Utility Bills

[artyman]

As to public or private ownership perhaps where consumers have no choice whether or not to use a commodity or service it should be in public ownership as part of the fabric of society. We have to use water we have to travel (public transport here) we have to use gas/electric. It seems a little strange that profit should be made from things that are unavoidable.

My costs 3 bed semi on South Coast
Gas/Electric £1200
Rates £1340
Water £610

 

[Druk]

We’re with OVO Energy. Cannot fault them.

 

[Darrell]

Hi,
Just for a bit of comparison!

Water and Electricity - £7200
Home phone, cable TV and internet -£3408
Mobile phones (2 on contract)- £2880
Bottled gas for cooking - £120
Home insurance - £165
All the above are for 1 year.

4 bedroom, modern villa in Abu Dhabi

Cheers
Steve

Wow!!

 

[Deleted member 65149]

We’re with OVO Energy. Cannot fault them.

Ditto. Plus they pay a higher rate of interest on excess DD payments than any bank savings account.

 

[grober]

i

Hi,
Just for a bit of comparison!

Water and Electricity - £7200
Home phone, cable TV and internet -£3408
Mobile phones (2 on contract)- £2880
Bottled gas for cooking - £120
Home insurance - £165
All the above are for 1 year.

4 bedroom, modern villa in Abu Dhabi

Cheers
Steve

Seems steep but I'm going to assume the big electric bill is down to air conditioning and your Cable TV and internet are satellite based??

 

[Scott_F]

Ditto. Plus they pay a higher rate of interest on excess DD payments than any bank savings account.

Ah yes, another "feature" of the privatised utilities markets.

In the bad old days, somebody came and read your meter and you were then sent a bill telling you exactly what you had used and exactly what you owed. Simple.

Now, you have to agree to set up a monthly direct debit (it was compulsory when I last changed provider) which allows them to pluck a figure out of their ar$e and charge what they feel like. So you end up overpaying in the summer for gas and electricity that you may (or may not) use the following winter !

And yes, you can chase them to get your money back - but you shouldn't have to. And yes, some smaller suppliers pay you interest on the money that they're holding in your account but most suppliers don't. The net result is that the energy companies make a fortune in interest on nearly £1 BILLION of customers' money that they shouldn't have had in the first place:

Households owed £928m* in overpaid energy bills

 

[AMGeed]

i


Seems steep but I'm going to assume the big electric bill is down to air conditioning and your Cable TV and internet are satellite based??

It's because Steve isn't a UAE national. Compare Expats and non UAE prices with UAE passport holders and see the big difference.
https://www.addc.ae/en-US/residential/Documents/02-English.pdf

Phones and internet are a perfect example of zero competiton. Etisalat, as the Abu Dhabi telecoms giant run a more or less competition free industry and charge the earth for the priviledge. As you guessed, yes cable and tv is satellite based and far more expensive than cabled.

It should also be considered that the average wage for UAE nationals is 32,000 AED (Approx £6400 per month) and that is 80% higher than expats wages.

So, Steve above is paying a lot more than a local would, but still has the advantage of earning probably a lot more there than in a similar position in the UK

 

[Darrell]

It's because Steve isn't a UAE national. Compare Expats and non UAE prices with UAE passport holders and see the big difference.
https://www.addc.ae/en-US/residential/Documents/02-English.pdf

Phones and internet are a perfect example of zero competiton. Etisalat, as the Abu Dhabi telecoms giant run a more or less competition free industry and charge the earth for the priviledge. As you guessed, yes cable and tv is satellite based and far more expensive than cabled.

It should also be considered that the average wage for UAE nationals is 32,000 AED (Approx £6400 per month) and that is 80% higher than expats wages.

So, Steve above is paying a lot more than a local would, but still has the advantage of earning probably a lot more there than in a similar position in the UK

Thanks for pointing out the blindingly obvious.

 

[AMGeed]

Thanks for pointing out the blindingly obvious.

Obvious to some, but not everyone Darrell.

 

[Darrell]

Obvious to some, but not everyone Darrell.

I’d like to think that the members of this forum are educated, sophisticated, intelligent, well travelled and worldly people. For the many years that I’ve been a member I can most certainly see this.

 

[190]

I don't know why people are concerned about the lack of competiveness amongst big energy providers as there is no requirement to use them. The last 3 suppliers I've used have been Extra Energy, GB Energy and Economy Energy. Before signing up I hadn't heard of any of them. They can go bust and GB energy did, but it's not an issue as your supply won't be interrupted and the regulator will ensure your account is taken on by another provider. The only way the market will become competitive overall is if more customers are prepared to switch and switch often.

 

[AMGeed]

I’d like to think that the members of this forum are educated, sophisticated, intelligent, well travelled and worldly people. For the many years that I’ve been a member I can most certainly see this.

