I am being charged more than the cap (on a variable tariff) can anyone help me understand why?

Libby54

Hello

I am hoping you can help me to understand. I have contacted Eon but they have said that you set the unit rates I am being charged and they have not given me an answer. 

I am trying to understand my unit rates. I am not in a contract and I am on a variable tariff, on an economy 7 meter. 

I am being charged:

Standing charge: 38.00

Day rate 34.175

Night rate 17.875

On looking at the current cap for my area (Eastern) this is shows as:

Standing charge: 37.92

Electricity: 29.24

Can you please help me to understand why my standing charge and day time rate are higher than the current cap?

Many thanks

Libby

400ixl

You are not on the Standard Variable Tariff which is what the cap is for by the looks of it. Suppliers are allowed to offer other variable and fixed rate tariffs which the customer can choose.

It looks like you are on a specific Economy 7 tariff. Do you know the name of the tariff you are on?

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

The cap for multi-rate tariffs is set separately to the cap for single-rate tariffs.

There's a link in my signature to a post that explains the cap, and it includes another link to a post which explains how the multi-rate tariff cap works.

[Deleted User]

By having economy 7 you choose to have more expensive units in the day in exchange for cheaper in the night.

The cap you are looking at doesn’t apply to you.

EssexHebridean

Hi Libby - yep, E7 can be a bit confusing as it's incredibly difficult for those writing the headlines about the price cap to factor in all the variables that we face! While it's not exact though, the rates you are currently paying look pretty close to what we were on with a SVR tariff prior to us taking a fix, so think you can assume that all is well. Keep checking back to find out what Eon are planning to do with the rates once the cap changes, and of course it's always worth maximising your use on the overnight rate as much as you can to keep costs as low as possible. 

Libby54

I am on Next Flex, I was assuming that the cap would be different, but I couldn't find it published anywhere!

pochase

There is no cap published for your supplier.

Each supplier sets the rates based on a 58/42 split between day and night using rules by Ofgem. One supplier will set a high day rate with low night rate, the next one might set the rates nearly identical.

EssexHebridean

Someone posted up the new rates for their E7 tariff earlier on - and their supplier appeared not to have adjusted the split between day/night use when setting the new rates. This might mean that the majority will leave their split the same - but them again it might not, Such is the opacity of E7 tariffs. The good news is that with the right personal split in usage, it can work out substantially cheaper than a single rate meter would! 

MWT

pochase said:

There is no cap published for your supplier.

Each supplier sets the rates based on a 58/42 split between day and night using rules by Ofgem. One supplier will set a high day rate with low night rate, the next one might set the rates nearly identical.

... but all of the different capped E7 tariffs will be below the Ofgem published cap figure at 4200kWh annual use.