Zero standing charge electricity

tg99

We have a meter that uses very little electricity pa only c£10 so always go for a zero standing charge tariff. Ebico one ending soon and I now see they have a minimum charge of c£50. When I run comparison sites they come up with Eon as cheapest (6p standing charge) followed by MandS Energy (due to £50 credit), However, it seems Utilita also offer a zero standing charge tariff but not listed on MSE club or uswitch.....any reason for this? And is anyone aware of any other zero standing charge options other than Utilita? Thks

Neil_Jones

Utilita seems only to be doing PAYG at the moment, not credit, looking at the website anyway.  And they seem to have a slightly unusual payment structure which seems to be based on the old "first x unit y pence per kwh and z pence per unit for everything else." and it may well be either the sites can't cope with that or looking at some of the unit rates they're so insanely high the sites probably think nobody in their right mind would want to go anywhere near it.

That aside there isn't much choice now for non standing charge suppliers unfortunately.  It used to be pretty common at one stage but now most of them have minimum charges as you've found out.

Talldave

Below 170kWh per year, Utilita look to be the cheapest option. According to Citizens Advice they do offer credit billing, but not according to their website??

Above that it's OFTM and Eon with the cheapest standing charges.

UnclaimedEnergy

The first 2 replies have pretty much given you the tariffs to look at (Utilita - two tier tariff though), E.ON/OFTM for cheapest Standing Charge.

Even if no elec/gas is used, there are still fixed charges that come with having a grid supply. There's no financial benefit for suppliers offering the 0 standing charge tariffs as they're just going to be loss making.

tg99

Utilita can accept switch if go for a PAYG meter and said can change back to a credit meter in due course once they are accepting credit switches again. Have never had a PAYG meter before..,...other than having to top up in advance (and risk being cut off if money runs out) are there any other implications I should be aware of and any potential issues switching back to credit meter either with Utilita or another provider if I switch again in the future? Only use about 60 kWh pa as just communal external lighting so would only need to make one payment per year and even if forgot to top up would only affect lighting.

UnclaimedEnergy

Going with a PAYG meter can cut off a lot of options for you in the future.
Based on medium usage, the cheapest pre-payment meter is £200 more expensive than the cheapest credit meter.

Even if you're not using electricity now, you might do in the future (Lets say you decide to invest in an EV).

The cheapest standing charge from E.ON was about 7.5p to 10p a day the last time I looked, with their unit rate being around 15p-17p. With E.ON, using about 0.2kWh a day would cost you 10p - 13.5p a day.

With Utilita you'd be looking at about 5p a day - However you would need to have the pre-payment meter installed.

In money terms your maybe looking at saving £18-£30 for the year by going with Utilita over E.ON

newlywed

Some energy firms charge you for changing the meter from prepay to credit. Bulb quote £120

UnclaimedEnergy

newlywed said:

Some energy firms charge you for changing the meter from prepay to credit. Bulb quote £120

Some may ask you for a security deposit if you have bad credit.
Some may only charge you if you have multiple meter changes (want to go back to PPM)

Edit: Octopus Energy dont' charge you for changing from PPM to Credit

PennineAcute

Whilst Utilita do direct debits, they do not work in the same way as "credit meter direct debits".  With Utilita, your meter is still PAYG and if your usage does not cover your monthly direct debit, you will have to top up.

tg99

Thanks for comments. So looking at Utilita website, it says credit customers can have the smart meter in ‘credit mode’ and pay by prepay direct debit. So it’s the same meter as the prepayment one but in a different mode. Hence if switching away from Utilita in the future, any idea if being a credit customer with the meter set in credit mode would mean I would be treated as a ‘normal’ credit customer with a credit meter by the company I was switching too.....or technically would they still see me as a prepayment customer / meter and thus could charge me to change meters (and also may still have the disadvantage of having less tariff options if they still treated me as a PAYG customer)?

UnclaimedEnergy

It depends on how your meter is registered on Ecoes (the Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service)
For every MPAN on Ecoes you have 'settlement paraments' which determine what type of meter you have (credit, PPM, E7 etc.).

As long as your MPAN/meter is down as being a credit meter on Ecoes, you shouldn't have an issue being taking on as a credit customer if you switch in the future.

Whether it is or not though all depends on how Utilita update Ecoes when they swap in their smart meter.