Bulb Energy

hholden26

So Bulb remains under special administration and supply is on a variable rate. There is no option to fix. Currently if I check on the energy club, the closest fixed rate is in excess of £150 more a month than I'm currently paying. Price rises have gone from £117 p.m. to £177 p.m. to currently £250 p.m. Nearest fixed rate is £350 p.m. These increases are in the last 12months! This would suggest that by October I will be paying in excess of 3 times what I was paying last year! Any advice from folk? 

TheMilkmansDad

the prices above I assume are the DD amounts and not the bill amounts?

1st thing I'd do is check you bills and ensure you are being billed correctly. Do you supply meter readings regularly or have a Smart Meter? Do your bills match these readings or are they based on estimates? Based on your last invoice/statement - are you in Debit or Credit? Basically are you paying the correct amount now to pay for your supply.

Bulb just have the one tariff I believe which is the capped SVR rate. If you have your annual usage amount (check meter reads from this time last year to what they are now) then you should be able to work our if your current DD is correct and also see if it's worth taking a fix.

Also, it's worth noting - just in case you don't already know - that the rate you are paying will be going up again in October by circa 50%. Bear this in mind when your budgeting for the upcoming months.

pochase

Unfortunately as @TheMilkmansDad said Bulb has only one tariff the capped SVT and you are stuck with this.

In theory you could switch to another supplier, but there are only two who might take you on SVT, EDF and Octopus if you call them. Latest reports are that Octopus will no longer accept new users on SVT, and they also have no good fixed tariffs, but some interesting deals like tracker. No idea if you can switch to tracker from another supplier?

EDF has some "good" fixed tariffs and some really bad ones. Seems a bit of a lottery which one is offered to you, but you might be able to get a better one when talking to an agent. Problem here is that the good deal has been withdrawn 2 days ago when the latest predictions were published. 

EON had a relatively good deal, I believe 32% over current SVT  for new customers. 

CaraMczzz

We're also with Bulb and wondering whether to switch to a fixed rate to budget longer-term - would be really interested to hear if anyone has heard anything anywhere which suggests Bulb may offer a fixed rate in the near future? 

pochase

I seriously doubt that Bulb will do more than the basics while in administration, and their business concept was to only have one tariff.

hholden26

@TheMilkmansDad - correct these are monthly DD payments and we are on a Smart Meter, so no readings are provided. From what I can tell, the bills match the readings so I'm happy that we are paying the right amount. As you state, bills are likely to go up another 50% in October, which would put the DD at around £375. We are currently in a small amount of credit which will increase as we go through the summer, however, the majority of our usage is electricity as opposed to gas, so its difficult to tell what impact that will have. I guess I just need to keep monitoring the situation and be mindful of offers that come along.

Mrs_F_2017

I too have been wondering if it’s worth switching away from Bulb to take advantage of any switches if they come up, although it seems unlikely. 

I guess when energy was cheaper I didn’t mind paying that but extra for Bulb renewables but now everything is more expensive! 

Also Bulb keep cancelling and reissuing bills for us despite the cancelled ones being accurate & it’s annoying me! 

QrizB

Mrs_F_2017 said:

I too have been wondering if it’s worth switching away from Bulb to take advantage of any switches if they come up, although it seems unlikely.

Bulb's was that they only have one tariff, their standard variable one.

I guess when energy was cheaper I didn’t mind paying that but extra for Bulb renewables but now everything is more expensive!

Bulb's energy is no more renewable than BG, SP, EDF, Shell, Octopus etc. and is no more expensive.

Mrs_F_2017

@QrizB - sorry yes that is my point - i know they’ve always only had their variable tariff which I didn’t mind in the past. 

But with everything now more expensive I’m wondering if I should try and switch to another variable tariff (if ever suppliers accept new customers) so that in the future I might benefit from a potential fix. With Bulb, I know there is no option to fix, even in a better consumer market. 

pochase

As I wrote earlier in this thread there is nobody to switch to.

Currently possible is EDF SVT if you call them. I don't know if they would immediately offer you a fixed rate, but they have good fixed tariffs and bad ones which they seem to offer randomly to customers.

The second one is Eon for a fixed rate which 42% more expensive than current SVT. 

Mstty

OVO potentially have a switch fix rate read the article have a think

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/