Heads up for Plugin owners - CYC to start charging a connection fee

[johalareewi]

Charge Your Car (CYC) are to start charging a £1 connection fee from 1 May 2017.  This appears to apply to both CYC app users and RFID card users. Even those who already pay an annual charge for the RFID card.  Makes having the card a bit pointless.

Linky

https://chargeyourcarsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002220765-Connection-Fee-FAQs

 

[johalareewi]

Have got confirmation from CYC that the £1 admin fee applies to annual RFID card users as well as app users.  The only benefit of paying £20 a year for the RFID card is so you can use CYC charge points that are not available via the app.  The admin fee makes CYC uneconomical for plugin Prius use (unless petrol reaches £1.50 a litre).  I was (not) amused by this on their FAQ

I drive a plug-in hybrid, is it still cost effective for me to charge my car now that there is a connection fee?

In short, yes! A full charge on most plug-in hybrids can get you up to 30 miles electric range. Even with a £1 connection fee on the Charge Your Car network, this is still considerable cheaper than using petrol as driving 30 miles on petrol in the average plug-in hybrid would cost around £4, saving you around 75% by plugging in!

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Idiots don't realise we're not all 30MPH HV mode outlander drivers.

[johalareewi]

If you have a Polar Plus card, you can use all the CYC charge points (including the free ones) and CYC don't charge Polar customers the £1 admin fee either.

Unfortunately, CYC card holders can't use their cards on the Polar charge points. :(

Seems a bit bonkers because Polar now own CYC. Perhaps Polar want all the CYC card holders to migrate to Polar Plus?