To be disappointed with Bulb

[savingthepennies]

Recently switched to Bulb.

Not even paid my first direct debit and they've emailed me to say my monthly payments will increase by up to £15 a month!

Typical.


Off to look at other suppliers and will be looking for a fixed price.

Anyone have any recommendations?

[CurbsideProphet]

Bulb want to up our monthly payments by £9.90 pcm. We'll be switching again after we've had a look at the Money Saving Expert website. It's a shame, as we liked their ethos.

[Fireworks91]

They started out pricier than my old provider but was happy to make that choice. Even with the projected £5 p/m increase they emailed about the maximum saving I could make by switching would be £6p/m according to U Switch so not fussed about that.

I like the app, I like how easy it is to check and add readings and it feels very transparent and easy to use.

[PatchworkGirl]

My first rise in the year I've been with them - £5.something a month. I'll do another comparison of course, but generally pleased with them.

[specialsubject]

the big six pay for the warm home discount. bothered?

greenwashing millenials in a London office ( why London??) bribing for new customers are not a sustainable business model.

do the real.sums and get on a fix to.minimise price increase. you cant save with prices rising at 20% a year.

[Waterlemon]

Mse energy club is brilliant
You can compare tariffs plus read and review the suppliers feedback.
I have set up a warning email so it will send me an email if it can find a better deal.

Just make sure you regularly read your meter. We are with EDF who seriously underestimated our readings so we now have hefty arrears to pay. All could have been avoided if We’d sent regular readings (EDF were not good at reminding/requesting readings)

[Easynow]

I want mine capped. Is there such a thing? Not fixed.

[Kisskiss]

There’s every chance wholesale prices keep rising. Gas storage stocks are low again and if this winter is cold wholesale prices will go nuts.. and it will feed into variable tariffs. This will drag up electricity prices in the uk as well..
The only way to not have your bliss move is to sign fix tariff contracts.. I used uswitch and found evonomy energy and aside from an initial mess up where they forgot to charge me for a year ( then blamed me even though it was an admin error on their part) they’ve been pretty good

[MojoMoon]

Easynow

Capping is possible by not consuming more than a certain amount of electricity and gas a month.

Turn the heating down, wear a big jumper, don't use the tumble dryer or dishwasher.

[Easynow]

Im very lucky to be in a new build that is always warm with triple glazing
.
No tumble drier.

BUT I could not live without the dishwasher.

[MojoMoon]

Small/independent/new firms can only compete on price when wholesale prices are falling (which they did for a few years).

This is because big suppliers hedge their risk by buying some of the power and gas years in advance. So if they expect to consume 10GWh in 2018, they will have bought 3GWh for 2018 delivery back in 2015, 3GWh in 2016, 3GWh in 2017 etc. If prices fell over that period, they will have already bought at higher prices and so struggle to cut their retail prices.new small companies may have bought it all in 2017 instead and so covered their supply at a lower cost
But now wholesale prices are rising, the opposite is happening. The big companies, who operate their hedging policies, have secured power earlier at a cheaper price. New suppliers who buy all their power and gas in the short term will have higher procurement costs.

Wholesale costs are likely to continue rising so I'd suggest signing up for 1-2 year fixed tariff.

And insulating your home and not using the tumble dryer as much.

[bridgetreilly]

I'm pretty happy with them, tbh. There's no mains gas where I live, so my electricity bills are dramatically different in summer and winter. I like that I can fix my DD amount myself, because I have a pretty good idea what my yearly amount is and can divide by 12. Every previous supplier I've had tries to work it out on a 6 monthly average, so I end up massively overpaying and then massively underpaying, which is incredibly annoying.

Even just the fact that I don't have to try to remember a password because they send me a login link every month makes them so much easier to use. And they did warn customers a month or two ago that it was likely prices were going to rise at some point. My email said I didn't need to increase my DD now, but I might need to in the future. I'm sticking with them.

[Easynow]

I was paying £65 a month in total to Sainsburys for both gas & electric.

Im hoping my switch to Bulb ( only started on 1st Sept) will be worth it.

[Easynow]

I only switched from B.Gas to Sainsburys a couple of years ago, so I could get the £100 Sainsburys gift card. The fuel prices were the same at the time.

I think B.Gas own Sainsburys energy.
Anyway it was worth a 5 minute switch for the £100.

[drivingmisspotty]

They were talking about this on radio 4 earlier and mentioned prices were likely to continue to rise. So it is best to go for a fixed tariff.

I have also just signed up to Bulb and they sent me the email saying my bill would increase by about £4 a month.

Hmmm, I am wondering now if I made the wrong decision and should have gone for something fixed. But I might just wait and see a little while. Not sure what happens if I cancel the switch a and start another one anyway I am worried it will get complicated!

[Easynow]

Leave it a month - then switch!

[Gudgyx]

I switched to bulb about 6 months ago from utilita - payments went from £120 a month to £50! And I’m still overpaying, apparently my usage is around £37 a month going by meter reads. Email says it’s going up by around £12 a month.

My accounts in about £260 credit because I’ve referred a few people and been overpaying to cover winter.

I’m staying. Been with a few different companies and so far bulb are by far the best.

[DrCoconut]

I'm currently paying £88 a month with bulb. British Gas wanted to charge me almost £200 .

[savingthepennies]

I think I'll go with Octopus and keep my eye on Bulb. I agree. I really liked their customer service and the price increase email was transparent. I'd been waiting to switch to them for ages, but had been paying down debit on my Scottish Power account. SP have called trying to get my to stay, but can't offer me anything cheaper. I have to wait three days before I can switch to Octopus as you have to wait 3 days in between cancelling and signing elsewhere.

[Haggisfish]

Ovo. Brilliant in every way.

[ConfusedMum82]

We love Bulb. They are honest when and why prices are going up and they warned us months prior. They also allow 60 days to leave if you're not happy, unheard of with the majority of the better known suppliers.
We were quoted £185 a month with nPower, they also tried to stick us with a bill owing from the previous customer of over £700 and tried to stop us even using bulb before we had even moved in. Bulb were great and sorted that out for us.
We pay £50 a month, I'm about to put it up a little now as we will be putting the heating on but we are ahead by £125 already so that's great too.
I find the rest a rip off.

[savingthepennies]

I think it was just bad timing for me. Switched a few days earlier and was hit with a £15 a month increase before i had paid one payment.

[ConfusedMum82]

@savingthepennies when you are set up you can increase and decrease the monthly payment as you see fit. You can change the day it comes out by Direct debit too. It's great for us as where I'm self employed and some months I'm paid one week and others a different week, I can make sure I'm not bank charged.

[MadameButterface]

Same op

Cancelled my switch and going with Pure Planet now

[GeoffCapesInSlingbacks]

Yep, not even paid my first direct debit and got email saying its going up £18 per month, same as it was with Npower. Im gonna see about switching again to a fixed rate

[NothingOnTellyAgain]

Arrgh just pressed the button to switch to them yesterday.

From Tonik whose customer service is subpar to put it mildly.