Paying More than the Price Cap - British Gas

KerrBearrxo

Hi everyone
I don't know if I'm going insane but BG recently offered me a fixed deal so I was doing some comparisons etc and I noticed that I am being charged more for my electric standing charge rate than the price cap...

Details of price cap from Ofgem website:

Daily standing charge: £0.45
£0.28 per kWh

My email from BG telling me my current standard variable tariff electricity costs:

Standing charge: 48.527p per day

Unit rate: 27.358p per kWh So on this basis, I am paying under a penny less per unit rate but I am paying 3.527p a day more for the standing charge than what the price cap suggests Is this wrong and am I being wrongfully overcharged, or am I losing the plot? I logged in to my online account to double check the figures to make sure it wasn't a typo on the email and it is 100% correct. My gas is pretty much fine it says standing charge is 0.27p and usage is 0.07p and I'm being charged 0.2722 standing charge and 0.07280 unit rate which is still technically over the price cap but not by much.... Also the fixed deal they have offered me until June 2023 works out more expensive than the predicted 32% rise in October but Martin suggests its worth considering but when I've worked it out, see below, that I would actually be £100 worse off fixing than I would just be staying variable...so is the 32% rise not guaranteed? for the sake of £100 I'd rather hold out and see if it drops... So if I stayed on variable June 172.60 July 172.60 Aug 172.60 Sept 172.60 Oct 227.83 Nov 227.83 Dec 227.83 Jan 227.83 Feb 227.83 March 227.83 April 205.05 May 205.05 June 205.05 TOTAL 2672.53 If I went to fixed June 2022 - June 2023 - 231.53 TOTAL 2778.36 TLDR I think I'm being charged more than the price cap, is this allowed?  The fixed term deal doesn't seem like a deal despite Martin saying its worth considering, am I missing something?

k_man

Price caps vary by region

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-02/Default tariff cap level - 1 April 2022 - 30 September 2022.pdf

KerrBearrxo

k_man said:

Price caps vary by region

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-02/Default tariff cap level - 1 April 2022 - 30 September 2022.pdf

Thanks for this but it doesnt give mirrored information it gives a total sum which makes no sense, the website gives standing charge and usage rate info this document just says Single-Rate Metering Arrangement (benchmark consumption per annum, k) What does that even mean?

BUFF

afaik the supplier's have tolerance as to how apportion the standing charge/unit rates for a particular region so that they hit (or are under)  the mandated total price for the "average" consumer (2900kWh/pa for electricity & 12000kWh/pa for gas iirc). 

The "32%" rise is not guaranteed, indeed atm is predicted to be above that but nobody knows. If that BG fix is like (check t&c) the one that I took out for my electricity it offers the option of dropping onto any other lower BG tariff without penalty should there be one come October .

pochase

What do you mean with mirrored information.

For your example it shows the standing charge (0 KWh for a year) and the cost for 3100KWh incl standing charge for a year.

From there you just need to calculate daily standing charge and unit rates.

Ofgem documents are not for the end customer. If you want something easier you can check the EDF price list here.

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/r1299.pdf

No idea where you are getting a predicted increase of 32% from, it is currently more like 40% to 45%

KerrBearrxo

pochase said:

What do you mean with mirrored information.

For your example it shows the standing charge (0 KWh for a year) and the cost for 3100KWh incl standing charge for a year.

From there you just need to calculate daily standing charge and unit rates.

Ofgem documents are not for the end customer. If you want something easier you can check the EDF price list here.

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/r1299.pdf

No idea where you are getting a predicted increase of 32% from, it is currently more like 40% to 45%

Thanks for this, the 32% was from headlines in the news .... looks like its going up and up

k_man

KerrBearrxo said:

k_man said:

Price caps vary by region

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-02/Default tariff cap level - 1 April 2022 - 30 September 2022.pdf

Thanks for this but it doesnt give mirrored information it gives a total sum which makes no sense, the website gives standing charge and usage rate info this document just says Single-Rate Metering Arrangement (benchmark consumption per annum, k) What does that even mean?

Apologies, wrong link.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78957887/#Comment_78957887

(Thanks to @QrizB)

KerrBearrxo

pochase said:

What do you mean with mirrored information.

