Utility point or EDF

smileguy

So what is the standing charge cap for gas and electric on standing charges then ?

smileguy

I can understand why energy prices have increased but can someone please explain how the cost of maintaining the energy network has increased suddenly to account for massive increased standing charges ?

MWT

smileguy said:

I can understand why energy prices have increased but can someone please explain how the cost of maintaining the energy network has increased suddenly to account for massive increased standing charges ?

The average cap on the standing charge actually went down slightly for the current 6 month period, what has changed though is that with the way the overall charge is capped to include the standing charge, more suppliers have found it necessary to increase their standing charge rates to the maximum allowed under the cap to ensure they were getting the most they could to avoid losing even more money than they would otherwise lose.

Also note that there are many components that go into the SC cap:

Direct Fuel Cost Component (3a DF)
Capacity Market Cost Component (3b CM)
Adjustment Allowance  (3c AA)
Policy Cost Allowance (3d PC)
Network Cost Allowance for electricity (3e NC-Elec)
Network Cost Allowance for gas (3f NC-Gas)
Smart Metering Net Cost Change (3i SMNCC)
Operating Cost Allowance (3h OC)
CPIH (3g CPIH)
Payment Method Adjustment Percentage (3j PAAC PAP)
Payment Method Additional Administrative Cost (3j PAAC PAP)
EBIT Margin Percentage (3k EBIT)
Headroom Allowance Percentage (3l HAP)

You can find more details about these with a little searching.

smileguy

I can’t find any information on @Ofgem website about the maximum they can charge per day per fuel for standing charge ?.

Gerry1

smileguy said:

So what is the standing charge cap for gas and electric on standing charges then ?

smileguy said:

I can’t find any information on @Ofgem website about the maximum they can charge per day per fuel for standing charge ?.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-08/Default tariff cap level - 1 October 2021 - 31 March 2022.pdf

Thrugelmir

smileguy said:

I still state that it’s wrong that direct debits should be paid to administrators of the collapsed utility company , with no time limit for them to send out final bills.Bank account switching takes 3-9 days  so no reason energy companies can’t quickly send out bills.

Manpower. People employed by companies in administration will leave once they find suitable other employment. Company taking over is constrained by the speed of the recruitment process along with the difficulty of training in this Covid era. On top there'll be the high level of staff absentism which will compound matters further.

Everything takes time. Alexa doesn't have the answer to this challenge. When it goes wrong these days the capacity to respond simply isn't there. 

wild666

smileguy said:

My point is I didn’t agree to pay administrators of a bankrupt company my direct debit mandate is with utility point or EDF so how can my bank allow money to be paid to a failed companies administrators?. I was in credit as I’m sure a lot of others were so to carry on taking money in my book is rather dishonest and not really fair on the customers ?.I still think my EDF account shouldn’t say that my contract with them starts on 26th November  yet they can bill me for energy at their tariffs before that date .

My Avro DD, I kept open until the 11/10/21 when I set up my Octopus DD I then cancelled the Avro DD because the DD amount that showed on the Octopus page was the same as I paid Avro. 
If you set up a DD with the SoLR it should be the same amount you paid the failed company, like mine was, if it's more then the SoLR doesn't have the details of your account to transfer the DD payment to their site. 
I was expecting my DD to be £80 to £90 when I put in my details but it transferred across the £48 I was paying Avro when I put the card details in.

SickofEDF

I am in the same situation as others on here. & think my experience may be informative, if not exactly helpful.

I've been with Utility Point for several years and found them to be excellent at producing regular, accurate bills. 

When I learned that Utility Point had entered administration I cancelled my Direct Debit (£56.93) as I had built up almost £130 credit. My brother had lost a substantial amount of money when payments taken after the failure of one of his suppliers subsequently disappeared.

A day or two later I got the e-mail from EDF saying they were to take over my supply. Their e-mail stated ‘EDF started supplying your energy on 18 September. Your prices will be matched to Standard (Variable) to give you a guaranteed rate through winter, as well as protection from changing wholesale energy prices. These are our cheapest prices’

There were NO price details, which I found somewhat alarming, so I tried to find out about EDF’s ‘Standard (Variable)’ tariff, without success. In fact that statement contained a number of lies. I had actually been put onto their ‘EDF Welcome_CC’ tariff which, far from being their cheapest, is actually the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM that Ofgem allow firms to charge CREDIT customers.

