[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

The notion of zero standing charge was for me a con. the total costs to me under zero standing charge and the usual standing charge proved to be exactly the same. Because of that I never have had a zero price standing charge tariff. I'm a self confessed rate ****, and never felt any compunction to stay with a supplier if they didn't offer me near enough the best competitive price available - although the saving had to be say £15 to make it worthwhile to go through the faff of switching.

The price capped variable rate used to still higher than fixed rate deals. That for the moment that has gone, but I look forward to the time of their return.

[retrotecchie]

Back then, I worked away for nine months of the year. If the fridge was empty and nothing in the freezer, I'd just turn the main breaker off and turn it back on when I came home a couple of weeks later. A few zero use weeks every month, £50-£100 back for a couple of referrals, put a couple of hundred a month credit on the account as a savings scheme that paid better than an ISA. No standing charges but a slightly higher unit rate suited me just fine.

In the early days of PAYG mobiles, I was shocked that you had to put a tenner on the phone, of which half paid for a month of line rental and you got a fiver of calls. And some months, you'd need credit but you line rental was good, or needed line rental but had plenty of call credit. Just like standing charges and unit usage. Vodafone and Cellnet soon bowed to consumer pressure and scrapped that system.