MSE News: E.on set to scrap standard variable tariffs

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

fredandwilma wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


Can i have a helping with a news story badge, please?

Thoroughly deserved fredandwilma. Hope MSE are taking note. :rotfl:

Malc

spiro

@E.On Company Reprsentative - I thought SVT was something you had to offer under your SLCs. I know the boss of BG said the other week he would be happy if they could be scrapped but it wasn't currently an option.

Consumerist

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Morning Consumerist.

Initially, the announcement we made last week about the replacement of the SVT with a fixed term tariff, is for our smart meter customers. We are, though, looking at options for our classic/traditional meter customers on fixed tariffs and we'll be letting them know of our plans further down the line. Sorry, but I don't have a time frame for this yet.

Malc

To be cynical, you have already announced your plans for your smart-meter customers but are looking at options for classic/traditional-meter customers.

Let me make a little prediction - you will announce plans for classic/traditional-meter customers in about 2020 - when the government (forlornly) hopes we will all be on smart meters.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

spiro wrote: »

@E.On Company Reprsentative - I thought SVT was something you had to offer under your SLCs. I know the boss of BG said the other week he would be happy if they could be scrapped but it wasn't currently an option.

Hello spiro and we've been speaking to both Ofgem and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) about the changes proposed for 2018. Mainly, about the replacement of the SVT with a fixed term tariff for our smart meter customers. The SVT will no longer be the default option for these customers. Instead, they'll have the option to 'roll over' on to the current version of a fixed term tariff.

To start with, customers with a smart meter or who have arranged to have one fitted, will be able to choose a new fixed term tariff. They can opt to 'roll over' to the latest version when that deal expires.

If they really don't want the fixed term tariff, they can opt out and go on our SVT. We're proposing that this fixed term tariff will be cheaper than our SVT and will have no exit fees leaving customers free to change supplier whenever they like without penalty.

As I've posted above, we're also working on options for customers with classic/traditional meters that are joining us or coming to the end of fixed term tariffs.

Hope this explains spiro. This is very much a work in progress at the moment and more details will emerge as we move towards the launch date early next year. Let me know if you need any more information as happy to help.

Malc

Caddyman

The more I read into the implementation of smart meters, the fact that suppliers are seemingly not using the same types of smart meters allowing customers to fully utilise them should they opt to switch supplier, the more I'm becoming turned off to having them installed. I realise smart meters have been getting rolled out since 2009, but it seems 8 years on, there's still no reliable 'standard'.

I think I'll wait for another ten years before swapping, by which time, hopefully, the utility companies will have sorted themselves out and consumers with smart meters will be able to swap between suppliers without the faff of worrying about whether their new supplier will be able to use whatever smart meter is fitted. Why has this been allowed to become all so complicated? It doesn't give me much confidence about swapping supplier when different energy company's request you contact them before taking out a contract just so they can tell you whether or not the smart meters you might have fitted are compatible with their own systems. It seems a bit of a farce if you ask me.

Hedgehog99

Am I missing something?

Surely electricity and gas cost x per unit and smart meters are supposed to enable accurate billing?

Why all this fixing for a year nonsense?

I just want to pay for what I use.

Surely the cost per unit should be the same for everyone unless on pre-payment or defined as being a vulnerable customer?

Any suggesting of fixing smells of, well, a fix!

molerat

Hedgehog99 wrote: »

Am I missing something?Yes

Surely electricity and gas cost x per unit On the day it is purchased, yes.
and smart meters are supposed to enable accurate billing?

Why all this fixing for a year nonsense? Because the energy can be purchased in advance at negotiated rates.

I just want to pay for what I use. You will but based on an advance purchase price.

Surely the cost per unit should be the same for everyone unless on pre-payment or defined as being a vulnerable customer? No, as above.

Any suggesting of fixing smells of, well, a fix!

Energy, as with most commodities, is either purchased in large volumes at a negotiated price or short term at the whim of the market spot price. Fixing allows the energy companies to purchase your annual usage in advance. if you would rather be at the whims of the market then feel free.

Raxiel

molerat wrote: »

Energy, as with most commodities, is either purchased in large volumes at a negotiated price or short term at the whim of the market spot price. Fixing allows the energy companies to purchase your annual usage in advance. if you would rather be at the whims of the market then feel free.

Funnily enough, when I first got my own place ten years ago, and was responsible for my own bills, I spent a few years on an SVT because I incorrectly assumed that a fix would be more expensive because "surely if the suppliers agree not to raise your prices for a year, they will build in an allowance to cover the cost to themselves if the price does go up" I thought it was like insurance, or worse, an extended warranty.

I cringe when I think how much money I must have wasted because I never bothered to even check if I was right.

polymaff

Hope it is not like the Sainsbury deal where the saving on the 1yr fix versus the standard tariff was, for me

Wait for it....

£8.15 per annum

fredandwilma

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Thoroughly deserved fredandwilma. Hope MSE are taking note. :rotfl:

Malc

Somehow i doubt it? I rarely spend my time posting anymore...........:D

polymaff wrote: »

Hope it is not like the Sainsbury deal where the saving on the 1yr fix versus the standard tariff was, for me

Wait for it....

£8.15 per annum

I suspect it will be very slightly cheaper than the SVT but not as cheap or cheaper than their other fixed tariffs, which means you will have to change tariffs in any case?

If it were cheaper than all their tariffs, that would definitely be something to write home about.

Malc?

(I know you won't know anymore than we do...........) :rotfl: