Fuse Energy still demanding high upfront payment

IslandSailer

£500 upfront I deemed excessive when my annual bill is less than £750/an

What shocked me more was at no time during the sign up was I told they would do an indepth credit search; Fuse implied it was that that flagged a poor credit history: I've paid my bills on time, have no bad debts, no flags.

My feeling is this is a deliberate ploy by Fuse to finance upfront so they can lower tariff costs - it's not based on credit risk, so I've stayed with Octopus, slightly more expensive but a real good customer service

Has anyone else, with no obvious credit risk, been asked to pay high upfront payment

Swipe

All energy providers do a credit search, some hard, some soft. If you have previously had poor credit history, then there's your answer. If not, I'd be rushing to check your credit file. The majority of people with Fuse are not asked for an upfront deposit, so it's not a deliberate ploy.

QrizB

OP you posted about this yesterday and I replied with links to threads by other people with similar experiences.

kindcompass

I had the same issue today with Fuse energy, I have a really good credit score, always have. They told me they needed £500 upfront due to a credit check with Experian, and suggested I contact Experian - I ran my credit with Experian and it was perfect, when I showed them that report they said they use a different check so basically changed their answer. The money they were asking for was almost 10 months usage and just didnt make sense, there is no way I am giving that much money to a company I don’t know after what has happened in the past with energy suppliers. So I told them to stop the transfer and have stayed with EDF

Swipe

I guess that's one of the downsides to solely billing in arrears and you are unable to sit on other people's fixed DD unspent money for most of the year. Maybe it's their subtle way of saying we have enough customers for now without causing alarm?

rubble2

I switched to Fuse from Octopus at beginning of June, no mention of any up front charge.

Debbie1

I switched from EDF to Fuse 10 days ago, as above no mention of upfront payment

Ste_Photo

I switched to Fuse 22nd May, no upfront payment requested.

I referred my daughter yesterday and they asked for a £500 upfront payment. She has a perfect credit score with no recent hard searches.

oldagetraveller1

"She has a perfect credit score"

To repeat what has been written many times on this forum, "credit score" means absolutely nothing and is not seen by any organisation when applying for credit.