On 10 Nov, 7½ weeks later, I was told ‘You’re on our Welcome Variable tariff. Your prices are matched to Standard (Variable) and are guaranteed through this winter. You can find your prices here – enter your postcode and tariff name (Welcome Variable) then press enter’. That link did NOT work and I was NOT on the Welcome Variable tariff – more lies.

On 11 Nov I was told ‘Good news, we've nearly completed your switch and we'll be supplying your electricity by 8 November 2021’. Given the lack of ‘cooling off fortnight’ I’d expected everything to be sorted in 3 to 4 weeks.

That e-mail gave an account number (as though it had been fully set up). However, when I tried to use it there were no options to:

a) Set up a new Direct Debit

b) Contact EDF via online chat

c) Supply the asked-for meter readings

d) Find details of my tariff

e) Change tariff

f) See bills

g) Find any help

In fact the account was completely unusable. I was tied into a firm I did not want on an exorbitant maximum tariff of their choosing which they repeatedly LIED about charging me.

The following day EDF e-mailed to say ‘A little welcome from us now you’re a fully-fledged EDF customer’. Again, completely untrue as the web-site still did not work for me.

On 26 Nov I made a complaint using the text number they supplied. There has never been any response, not even an acknowledgement.

On 17 Dec I got a final bill, supposedly from Utility Point. As others have said, this shows three tariffs:

My contracted UP tariff (Ruby) up until 17 Sep,

a higher tariff named "EDF Welcome_CC" from 18 to 30 Sep,

then a much higher "EDF Welcome_CC" from 1 Oct to 7 Nov

This bill almost exactly wiped out the £130 credit I’d built up with UP and the actual tariff I was being charged became clear. It was well above the Ofgem price cap level for a dual-fuel Direct Debit customer.

On 21 Dec I got an EDF bill, for electricity only covering 8 Nov to 26 Nov. I expected to continue as a dual-fuel Direct Debit customer but appeared to have been transferred by EDF to single fuel, pay in cash, without my agreement.

On 26 Dec I found that I could now change online to the Standard Variable tariff & specify Direct Debit as my payment method. It had taken a total of 14 weeks for EDF to set up my account with them, allowing me to choose my tariff & payment method. I was then sent a further bill, this time for the period since 8 Nov, all at the inflated tariff they had chosen.

My Direct Debit was not taken in January on the agreed date nor for the agreed amount (£89). Instead, EDF grabbed £144.47 from my bank account 4 days later to cover the bill I’d been sent. The result of this will be that they will be looking to increase my DD when they realise that they are a month behind with collections.

I made further complaints & have been stunned at how unhelpful & deliberately evasive this firm has been. It has been like arguing with Boris Johnson. They even appeared to be arguing that the Standard Variable tariff is not a domestic but a business one.

From what I can surmise, all the customers transferred from Utility Point have been put onto a (maximum Ofgem will allow) ‘pay by cash/cheque’ tariff called ‘EDF Welcome_CC’ until such time as they realise that EDF misled them and that the normal Standard Variable tariff is cheaper. So much for ‘these are our cheapest prices’.

Of course I am looking to change supplier, even for the same Ofgem cap tariff & have commenced an Ofgem complaint about the abysmal behaviour of EDF which, incidentally, is making a huge windfall profit from selling electricity produced by its nuclear stations at the price of that generated by gas-powered stations.

QrizB

I hope you enjoyed writing all that as I doubt many people will read it.

There were NO price details, which I found somewhat alarming, so I tried to find out about EDF’s ‘Standard (Variable)’ tariff, without success. In fact that statement contained a number of lies. I had actually been put onto their ‘EDF Welcome_CC’ tariff which, far from being their cheapest, is actually the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM that Ofgem allow firms to charge CREDIT customers.

With one or two minor exceptions, all the variable tariffs from all the suppliers are set at the maximum Ofgem allows.

Fred2712

The standard variable tariff has been the cheapest tariff since U.Point went bust.