Standing Charges and Prepayment meters

alibean121

EssexHebridean said:

That Liverpool Echo article is yet another one trotting out the tired inaccurate old line about prepayment meters being more expensive. Makes me question whether they have researched any of the other stuff in the piece, as clearly they didn’t bother researching that! 

Well it is more expensive. Maybe not the significant amount it used to be. I have a spreadsheet as I’m trying and failing to get my smart prepayment meters clicked over to credit mode at the moment.

The gas in particular is an extra £8 a month for my actual usage the last couple of months vs what it would be on the direct debit tariff. Electric is about £1 more per month. 

diystarter7

Hi and thanks to @alibean121

@E@EssexHebridean

Some more from another credible source

The Government is looking to change the way the devices work to enable suppliers to charge more for electricity at peak times and less at times of low demand. Smart meters can already send half-hourly use reports, but at the moment customers must “opt in” to do this. 

Ofgem is changing the rules so that this frequen......

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/why-smart-meters-bad-safe-energy-bills-rise-increase-2022/

pochase

And what are you going to do if the rates are increased for everybody to the peak rates you mentioned, but smart meter customers get a "discount" during off peak?

It is much more likely that it would be handled by rewarding the smart meter customers.

diystarter7

I doubt it. Just look at the history of pre-pay meters and pricing mate.

EssexHebridean

Well for an apparently "credible source" that Telegraph article contains a whole lot of nonsense, backed up with several skip-loads of speculation!   Hey ho - gotta love the media!  

alibean121 said:

EssexHebridean said:

That Liverpool Echo article is yet another one trotting out the tired inaccurate old line about prepayment meters being more expensive. Makes me question whether they have researched any of the other stuff in the piece, as clearly they didn’t bother researching that! 

Well it is more expensive. Maybe not the significant amount it used to be. I have a spreadsheet as I’m trying and failing to get my smart prepayment meters clicked over to credit mode at the moment.

The gas in particular is an extra £8 a month for my actual usage the last couple of months vs what it would be on the direct debit tariff. Electric is about £1 more per month. 

You don't say who your supplier is, but a lot do now have tariffs that can work out cheaper for prepay/PAYG electric. I specifically stated electricity in my earlier post because yes, Gas IS still more expensive across the board so far as I'm aware - although happy to be corrected on that if that isn't the case. Standing charges on electric are still mostly higher than on DD, but using EDF as an example the overall unit rate is cheaper in many regions. For lower users this can make it a few pence per day more costly, for higher single rate users and most E7 users it will work out more cost effective on prepay though. (There is one region of the UK where apparently the off peak rate for EDF E7 users is currently under 1p/kWh - a significant saving for someone using NSH's and an immersion heater over being on Direct Debit - at  7p a unit. the payment method that is routinely more expensive is payment on receipt of bill - sometimes known as Cash/Cheque - which makes it ironic that so often folk worried about their DD amount are urged to cancel it to "save money"!  

The "history of prepay meters and pricing" is that they used to be far more expensive, and that more recently that gap has closed significantly, and in some cases, reversed. 

markin

None of them will define what is meant by

"The consumer watchdog has found 3.2 million people in Britain on a prepayment meter were cut off in 2022, the equivalent of one every 10 seconds,"

Running out of credit is perfectly normal, Everyone is forgetful at times, Now if it meant they didn't top up for a 2 days, A week or month they may have a point.

EssexHebridean

markin said:

None of them will define what is meant by

"The consumer watchdog has found 3.2 million people in Britain on a prepayment meter were cut off in 2022, the equivalent of one every 10 seconds,"

Running out of credit is perfectly normal, Everyone is forgetful at times, Now if it meant they didn't top up for a 2 days, A week or month they may have a point.

if they'd quoted 2021 figures my Parents in Law would have been among that number - the day after arriving in their new home when I discovered that the meters were prepayment. The discovery was made approximately 30 seconds after the lights went out...

Scot_39

EssexHebridean said:

That Liverpool Echo article is yet another one trotting out the tired inaccurate old line about prepayment meters being more expensive. Makes me question whether they have researched any of the other stuff in the piece, as clearly they didn’t bother researching that! 

Surely now depends very much on use.

As the standing charges are much higher (iirc 9p PP cf DD electric here) - but the unit rates - are for now - marginally cheaper -  c1p cf DD.

The people currently paying more - seem to be standard credit - higher rates and standing charges than DD.

EssexHebridean

Scot_39 said:

EssexHebridean said:

That Liverpool Echo article is yet another one trotting out the tired inaccurate old line about prepayment meters being more expensive. Makes me question whether they have researched any of the other stuff in the piece, as clearly they didn’t bother researching that! 

Surely now depends very much on use.

As the standing charges are much higher (iirc 9p PP cf DD electric here) - but the unit rates - are for now - marginally cheaper -  c1p cf DD.

The people currently paying more - seem to be standard credit - higher rates and standing charges than DD.

This is where reading the thread is helpful… 😉 (And trust me, there have been so many times I’ve responded as reading through and then found questions have already been answered! 🤦🏻‍♀️) 

EssexHebridean said:

Well for an apparently "credible source" that Telegraph article contains a whole lot of nonsense, backed up with several skip-loads of speculation!   Hey ho - gotta love the media!  

alibean121 said:

EssexHebridean said:

That Liverpool Echo article is yet another one trotting out the tired inaccurate old line about prepayment meters being more expensive. Makes me question whether they have researched any of the other stuff in the piece, as clearly they didn’t bother researching that! 

Well it is more expensive. Maybe not the significant amount it used to be. I have a spreadsheet as I’m trying and failing to get my smart prepayment meters clicked over to credit mode at the moment.

The gas in particular is an extra £8 a month for my actual usage the last couple of months vs what it would be on the direct debit tariff. Electric is about £1 more per month. 

You don't say who your supplier is, but a lot do now have tariffs that can work out cheaper for prepay/PAYG electric. I specifically stated electricity in my earlier post because yes, Gas IS still more expensive across the board so far as I'm aware - although happy to be corrected on that if that isn't the case. Standing charges on electric are still mostly higher than on DD, but using EDF as an example the overall unit rate is cheaper in many regions. For lower users this can make it a few pence per day more costly, for higher single rate users and most E7 users it will work out more cost effective on prepay though. (There is one region of the UK where apparently the off peak rate for EDF E7 users is currently under 1p/kWh - a significant saving for someone using NSH's and an immersion heater over being on Direct Debit - at  7p a unit. the payment method that is routinely more expensive is payment on receipt of bill - sometimes known as Cash/Cheque - which makes it ironic that so often folk worried about their DD amount are urged to cancel it to "save money"!  

The "history of prepay meters and pricing" is that they used to be far more expensive, and that more recently that gap has closed significantly, and in some cases, reversed. 

BIB refers.

diystarter7

Ak yourselves this, why are people that are given no option other than a pre-pay meter complain.