standing charges and variable tariffs

ForumJoe

Does anyone know of an easy way to find out which gas and electricity suppliers have the lowest standing charges?  When a property has very low usage, it seems unfair to have to pay about £350 or more per year in standing charges for gas plus electric. 
Also, why do the comparison sites not currently compare variable tariffs; it may still be possible to save money by switching supplier?

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

In normal times you'd just enter 1kWh as your annual consumption and search for single as well as dual fuel, taking care to search the whole market.

However, I fear that most comparison sites have virtually given up because there's very little point in switching at the moment.  Some may go bust the way that many energy suppliers did.

The_Fat_Controller

Although standing charges vary slightly by region and provider, you'll just have to bite the bullet.

On the latest cap the annual combined SCs would be around £270

You also need to remember that they are only capped on the SV tariffs, any fixed tariffs can vary considerably.

pochase

This question has just been asked here.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6353937/gas-tariff-with-low-standing-charge-for-low-usage#latest

There are no longer suppliers that offer lower standing charges on SVT.

Most suppliers will not accept new customers on SVT, so comparison sites have nothing to compare.

If you have a low usage the cost of delivering the energy to your home is the same as for somebody with high usage, and for example the cost for the companies that went bust last year are part of the standing charge for electricity, ensuring that everybody is paying an equal share to this cost.

Ultrasonic

Looking at fixed tariffs is your best bet to find a noticeably lower standing charge, although in combination with higher unit prices so do some sums to decide whether any options are worth considering.