If an unused phone charger left plugged in apparently costs me money as its using my electricity, how does this not apply to a socket outlet that has a built in USB.
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Here’s the thing: you can’t just “use up” energy. The energy has to go somewhere. In the case of a plugged-in phone charger, if electricity from your wall socket isn’t going into charging a battery, then the only other way that the charger could be drawing electricity is if that electricity is being turned into heat, which is wasted energy as far as you’re concerned. If there’s no charging and no heat, then no electricity is being used.
Which is why the following is a good rule of thumb (from [xkcd](https://what-if.xkcd.com/35/)):
>If an unused charger isn’t warm to the touch, it’s using less than a penny of electricity a day. For a small smartphone charger, if it’s not warm to the touch, it’s using less than a penny a **year**.
So in short, the amounts of wasted energy that we’re talking about are simply negligible.
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