Being in credit

mjhicks

Hi, I am with Bulb for my Electricity supply and I have been for nearly a year.
I am hearing these stories in the news about smaller energy suppliers going bust due to massive rises in the wholesale price of gas.
I am currently around £750 in credit with Bulb - not a bad way to be going into a winter, under normal circumstances. It will soon be time to switch the heating on.
I'm a bit concerned about the situation.
How big is Bulb? Are they one of the suppliers likely to go to the wall?
Is my credit safe? Will I lose my £750?
Should I consider asking for the unspent credit back for safe keeping?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

MaryNB

Bulb is looking for extra funding. There are comments that they are "too big to fail" but if they will get the funding or will be allowed to fail is yet unknown. 

Your credit will be protected and will be transferred to the new supplier. Some reports on here say it might take a while to register with the new supplier but it will be protected if Bulb goes bust. Make sure you save copies of all your bills. Some customers of suppliers that have just gone bust had difficulty getting onto their accounts.

Crdw

If it was me I'd ask bulb to give me at least £500 back and then see what happens after.
If Bulb does fall (which isn't certain) you'll get the remaining credit back at some point in the bearish future, but the £500 will cover you in the meantime.
Maybe even £600, better to have it in your bank than be waiting on it, right?

Crdw

Bearish? Meant nearish 

matelodave

I've so far been with 3 busted energy companies and always got my money back although it can take several months, especially if their accounts are are in a bit of a state - IRESA taking the longest at around four months and required a good poking (some people were still waiting for up to a year as they were unable to produce data)

The main thing is to make sure that you keep reading your meter regularly (even if you've got smart meters). Keep your own records and most important of all download and save all your bills and statements so you have your own records. It's too late if the the online account gets suspended or closed which can happen almost instantly. So dont wait, sort it out now, just in case.

I keep a weekly record of my meter readings and submit a montly reading to my supplier and download and save the monthly statement immediatialy it gets produced.

Andy7856

mjhicks said:

Hi, I am with Bulb for my Electricity supply and I have been for nearly a year.
I am hearing these stories in the news about smaller energy suppliers going bust due to massive rises in the wholesale price of gas.
I am currently around £750 in credit with Bulb - not a bad way to be going into a winter, under normal circumstances. It will soon be time to switch the heating on.
I'm a bit concerned about the situation.
How big is Bulb? Are they one of the suppliers likely to go to the wall?
Is my credit safe? Will I lose my £750?
Should I consider asking for the unspent credit back for safe keeping?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Defiantly ask for some credit back,  (regardless of the status of Bulb) thats a fair old  credit you have with them as better in your bank account with a view to make adhoc payments at your own leisure if you feel you are building up a bit of debit on the account.

mjhicks

Thankyou to all of you that have responded.
I agree best to ask for some back and put it in a separate saving account ring fenced from the rest of my expenditure.
Bulb ask that I keep at least one monthly payment-worth in credit and I'm happy with that.
£500 refund now organised.

Thanks
Best regards
M

Crdw

mjhicks said:

Thankyou to all of you that have responded.
I agree best to ask for some back and put it in a separate saving account ring fenced from the rest of my expenditure.
Bulb ask that I keep at least one monthly payment-worth in credit and I'm happy with that.
£500 refund now organised.

Thanks
Best regards
M

Good news.
Hopefully Bulb will see it through as well.
You've done what you can to be proactive.