[Frank1]

Big changes on the way reguarding standing charges..
all companies from winter 2025/26 have to offer at least 1 tariff with no standing charge according to ofcom..
yesterday i recieved a email from utilita saying as from 7th of september 2025 i would be charged 42p a day standing charge because they couldnt upgrade my meter by remote , even though 2weeks ago i had a letter saying my meter would be upgraded by remote and i didnt need to do anything .. last month i used £8 in electric next month the standing charges there bringing on will be that before i even use any electric..
i rang prepaid helpline utilita india and by what words i could make out that sounded englishy they comfirmed the 42p a day standing charge..
there english was so bad i rang sales who always speak good english because they want your buisness , a scottish guy there told me he had never heard of a standing charge with utilita , i agreed with him but today got comfirmation by email from utilita that from 7th september i would be charged 42p daily standing charge unless i had my 3year old smart meter installed by utilita replaced..
this is the wrong time for utilita to start slipping in the standing charge with other companies about to anounce zero standing charge tariffs 😄

[PeteC]

Hi @Frank1

Thanks for getting in touch!

I understand your frustration with the introduction of standing charges onto your energy tariff. Whilst it's not something that is standard for us - indeed one of the main selling points for Utilita is that we don't generally charge a standing charge, and this is always something that we've been proud to offer - for certain meter types it has become a necessity due to a recent software update.

Older, first generation meters (known as SMETS1 meters) have recently undergone a software update to enable them to communicate with our systems in the same way as the newer second generation (or SMETS2) meters. Due to the way the software update has been implemented, these meters will no longer be able to offer a non standing charge tariff.

The good news is that the tariff that has been introduced for these meters takes these standing charges into account. The unit rates for this tariff are lower than the regular tariff we offer, to factor in these charges, so there will no longer be the initial 2kWh "premium" rate at the beginning of every day. This will mean that customers with a regular usage will not see much of an impact.

We do appreciate, however, that customers who have a low usage, or who own properties that are vacant, may be impacted by this more than others. In these instances, we would be happy to arrange an installation of newer, second generation smart meters, as their hardware isn't impacted by this update, and are still able to offer the non standing charge tariffs.

I'd be happy to help with this in more detail for you, please send me a Direct Message with some account information, including your account number, full name, first line of address and your postcode, and I'll be happy to see what option works best for you.

Many thanks
Pete

[Frank1]

Thank you for the word salad copy and paste reply..
I already have a upto date smart meter installed by utilita August 2022..
After receiving email from utilita saying if I didn't book install I would be switched onto new tariff 7th September 2025 I tried to book install but system said "YOU CANNOT BOOK INSTALL BECAUSE YOU ALREADY HAVE A SMART METER"..
this morning I called utilita (again) they told me ignore email you will be staying on same E7 smart tariff on 7th September , they could not explain why previously they had advised me I would be switching to new tariff with 42p daily standing charge, they also couldn't explain why I had received a email from utilita confirming this..
So basically there left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing..
I will wait and see what happens on 7th September then update the thread..