Bulb Price Increase

Belcheee

I've received an email from Bulb (or whoever it is now) about my monthly payments increasing in April, as expected.
What I wasn't expecting was my payments to increase from around £150 a month to £300 a month.

My balance drops slightly into debt towards the end of each winter (currently £22 in debt according to the app, so they have acknowledged a £1.69 increase to cover that), but we generally go into a few hundred pounds credit during summer and use it up in winter.

I know the price cap isn't an exact indication of each user's bills, but if the price cap is only going up about 50%, how come I'm expected to pay 100% more than I currently do?

I'd be interested to know if other people have similar % increases with Bulb, or other suppliers, and if people think they are just trying to get as much money in credit off people as they can ahead of further gas price increases.

MWT

Belcheee said:

I know the price cap isn't an exact indication of each user's bills, but if the price cap is only going up about 50%, how come I'm expected to pay 100% more than I currently do?

The average is around 54% but that assumes a certain mix of gas/electricity (12,000kWh gas, 2900kWh electricity) so if you use proportionately more gas than that it would cause a rise in DD above 54%, but even so your new DD looks very high.

If you know your annual usage for electricity and gas then do your own calculation using the new capped rates for April and see what you get as your total...

maureen100

We got a letter to say it'll be increased from £203 to £341. I just submitted a meter reading as we're using less than they estimate and only have £40 debit which will disappear as we get into Spring. We'll just have to stop using the heating as much as use blankets and jumpers.

prudent_2

Ours is set to double. What I don't understand - and apologies if this has been covered - is if 100% of their elec is from renewable sources, why does the cost of wholesale gas matter? Surely that'd just impact the gas price? 

MWT

prudent_2 said:

Ours is set to double. What I don't understand - and apologies if this has been covered - is if 100% of their elec is from renewable sources, why does the cost of wholesale gas matter? Surely that'd just impact the gas price? 

Check the tariff at one of the totally green suppliers that are exempt from the cap and you'll see that the real cost of only using actual green generation is still higher than the new April cap figures...

Most suppliers achieve their '100% claims' using carbon offsets, your power is still coming from nuclear/gas etc.

james00744

I'm with Bulb and also received the email.

My question is: Should we move, or is there no point?

themoomins

I was planning to cut down energy use as much as possible to offset the increase but I noticed in the letter today that the standing charge for electric has doubled, so no matter how little I use my bills will nearly double.  Very sneaky :-( I will be moving unless others have decided to do the same.

reck_uk

My letter from Bulb has also arrived. Mine is going up from £180 to £303 and this for an economy 7 tariff as we’re 100 electricity. Such a big jump, hope I can find a cheaper provider/tariff. 

MWT

reck_uk said:

My letter from Bulb has also arrived. Mine is going up from £180 to £303 and this for an economy 7 tariff as we’re 100 electricity. Such a big jump, hope I can find a cheaper provider/tariff. 

Check the assumptions made about your annual usage, the DD amount is not the bill.

It may be accurate, but if they are overestimating the amount you will use, the DD could be higher than it needs to be...

MWT

themoomins said:

I was planning to cut down energy use as much as possible to offset the increase but I noticed in the letter today that the standing charge for electric has doubled, so no matter how little I use my bills will nearly double.  Very sneaky :-( I will be moving unless others have decided to do the same.

This isn't something they have just decided to do, it reflects the costs that are being recovered form all of us with electricity accounts to cover the Supplier of last resort process for the failed energy suppliers.

Not 'sneaky' just the reality of the costs...

james00744

reck_uk said:

My letter from Bulb has also arrived. Mine is going up from £180 to £303 and this for an economy 7 tariff as we’re 100 electricity. Such a big jump, hope I can find a cheaper provider/tariff. 

Going off what I've seen of other people's rates, Bulb is still the cheapest I've seen.

Now if only our government gave a sh*t about the rest of us.