[EdH]

I haven't had any issues with PodPoint... I just pre-load the account and my charges get debited... simple

Simple, well I use them only because they are half the price of competitors. Life would not be simple at all if all charge providers required you to preload an account and use a telephone signal to get a charge. No, it's a flawed system.

 

[EdH]

Clearly we are aggrieved because these accounts in credit represent money that's in Pod Point's account rather than ours, benefiting them through interest. In every sense it's like money in our bank accounts which benefits the bank rather than us but allows banks to give us free banking and develop their business. You could look at it from the point of view that the small amounts we all pay to Pod Point to keep our accounts in credit help them to develop their business and improve the charging infrastructure.

That's a very valid point. I still think though that this business model is likely to fail in the long run. Customers want to connect, tap their debit or credit card and pay, just like almost all transactions these days.

 

[EdH]

I would want that if there was no prepayment. I hate pre-payment and it can be a devil of a job to get the money back if the charge fails.

Also possibly true. It just hasn't happened to me yet. I liken paying for charging to paying to park by tapping your card at the barrier and I've never seen pre-payments when paying to park. It's really up to the charging providers to sort this out.

 

[EdH]

Totally valid response.
What I said about business models in post 22 suggests that, as chargers become more common, people generally will become more focussed on the T&Cs of charging than just being glad to get a charger at (almost) any cost.

Possibly, but pod point charges half what the others do per kWh. Many of their chargers are in helpful locations. On my recent 15 day road trip, they just happened to provide charging and sustenance (at Tesco or Lidl) at the same time, so no "wasted" time. What I don't understand is how they manage to do it?

 

[EdH]

Did not VW have to do something to atone for not selling enough EVs so they paid Tesco to set up charging. No doubt Tesco's electricity supplier is still giving them a reasonable deal and some cheap transaction process sorts out a few coppers either way. Lidl, could be similar. The big Tesco stores were developed 20 years or more ago and you can bet new lighting and refrigeration uses much less power these days so there was a big overhead in the electricity supply to use. Round here some have 2x22 kW 2x7 kW and a 50 kW. That would be well within scope of a refurbished 10,000 m3 store?

Yes, that and the free 7kW chargers makes Tesco and Lidl sites very popular, as I found out on my trip. I think, however, it skews the market too much. It would be interesting to see a price war from the likes of Gridserve, Instavolt and Osprey but that will depend on good profits being made. Has anyone done a back of an envelope calculation to estimate the current profits being made?

 

[EdH]

A similar set up exists for the Dartford crossing, but you do get a substantial discount for depositing your money with them. Works fine for me.

 

[EdH]

The majority of CPOs complied with that law. Podpoint seem to have tried hard to circumvent it, as they hide the option to pay as what they call a "guest" (what I'd call a normal customer) and make the big button on their website look like the only way to pay for a charge. It's clearly a very deliberate deceptive practice - they could very easily do as many website sales outlets do, and have two clear options, open an account or just pay immediately. They choose to make the "guest" payment option far from obvious and a wee bit cryptic. That's deceitful IMHO. Also, they do not seem to be registered with the FCA, so by taking money from people and keeping it in their account they are not complying with the normal rules that are intended to protect consumers in the event of a company failing.

Interestingly though, on my recent trip, I accidentally paid with my bank card without using the app (which I normally do). 😅