolutely nothing at present, including the tiny independent companies, that can beat my current Npower dual fuel tariff. In one year alone, I switched tariffs with Npower at least 3 times when they kept offering up new cheaper tariffs. It didn't even cost me a penny in phone calls, just ten minutes of having a chat.

As for swapping to other companies, well there'd have to be a really significant saving per year for me to bother. I'm not interested in switching to a small fly by night independent company offering up a tariff that is £20 cheaper per year than my current tariff. For me, I can suck up that little extra cost. Don't get me wrong, if when my current two year exceptionally low fix comes to an end and another of the big six has a cracking tariff, I'll happily kiss Npower goodnight and move.

For many householders, there just simply isn't the will to bother sitting down and seeing how much they could save. It's like it's just not important. You'd think that the prospect of a potential saving of over a couple of hundred quid a year might be tempting, but some people just can't be bothered, it's that simple.

I am puzzled how this works. NPower comes nowhere near cheap or cheaper for me against Scottish Power's online fix. I have just checked and NPower will be approx £50 a year more expensive. NPower's standing charge is over 15p per day for a start against SP's 8p per day so how can NPower possibly be cheaper?