Take a look at the picture above....it's a man trying to work out his gas and electricity bill.
Well, British Gas has just become the latest supplier to increase its prices dramatically, hot on the heels of Scottish Power thereby putting BG back in it's place as the country's most expensive energy supplier. God alone knows why so many people buy from them! They must be nuts...
Anyway, I get my gas and electric from Scottish Power who you will recall put their prices up by an 'average' of 10% and 19% so I thought I'd just share with you exactly what that maths means when it says 'average'
Here are the old and new figures for my no standing charge tariff together with the actual percentage increases :
Electric (quoted as +10%) :
First 225 KWh/quarter up from 15.012p to 20.529p - up 37%
Remainder in the quarter up from 8.745p to 10.378p - up 19%
Gas (quoted as +19%) :
First 670 KWh/quarter up from 5.152p to 7.66p - up 49%
Remainder in the quarter up from 2.196p to 3.524p - up 60%
Anyone see a pattern here? Yep, you spotted it - the 10% and 19% figures quoted are complete and utter bollocks...
Being a reasonable sort of chap (yes, really), I asked for an explanation. The answer is of course that the increases publicised are based on an 'industry standard model' for an 'average user' based on the standard tariff. The problem is of course that only a nutter would be on the standard tariff because there's always a cheaper one available. And of course no-one actually fits the average user profile anyway.
So there you have it. We are being misled and ripped off yet again.
No wonder these bastards are making record profits...