MSE News: Energy Price Cap to FALL 12.3% on 1 April AND prepay becomes the cheapest way to pay.

Novice_investor101

tghe-retford said:

Bad news for very low electric users in the Northern region, you're now likely paying more in the standing charge than for your usage. And it's close to equilibrium for low users (using my own usage numbers).

I’ll use less than 1 unit of gas a month when Spring arrives & the heating is off & my electric usage will drop by half too as it usually does over summer. I’ll be paying £30 a month just in standing charge in Yorkshire. I’m a single income household, this is becoming unsustainable now. 

peter3hg

jrawle said:

mrsmac59 said:

How wonderful the news is today regarding drop in energy prices per kwh.
They give with one hand and take away in the other. Why could they not drop daily standing charge, instead they have to increase it totally immoral.People are struggling enough with living costs.

According to the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68353627

The regulator will add £28 to everyone's bill over a year to cover the cost of dealing with £3.1bn of debt that customers owe to suppliers.

That will pay for some debt to be written off for energy companies to offer repayment plans.

So the rise in standing charge is to help out people struggling to pay. Everyone contributes equally to this. You can't assume people with high usage are all people who are easily able to pay their bills, so should contribute more to this "social fund".

I don't think that is the case. Looking at the detailed OFGEM breakdown that has been added to the unit cost, not the standing charge.

The increase in standing charge for direct debit is partially due to the levelisation between direct debit and pre-payment (about 3p a day) but mainly due to increases in the daily distribution network charges.
These increases are very different across different regions and explain why some areas have seen big increases in standing charge and others have seen smaller increases:
These are the pence per day (before VAT) charged for the distribution network:



As can be seen the change in cost is massively varied and correlates pretty well to the change in standing charge. Without digging in to each areas calculations I don't know the reason for this variation.

What_time_is_it

jrawle said:

Swipe said:

Is it really worth switching to pre-pay though? I think I'd rather just pay the extra to stay on credit

How many people who pay by fixed direct debit are really on "credit" these days, though? It seems most suppliers set the monthly payment deliberately high so that people are always in credit anyway, effectively pre-paying.

I try to make sure that I always have a debit balance where I possibly can. Whenever they try and up my direct debit payment I try to argue it down. I don't want to have a credit balance sitting with them.

Swipe

For the sake of a couple of hundred quid of credit for 6 months of the year, I'm really not bothered.

What_time_is_it

Swipe said:

For the sake of a couple of hundred quid of credit for 6 months of the year, I'm really not bothered.

The problem is when some people are always in credit. And often it would be useful for these people to be able to access and spend this money which is, after all, their money.

Swipe

What_time_is_it said:

Swipe said:

For the sake of a couple of hundred quid of credit for 6 months of the year, I'm really not bothered.

The problem is when some people are always in credit. And often it would be useful for these people to be able to access and spend this money which is, after all, their money.

They should pay by variable direct debit then

t0rt0ise

What_time_is_it said:

jrawle said:

Swipe said:

Is it really worth switching to pre-pay though? I think I'd rather just pay the extra to stay on credit

How many people who pay by fixed direct debit are really on "credit" these days, though? It seems most suppliers set the monthly payment deliberately high so that people are always in credit anyway, effectively pre-paying.

I try to make sure that I always have a debit balance where I possibly can. Whenever they try and up my direct debit payment I try to argue it down. I don't want to have a credit balance sitting with them.

Then you should consider paying by variable direct debit. Then you are effectively in debit constantly and don't have the bother of arguing with them.

What_time_is_it

t0rt0ise said:

What_time_is_it said:

jrawle said:

Swipe said:

Is it really worth switching to pre-pay though? I think I'd rather just pay the extra to stay on credit

How many people who pay by fixed direct debit are really on "credit" these days, though? It seems most suppliers set the monthly payment deliberately high so that people are always in credit anyway, effectively pre-paying.

I try to make sure that I always have a debit balance where I possibly can. Whenever they try and up my direct debit payment I try to argue it down. I don't want to have a credit balance sitting with them.

Then you should consider paying by variable direct debit. Then you are effectively in debit constantly and don't have the bother of arguing with them.

It's no bother. I don't mind the idea of variable debit debit, but I'm happy with it as it stands - a regular payment that changes every 6 months or so and always works in my favour.

PennineAcute

If being in credit means I can have the cheaper Tracker and Agile rates, then I am prepared to do so. As things stand, at the end of the month, I will be around £30 in credit.  Yes, I could go onto variable, but, as my income is tight, I would prefer not to.  £77 a month I am paying at the moment - much better than what I would be paying on prepay.

Please leave SC alone.  Whatever system is used, there will be some winners and losers. 

wrf12345

The increase in s/c is pure politics so there is a good sound bite pre-election about falling costs and the energy co's can claw back some of the money "lost" from the s/c... the problem is a lot of people are not that stupid and won't vote for a govn that allows this (and even more rip-off council taxes)