Hi there, ye thats absolutely right all companys now days charge you basically rent for having there meter in your house. If you have a credit meter then it should be tied into the cost of your bill at the end of each quarter, if your pre-payment then they charge you it daily. Th only company that doesn't charge you is british gas because they put it into there rates for example.

If you were with b.g then you might pay about 8p for each kilo watt hour, where as if you are with Npower then they might charge you 15p a day then charge 3p per kilo but it depends on how much you use whether its benificial to go with b.g or Npower or whoever else.

nPower got in to a stushie over their standing charges and their creative interpretation of what a tariff 'year' was. Unfortunately Ofgem have shamefully just reported on this theft and delivered one of the most abject and complicit whitewashes ever. But disregarding that...

The daily/annual standing charges have been reintroduced by nPower. But they are still cheaper than other companies non-daily but still present two tier standing charges (and similar to others.) The only disadvantage is that they may not be beneficial if you have no heating on over summer. Typical charges with other companies vary from up to £13.50 to up to £39 per quarter so they are competitive.

I am in the process of switching to n power from Eon . I have been with the latter for quite a few years so feel a novice! The one thing that concerned me is that I got a letter from N Power yesterday and it states standing charges of £16.25/£17.06 for electricity and £11.25/£11.81 quarterly for gas. Perhaps I am mistaken that standing charges like these no longer exist with most companies?