standing charges

pochase

Standing charges are nothing new, and most of the increase was to bail out the customers who would have lost their credit otherwise.

If it would not been for those cost the increases would have been in line with inflation.

Also, the standing charges are not money the energy suppliers are get to keep, they are collecting the money for third parties.

Spoonie_Turtle

markin said:

You store in in LNG bottles/tanks, Or petrol cans/tanks, or the like the member that has stored it as £200 on a top up meter and £200 on the key.

No, that's not storing energy,  that's  storing credit.  The others are wrong answers, I asked about your mains gas and electricity. 

Brie

Ectophile said:

But if you want Tesco to deliver the beans to you, that's £3.99 a month.  Or £6.99 if you want your beans delivered the same day.

But that's an optional extra for those rich enough to afford it.  By not opting for home delivery and going to the shop myself I can avoid having to pay for such extortionate extra infrastructure.

Astria

Brie said:

Ectophile said:

But if you want Tesco to deliver the beans to you, that's £3.99 a month.  Or £6.99 if you want your beans delivered the same day.

But that's an optional extra for those rich enough to afford it.  By not opting for home delivery and going to the shop myself I can avoid having to pay for such extortionate extra infrastructure.

Likewise, there are places that you can take a battery to in order to get it charged and use it at home, avoiding the standing charge, but they are likely to charge you more than it'll cost to do it yourself at home. This is the very reason why things like petrol have a minimum charge of typically 2 litres - to pay the service charge. You only need to take a litre if you want, but you'll be charged for 2 litres regardless.

The standing charge was once included in a very similar way, but it was separated to make comparison easier.

Brie

Astria said:

This is the very reason why things like petrol have a minimum charge of typically 2 litres - to pay the service charge. You only need to take a litre if you want, but you'll be charged for 2 litres regardless.

The standing charge was once included in a very similar way, but it was separated to make comparison easier.

Seriously?  there's a minimum charge for petrol?  I've never seen anything to indicate this at the pumps and would refuse to pay for more than what I'd taken - assuming I'm ever in a situation where I only needed 1 litre!  (I'm usually running on fumes when I fill the toy car...)

I don't know how separating out the standing charge can be considered to make comparisons easier.  If you're looking for a dual fuel deal it means you have 4 things to compare instead of just 2.

EssexHebridean

Brie said:

Ectophile said:

But if you want Tesco to deliver the beans to you, that's £3.99 a month.  Or £6.99 if you want your beans delivered the same day.

But that's an optional extra for those rich enough to afford it.  By not opting for home delivery and going to the shop myself I can avoid having to pay for such extortionate extra infrastructure.

In fairness it might not be optional for someone not in good enough health to be able to go themselves.

Someone mentioned telephone services earlier in the thread I think - it used to be that you had to pay line rental for having a telephone service whether you then use the phone or not. Mine now comes bundled in with my broadband, but if for whatever reason I chose to not have it bundled that way, I assume I've be paying a fee still for the line, before any calls were factored in? If so, I'm guessing that proportionately it is far higher than most people will be paying on energy SC's? 

diystarter7 said:

MikeJXE said:

diystarter7 said:

Hi

Standing charges vary area to area and reasons behind this

Thanks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60878314

diystarter7 said:

Hi

Standing charges vary area to area and reasons behind this

Thanks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60878314

Interesting 

So it's not so much an increase in infrastructure costs it's more of a tax to pay for companies that have gone bust

The companies that went bust I assume had money in the bank and spent some that didn't  belonged to them it belonged to their customers

They got it by taking excess direct debits and in some cases not enough  just like is happening now 

I had a big row with OVO about my unjustified DD increase that has put me over £250 in credit paying £125 a month instead of what I'm using £90 a month 

Thank goodness I leave them next month and have done a home move and got my DD for next month down to £5 yes five pounds finally admitting they were taking too much. 

TBH, until I read the BBC link I wrongly thought the standing charges were the sames in England - just shows the tricks of making money.

It doesn't because firstly the costs of the infrastructure vary depending where you are in the UK, and second, the suppliers are currently capped at just under 2% profit, I believe. The SC isn't profit making anyway as far as I recall - it's a set amount - some suppliers choose to subsidise it a fraction, but that is then from their own (tiny allowed) profit.

peter3hg

Brie said:

Astria said:

This is the very reason why things like petrol have a minimum charge of typically 2 litres - to pay the service charge. You only need to take a litre if you want, but you'll be charged for 2 litres regardless.

The standing charge was once included in a very similar way, but it was separated to make comparison easier.

Seriously?  there's a minimum charge for petrol?  I've never seen anything to indicate this at the pumps and would refuse to pay for more than what I'd taken - assuming I'm ever in a situation where I only needed 1 litre!  (I'm usually running on fumes when I fill the toy car...)

I don't know how separating out the standing charge can be considered to make comparisons easier.  If you're looking for a dual fuel deal it means you have 4 things to compare instead of just 2.

You won't find a petrol pump in the UK that doesn't say something like "Minimum Delivery 2 Litres".
This actually has nothing to do with a standing charge, it is because the pumps are only certified to be accurate above a minimal level of delivery, which is normally 2 litres. Petrol stations shouldn't sell less than that because the accuracy of what was dispensed isn't assured.

skycatcher

Most of the electricity suppliers in NI have combined the standing charge into the unit price so you only pay for what you use. The major gas supplier has also just scrapped its minimum usgae charge which was akin  to a standing charge but still has a tiered usage charge with a higher unit rate for the first 2500 units.

Astria

Brie said:

Astria said:

This is the very reason why things like petrol have a minimum charge of typically 2 litres - to pay the service charge. You only need to take a litre if you want, but you'll be charged for 2 litres regardless.

The standing charge was once included in a very similar way, but it was separated to make comparison easier.

Seriously?  there's a minimum charge for petrol?  I've never seen anything to indicate this at the pumps and would refuse to pay for more than what I'd taken - assuming I'm ever in a situation where I only needed 1 litre!  (I'm usually running on fumes when I fill the toy car...)

So you've never seen anything like this?

Brie

Astria said:

Brie said:

Seriously?  there's a minimum charge for petrol?  I've never seen anything to indicate this at the pumps and would refuse to pay for more than what I'd taken - assuming I'm ever in a situation where I only needed 1 litre!  (I'm usually running on fumes when I fill the toy car...)

So you've never seen anything like this?

No - I never have!  And I just filled up yesterday.  I guess I've been too busy making sure I'm loading the car with petrol rather than diesel and not paying for the more expensive stuff when I'm happy with the discount brand.