GB Energy Supply reviews: Give your feedback

GDB_Kent

My take on at GB Energy was good and smooth, and it's cheaper than Sainsbury - so all good.

The niggle is that they insist on having one month direct debit payment in hand - always. That means the account never operates as a "smooth budget" type account - and will never get to zero in a year. That means you can't add up your estimated annual usage, divide by 12 and at some stage be with them owing you nothing and you owing them nothing.

Instead, THEY will always owe you something. On a D/D of £168 p.m., I have a credit balance at the end of May of £197 - summer usage will be about £100 - so come autumn my credit balance would be about £450 - silly money. So I suggested they send me back the £197 and they still continue to build up some credit balance over summer, but they were really reluctant. In the end we agreed to drop the D/D to £120, but this still means the credit balance will go up to £300.

They have 150k customers now, if the average monthly payment is £100 that means they have £15m of free money. Why?

GDB_Kent

I send mine in on the 1st of each month. Any other day and they will estimate usage up to the 1st of the month.

backfoot

GDB_Kent wrote: »

My take on at GB Energy was good and smooth, and it's cheaper than Sainsbury - so all good.

The niggle is that they insist on having one month direct debit payment in hand - always. That means the account never operates as a "smooth budget" type account - and will never get to zero in a year. That means you can't add up your estimated annual usage, divide by 12 and at some stage be with them owing you nothing and you owing them nothing.

Instead, THEY will always owe you something. On a D/D of £168 p.m., I have a credit balance at the end of May of £197 - summer usage will be about £100 - so come autumn my credit balance would be about £450 - silly money. So I suggested they send me back the £197 and they still continue to build up some credit balance over summer, but they were really reluctant. In the end we agreed to drop the D/D to £120, but this still means the credit balance will go up to £300.

They have 150k customers now, if the average monthly payment is £100 that means they have £15m of free money. Why?

All monthly direct debit payment plans operate by building up a summer credit balance to meet the higher winter consumption.GB Energy's one month payment in advance is their standard term and is conditional on you being a customer.

Your own figures broadly imply a winter consumption cost of £236 per month so £120 will leave you short which you have to make up later. You have done well to get it reduced by so much.

I have found them equally accommodating and have twice reduced my DD. That is more to do with reduced consumption rather than seasonal patterns.

The alternatives with a few Suppliers are payment on receipt of a quarterly bill or a quarterly DD but these are usually at a much higher cost.

I can't see why you would worry about their cash position. I presume as a new supplier with some advance purchases cash flow is vital to their business model. With interest rates so low that in itself is more of a balance sheet issue than any small impact on profit.

Equally your loss of interest is relatively low even if you would have invested the spare cash.

andrewmp

I haven't had a bill this month from GB Energy, no idea why, anyone else?

System

andrewmp wrote: »

I haven't had a bill this month from GB Energy, no idea why, anyone else?

Have you logged in to your online account? I got an e-mail telling me to log in as normal on the 13th: 3 days after my billing date.

Give them a call. They may be from 'top North'* but they are quick to answer and very friendly.

* a family joke as my wife was brought up in Preston.

andrewmp

Hengus wrote: »

Have you logged in to your online account? I got an e-mail telling me to log in as normal on the 13th: 3 days after my billing date.

Give them a call. They may be from 'top North'* but they are quick to answer and very friendly.

* a family joke as my wife was brought up in Preston.

Preston is down south compared to me. ;-)

I've emailed them, usually I get a bill on the 21st but still nothing this month and nothing on online account either.

On bills it just shows:

18 Apr 16 - 17 May 16
18 Mar 16 - 17 Apr 16
18 Feb 16 - 17 Mar 16
18 Jan 16 - 17 Feb 16

matelodave

My statement was issued as normal and I'm a bit in credit but that's where I need to be before winter comes on.

I do my own estimating and work out my own bills and make sure that my direct debit reflects my consumption over the 12 month period. If it looks as though it's going to be excessively high or low then I get it changed.

I'm in control, not them - take charge yourself by monitoring your own consumption and doing your own sums.

andrewmp

matelodave wrote: »

My statement was issued as normal and I'm a bit in credit but that's where I need to be before winter comes on.

I do my own estimating and work out my own bills and make sure that my direct debit reflects my consumption over the 12 month period. If it looks as though it's going to be excessively high or low then I get it changed.

I'm in control, not them - take charge yourself by monitoring your own consumption and doing your own sums.

I know exactly what I use, I like to check my bills to make sure they don't overcharge me. As it happens when the bill came they had charged me twice for the same 100 units of gas. Keep an eye on your bills!!

backfoot

andrewmp wrote: »

I know exactly what I use, I like to check my bills to make sure they don't overcharge me. As it happens when the bill came they had charged me twice for the same 100 units of gas. Keep an eye on your bills!!

Can you clarify this please. Are you saying an estimate was used which exceeded the actual consumption? Had you submitted a meter reading? It's not unusual, with any supplier, for estimates to differ from actual.

Or was there an arithmetical error? i.e.a difference of 100 units between the previous and current readings was given as 200 units.

I really can't believe it to be the latter.

Snooze

andrewmp wrote: »

I haven't had a bill this month from GB Energy, no idea why, anyone else?

My bill usually lands around 10th but it didn't arrive til around 20th this month for some reason.

I've been with GB for about a year now and have no issues at all. I find the website page for submitting readings to do the job fine and it's a 2 min process each month to take the readings and submit. The PDF bills are nicely laid out and easy to understand and have all been accurate. There are a lot of other companies out there that could use them as a lesson in how it should be done.

I'm a heavy electricity user and they are cheaper over a year by around £400 compared to the next nearest competitor. Can't really be any happier in all honesty.