Being "disconnected" as a prepayment customer

Astria

km1500 said:

Standing charges really are iniquitous and should be scrapped.

There are many analogies around, but for me the one that works is being forced to pay Shell a daily 'standing charge' in order to be allowed to use their forecourts to fuel your car, even if you decide to SORN your card for 6 months because you are hard up.

So, following your analogy, I shouldn't be charged by Severn Trent if I don't use any water, I shouldn't be charged by my mobile phone operator if I don't make any calls, and I shouldn't be charged by my ISP if I don't use the internet, etc.

km1500

Hi mancan - thanks for the explanation but why can't those costs be factored into the unit price rather than having a standing charge


I am sure Shell factor salary, business rates etc into their per-litre cost. They don't charge you £1.50 a litre and 60p a day forecourt pass !

km1500

Astria said:

km1500 said:

Standing charges really are iniquitous and should be scrapped.

There are many analogies around, but for me the one that works is being forced to pay Shell a daily 'standing charge' in order to be allowed to use their forecourts to fuel your car, even if you decide to SORN your card for 6 months because you are hard up.

So, following your analogy, I shouldn't be charged by Severn Trent if I don't use any water, I shouldn't be charged by my mobile phone operator if I don't make any calls, and I shouldn't be charged by my ISP if I don't use the internet, etc.

depends on the business model. I do indeed have a spare mobile phone (payg) where i am not charged if I don't make any calls. I can also get broadband where if I don't use it I don't pay anything - albeit more expensive than normal.

What I am saying is that gas and electricity should be run on the petrol / payg model, not the severn trent or landline model.

QrizB

km1500 said:

I am sure Shell factor salary, business rates etc into their per-litre cost. They don't charge you £1.50 a litre and 60p a day forecourt pass !

Shell aren't charged a fee for every car on the road, whether that car fills up or not.

Qyburn

km1500 said:

I can also get broadband where if I don't use it I don't pay anything - albeit more expensive than normal.

Who do you get that from, if you don't mind me asking?  We have ADSL as a backup to our main LTE service which can sometimes be a tiny bit flakey.  A PAYG service would be better than paying every month for phone line and ADSL that rarely gets any use at all.

km1500

google mobile dongle, but as an example

https://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/pay-as-you-go-data-sims?deviceType=SIM_ONLY_MBB&priceplan=&greatForServices=&manufacturerName=&payGPriceForTariff=50to99.99&payGPriceForTariff=0to49.99

Astria

km1500 said:

Astria said:

km1500 said:

Standing charges really are iniquitous and should be scrapped.

There are many analogies around, but for me the one that works is being forced to pay Shell a daily 'standing charge' in order to be allowed to use their forecourts to fuel your car, even if you decide to SORN your card for 6 months because you are hard up.

So, following your analogy, I shouldn't be charged by Severn Trent if I don't use any water, I shouldn't be charged by my mobile phone operator if I don't make any calls, and I shouldn't be charged by my ISP if I don't use the internet, etc.

depends on the business model. I do indeed have a spare mobile phone (payg) where i am not charged if I don't make any calls. I can also get broadband where if I don't use it I don't pay anything - albeit more expensive than normal.

Last time I had a mobile phone on PAYG it was disconnected and the credit lost because I didn't make any chargeable calls on it, I was told that if I topped it up each month or made a chargeable call then it wouldn't be disconnected. So in effect it still had a standing charge.

Are you saying you would be happy paying 46p/kWh instead of 34p/kWh so the SC could be rolled into the unit cost? There would also have to be a minimum cost of 4 kWh/day to ensure people didn't have connections where they didn't use them however, as there is a cost for all connections.

Qyburn

km1500 said:

google mobile dongle, but as an example

OK thanks. I think I'm a victim of the current tendency to use "broadband" to mean any form of Internet access so I assumed you meant some terrestrial service. Just by coincidence our main Internet is Three LTE in any case.

Astria

km1500 said:

google mobile dongle, but as an example

https://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/pay-as-you-go-data-sims?deviceType=SIM_ONLY_MBB&priceplan=&greatForServices=&manufacturerName=&payGPriceForTariff=50to99.99&payGPriceForTariff=0to49.99

That appears to suggest £60 for 24 months, so if you don't use it you are still charged.

km1500

Agreed but at least if you don't have any money then you at least have the option of cancelling your landline and expensive broadband and paying for a dongle say 60 pounds for 24 months or even cheaper for less data

with electricity and gas you don't have that option you can cut down as much as you want and be as poor as you want but you still have to pay standing charges

I don't think people realise just quite how detrimental this can be on people with low incomes but of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion.