Bulb Energy

Getferret

Bulb have done exactly the same to my father yesterday, Bulb have based new DD on a credit of only £197 which 6 week old data, when in fact he is £409 in credit.  Check the notice in the App and see if they are using up to date figures.

dunstonh

, Bulb have based new DD on a credit of only £197 which 6 week old data, when in fact he is £409 in credit.

With Bulb, you pay in advance, not arrears.  So, you have to ignore part of the credit.

[Deleted User]

P1Fanatic said:

I thought ours was strange as they just emailed saying they want to increase monthly DD from £180 to £195 even though we are £540 in credit and the Govt Energy payments kick in next month (although they say their projected usage calculations take those payments into account). You can go online / use the app to drop the amount back a little but they only let you drop it so much. I will see what happens over the next couple of months. But yours sounds horrendous in comparison.

Do your own calculation. For the AVERAGE user, prices went up by 54% last April and will increase again by 27% next week.

£100s’ worth of energy last March will cost £195 this coming March. (Less or more depending on your actual usage compared to the AVERAGE).  

Getferret

Bulb have updated the DD in the App again today giving different information from the email received last night 🙄. Bulb DD today is now taking into account the £400 EPG plus the £409 credit making the DD lower. This is causing so much stress especially for the elderly to adapt to the the rate changes.

dunstonh

This is causing so much stress especially for the elderly to adapt to the the rate changes.

Stress is usually caused by people not understanding what is happening.  That stress can go away with a little bit of learning.

Getferret

not easy teaching a 75 year old 

lornz23

The credit is for the winter months to help you not to get into so much debt. If you have a high amount of credit and more than you think you will need to help you in winter ask for an account review. They should then send it to their specialist team to run the numbers so you don't end up in debt in the winter and can give you back any credit beyond this. The DD is meant to be spread for usage for 12 months so in summer you will end up in credit and in the winter you will use up this credit and hopefully not get into a large debt if they have calculated correctly and you haven't used a lager amount than in the past.

Best to keep your eye on this though as my Dad was in loads of credit because he had solar panels and had to keep asking for the credit back as they had not accounted for this and he was never going to use that much energy over the year as they had set his DD too high. 

Getferret

@lornz23 thank you. I’ll ask for an account review, he received £80 refund beginning of August as well.  I have his bills for the last 3 years, I estimated what his DD should roughly be including Oct rise, account credit, £150 council tax rebate, £400 grant and the winter fuel allowance. Bulb definitely over estimating his DD.

Clueless56

Does your father submit meter readings each month?  I see people complaining about Bulb, but each time it seems to come down to not having provided monthly readings.  I have had no problems with them in the several years I have used them.  I have always submitted meter readings monthly and raised my monthly DD pre-emptively a couple of times over the past months based on being able to calculate my annual usage accurately for the rate hikes and wanting to ensure I had a bit of credit for winter.  Bulb has just emailed saying they're reducing my DD due to the £400 government payment. 

Providers can only work from the information they have and if people don't provide readings, they will make assumptions that may not be right but are the best they can do with the information available to them.

Getferret

Yes every month readings are submitted and always in credit.  We have been with Bulb since 2018 and agree with you we had no problems at all. Since the rate increases last October, DD have been all over the place, the email received last night advising of the new DD didn’t correspond with his last bill on 2nd Sept or the information on the App.  As I say this afternoon the App “magically” updated to DD I calculate is on line with his usage.