Bulb Energy closing bill

TetleyJax

My partner has recently transferred energy from Bulb to a new supplier.  He has a prepay meter which includes the daily charge.   Yesterday he received a closing bill for just short of £1100 for electricity used.  This can't be correct can it?  Any advice gladly received.

MWT

Assuming he didn't have a large amount of debt from a previous account added to the meter which remained unpaid, it is very difficult to run up a bill that big with a Pre-Pay meter but not entirely impossible if he has left the property empty for a long time without topping it up, which results in the daily standing charge accumulating.

The other way it can happen over time is living permanently in the 'emergency credit' and never topping up enough to clear the outstanding standing charges, but that is less likely than a simple error at bulb so I'd start from the assumption that it is a mistake.

TetleyJax

No, he's been there three years and always put money on when it gets low.  These are actual wattage charges listed on the bill.

greenguppie

TetleyJax said:

My partner has recently transferred energy from Bulb to a new supplier.  He has a prepay meter which includes the daily charge.   Yesterday he received a closing bill for just short of £1100 for electricity used.  This can't be correct can it?  Any advice gladly received.

Probably not.

Bulb currently charge about 29p per day standing charge for pre pay. That's about £105 per year. It may vary a little by supply region. Then again, it probably cost less 3 years ago.

That only really comes into play if no electricity was consumed at the property, and so no top ups made , or possibly as explained above by a customer attempting to survive constantly in emergency credit.

Are you sure the bill does not just reflect just energy usage charges (including standing charges), with no credit of payments made? A low user's bill (where the property also has another fuel for heating etc, such as gas) could be as little as £350 per year.

But normally you would expect to receive annual statements from an energy supplier where a PPM is installed, and that statement you would expect to display charges (debits) and payments made (credits).

If your partner did not get a payment card of their own, then payments would have been credited to the wrong account.

My advice would be to contact Bulb to first understand what the bill means, and then if payments have been sent to the wrong account, to discuss how that can be remedied.