Big Increase in Gas/Electric Standing Charges

Martyparty

My fix with EON is up for renewal so I've checked various tariffs using the usual comparison sites. I'm a low energy user with a current dual fuel bill of around £500 per year. However the cheapest tariffs (including EON's stay with us offer) all estimate around £630 or more.

Investigating further, apart from the increase in kWh, there has been a large increase in standing charges. My current Eon tariff has a standing charge of £18 per year per fuel. All the quotes are showing over £60 per year per fuel.

Is this correct and does anyone know any tariffs with low standing charges. I have tried selecting "no standing charge" on the MSE Energy Club and it doesn't give any results.

Neil_Jones

In the grand scale of things it may not matter to most users, because it also depends on your usage.

So you can have higher standing charges but lower unit rates and still win, likewise vice-versa, so I'd say don't get too hung up on one particular aspect of it.

"No standing charge" tariffs have mainly fell by the wayside, and where they do exist they may be a minimum charge instead.

Also I'd suggest checking that if you're looking at results on comparison sites they don't do the "you will save £300 by moving to <somebody>" thing, as that assumes you do nothing and stay on the standard tariff where it costs the earth just to boil the kettle.  Ensure your new costs are based against what you're paying now.

macman

Forget low standing charges. What matters is the total annual cost, so just put your annual kWh sage and postcode into any comp site to find the best deal.

Martyparty

My point is not with the total annual cost as I'm happy to look for that through the comparison sites. The results are all generally within a few pounds per month so I'll probably stay with the Eon "stay with us" offer.

But looking at the price hikes ..............

Gas up 14% and electricty up 21% per unit.

Gas and electricty standing charge both up by 380% ! Yes, nearly four times as much and for me an increase of around £100 per year before I've bought any energy.  All the energy companies now seem to have a similar standing charge this year and this disproportionately affects low energy customers.

These hikes combined will increase my total electricty bill by over 30% for next year which is considerably more than the increases being mentioned in the press. 

bristolleedsfan

Martyparty said:

 All the energy companies now seem to have a similar standing charge this year and this disproportionately affects low energy customers.

Yes that is true, OFGEM is keen for providers to charge same S/C,  figure of 25p has been proposed so that consumers only have to compare kwh rates, also  likely that you signed up to E.ON with loss leader S/C rates designed to suck people in with hope of squeezing them later.