Yeah right, everyone on the forum knows the reason why UAE utilities are so expensive. I shouldn't have bothered should I?

 

[Scott_F]

I don't know why people are concerned about the lack of competiveness amongst big energy providers as there is no requirement to use them. The last 3 suppliers I've used have been Extra Energy, GB Energy and Economy Energy. Before signing up I hadn't heard of any of them. They can go bust and GB energy did, but it's not an issue as your supply won't be interrupted and the regulator will ensure your account is taken on by another provider. The only way the market will become competitive overall is if more customers are prepared to switch and switch often.

It's not that simple.

Energy suppliers deliberately confuse their customers with complex and opaque bills that make it difficult to see whether it is worthwhile switching and if so where to go. Even though Ofgem finally acted on this issue, the changes brought in haven't changed things very much:

Customers are still confused over their energy bills, and it’s costing them money

Even when you do switch, you are usually locked into attractive but short term tariffs and prices shoot up once the agreed period has elapsed (the providers know all about apathy and bank on a fair percentage of their customers carrying on paying the higher rate rather than changing supplier). It is unfair to present customers with a stark choice between being overcharged or having to go through the process of constantly changing suppliers in order to get something approaching a fair deal.

 

[Steveml63]

i


Seems steep but I'm going to assume the big electric bill is down to air conditioning and your Cable TV and internet are satellite based??

Hi,
The electricity bill is certainly because of air conditioning.
In general aircon accounts for about 70% of electrical usage in this country.
Even though we pay a higher tariff than locals - it is still subsidised and cheaper per unit than UK costs.
Our TV comes into the house over the same fibre optic cable as the telephone and Internet (100mps connection). We don’t have a satellite dish.
Mobile phones - there are now three providers but their prices are nearly the same. However - they all seem to share base stations - so we have amazing 4g coverage nearly everywhere.
Luckily, our wages are considerably higher than equivalent in UK and no income tax to pay!
Cheers
Steve

 

[190]

Energy suppliers deliberately confuse their customers with complex and opaque bills that make it difficult to see whether it is worthwhile switching and if so where to go. Even though Ofgem finally acted on this issue, the changes brought in haven't changed things very much:

I see nothing confusing about energy tariffs. It's simply the standing charge plus the unit rate times the amount of energy used. I agree the bills are confusing but I'm not much interested in them as I already know how much energy I've used. To get the lowest tariffs you do have to be one of those without apathy and be prepared to move supplier often. It's a simple painless process though, all done online which is one thing the regulator has influenced for the better. If we are prepared to swap insurance providers every year why not energy. It's no more difficult.

 

[Darrell]

Do the Emirates pay less for their utilities than everybody else?

 

[Scott_F]

I see nothing confusing about energy tariffs. It's simply the standing charge plus the unit rate times the amount of energy used. I agree the bills are confusing but I'm not much interested in them as I already know how much energy I've used. To get the lowest tariffs you do have to be one of those without apathy and be prepared to move supplier often. It's a simple painless process though, all done online which is one thing the regulator has influenced for the better. If we are prepared to swap insurance providers every year why not energy. It's no more difficult.

Well for one thing the insurance market isn't dominated by just six large providers acting as a cartel. For another, gas and electricity for our homes are essential commodities which we all use and must have whereas insurance isn't. And for yet another, insurance wasn't once a publically-owned industry which is now in private hands.

Yes we can change energy supplier (please remember that many old people, poorer people and vulnerable people are not on-line and don't use a mobile device) but the onus shouldn't be on the consumer (in a captive market) to continually go through this process in order to avoid being ripped off. The onus should be on the suppliers to offer constantly fair prices which I'm afraid is something that they don't do and which is manifestly unfair.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Do the Emirates pay less for their utilities than everybody else?

It’s blindingly obvious

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Well for one thing the insurance market isn't dominated by just six large providers acting as a cartel. For another, gas and electricity for our homes are essential commodities which we all use and must have whereas insurance isn't. And for yet another, insurance wasn't once a publically-owned industry which is now in private hands.

Yes we can change energy supplier (please remember that many old people, poorer people and vulnerable people are not on-line and don't use a mobile device) but the onus shouldn't be on the consumer (in a captive market) to continually go through this process in order to avoid being ripped off. The onus should be on the suppliers to offer constantly fair prices which I'm afraid is something that they don't do and which is manifestly unfair.

Gas isn’t essential. My son isn’t alone in living in a house that doesn’t have a gas supply. Those of us who have access to gas mostly have chosen it for its convenience. We can actually get by without it, although for most of us the alternatives would be more expensive.

 

[Darrell]

It’s blindingly obvious

Love to see what would happen in the UK if the government decided to charge non-Brits more for their utilities.