For your example it shows the standing charge (0 KWh for a year) and the cost for 3100KWh incl standing charge for a year.

From there you just need to calculate daily standing charge and unit rates.

Ofgem documents are not for the end customer. If you want something easier you can check the EDF price list here.

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/r1299.pdf

No idea where you are getting a predicted increase of 32% from, it is currently more like 40% to 45%

Just done calculations with 40% and 45% rise, fixed term still works out £10-£20 per month more expensive

KerrBearrxo

BUFF said:

afaik the supplier's have tolerance as to how apportion the standing charge/unit rates for a particular region so that they hit (or are under)  the mandated total price for the "average" consumer (2900kWh/pa for electricity & 12000kWh/pa for gas iirc). 

The "32%" rise is not guaranteed, indeed atm is predicted to be above that but nobody knows. If that BG fix is like (check t&c) the one that I took out for my electricity it offers the option of dropping onto any other lower BG tariff without penalty should there be one come October .

I worked it out on 40% and 45% increase it still works out £10-£20 per month more expensive
I agree with the "if you can get a fixed term cheaper in Oct you can move to it"
but if we can start searching fixed term deals cheaper by then I will be switching supplier cause BG are horrendous. BG will not offer people who accept this a cheaper deal I can almost bet my life on it. They do it via email and all they want is money. If they can get more money they will. Once the deals start going live on websites that's when people can start switching.

I recently won a claim against them where they had to pay me £300 in compensation cause they were charging me April 2022 price cap increase for March usage even though I submitted meter readings etc 

I also have no way of seeing what I'm spending even though I'm on a smart meter they refuse to give me an inhome display (recently moved in a few year ago and the house didn't have one) and their energy usage app and website never works

BUFF

KerrBearrxo said:

BUFF said:

afaik the supplier's have tolerance as to how apportion the standing charge/unit rates for a particular region so that they hit (or are under)  the mandated total price for the "average" consumer (2900kWh/pa for electricity & 12000kWh/pa for gas iirc). 

The "32%" rise is not guaranteed, indeed atm is predicted to be above that but nobody knows. If that BG fix is like (check t&c) the one that I took out for my electricity it offers the option of dropping onto any other lower BG tariff without penalty should there be one come October .

I worked it out on 40% and 45% increase it still works out £10-£20 per month more expensive
I agree with the "if you can get a fixed term cheaper in Oct you can move to it"
but if we can start searching fixed term deals cheaper by then I will be switching supplier cause BG are horrendous. BG will not offer people who accept this a cheaper deal I can almost bet my life on it. They do it via email and all they want is money. If they can get more money they will. Once the deals start going live on websites that's when people can start switching.

I recently won a claim against them where they had to pay me £300 in compensation cause they were charging me April 2022 price cap increase for March usage even though I submitted meter readings etc 

I also have no way of seeing what I'm spending even though I'm on a smart meter they refuse to give me an inhome display (recently moved in a few year ago and the house didn't have one) and their energy usage app and website never works

I took the gamble with BG of paying higher than SVT for my electricity for 4 months v potential savings over the higher consumption Oct-June period but I do have the option of driopping back onto SVT without penalty come October should the rise not be as predicted.. & as a very low electricity user the difference in the sums involved are not massive so not really a big gamble.

Currently very few suppliers will take switchers (unless on very high priced fixes). I don't see that changing in the short term.

EDF, imo are worse ...

You can buy a 3rd party IHD/use the Bright app.

pochase

No supplier will give a new IHD if you don't have it any longer or repair/replace a broken one outside of the warranty period. Most of them don't even have replacement that you can buy.

You can buy third party devices to replace them like the one below

https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers

This guys are able to link the devices to your smart meter, either though the "serial number" of you old device, or if you don't have on you need to use a sign up process.

Are you comparing the new fixed tariff against the current SVT? There will be nothing cheaper than  SVT, the advice is more that if you can get something cheaper than a 35% increase to current SVT you should consider it.

Current predictions are between 40p to 42p for electricity and 11p to 11.8p for gas. in addition there are potentially higher standing charges on the fixed tariff, plus you need to take into account how much you are going to pay more between now and when the new cap kicks in.