Energy Suppliers

[b0rn2sk8]

Unless the company goes under...

Not likely much of a concern with the big companies, but need to be careful with the small ones.

Nope, credit balances out honoured.

partly why the market is broken, if a company goes under the rest of us pay through our bills for their mismanagement.

 

[Uther]

Got an email from Bulb plugging their 'smart' meter. Nope. Quite happy with my monthly fixed DD thanks.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Got an email from Bulb plugging their 'smart' meter. Nope. Quite happy with my monthly fixed DD thanks.

DD doesn't change does it? How is that any different to them guessing your usage or you supplying it yourself?

 

[Uther]

I like building up a + balance, maybe I'm old fashioned. I'm a bit 'tin foil hat' with smart meters so am quite happy to continue without one for the time being.
Surprised they haven't been made compulsory.

 

[hughtrimble]

I like building up a + balance, maybe I'm old fashioned.

Old fashioned? Giving other people more money than you need to, thus enabling them to use it whilst preventing you from using it, is something else...

 

[200sols]

Old fashioned? Giving other people more money than you need to, thus enabling them to use it whilst preventing you from using it, is something else...

It’s not like that at all really, it spreads your payments equally throughout the year so you don’t suddenly get huge bills in winter.

 

[TheVoice]

It’s black and white but also in a draw, waste of electricity.

I'll continue to ignore their calls then!

 

[jpaul]

Legally can they offer a preferential flat rate tarif (that doesn't really need a smart meter), if you have their smart meter ? ...
if so, they could soon, just say, we are going to charge you £5/pm for non-smart billing, at which point you'd be annoyed if you had refused an install.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

I like building up a + balance, maybe I'm old fashioned. I'm a bit 'tin foil hat' with smart meters so am quite happy to continue without one for the time being.
Surprised they haven't been made compulsory.

I don't have a smart meter that works with Bulb but with my last supplier where it did work they just still charged me the same DD every month.

Has that's changed? Or are they going to change it?

 

[SuperOwl86]

Are people moving away from Bulbs vari-tariff at the moment? I joined them back in March time but having a quick search now and it looks as if I could probably save around £100 per year by switching to another fixed tariff? The flexible monthly direct debit doesn't really bother me too much. We've built up a fair bit of credit over the summer so I guess it'll be a simple refund if switched.

I am wondering the same.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I'd prefer building up credit in summer too then using that to subsidize the extra cost of heating during the colder months (~£45-50 in summer, £100ish in Winter) but I'm with Pure Planet and while their prices are still good (for me at least) they charge less in Summer and more in the colder (Oct-Mar) months so now I'm into paying ~£100 a month till March and had been paying ~£60 in spring/summer. I'd have preferred to build up £200-300 credit by paying a flat ~£80ish for the extra gas. It doesn't matter much to be eitherway as the swing in outgoings isn't an issue but would think those that have balance their household budget more tightly would often be better off building up credit rather than spending the summer surplus on other things and struggling in winter.

If you are struggling to pay an extra £40 per month in winter then IMO you have bigger issues to worry about than utilities.

 

[hughtrimble]

I am wondering the same.

I didn't sign up to Bulb precisely because of the variable tariff - it wasn't noticeably cheaper than the fixed estimates I'd got from other suppliers even including the sign-up incentive, and I punt that the rates are likely to rise rather than fall, hence going for fixed.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I'm not struggling thanks very much

I simply pointing out there's bound to be plenty of people on a more limited budget who while they might enjoy the warmer months low monthly cost may well struggle when the cost goes up 40% or so to cover mainly extra gas during the winter months. That said there's a good chance those that may struggle may well be on prepay meters.

Like I said before. Utilities IMO are next to nothing in the cost of home ownership.

If you are struggling to pay £40 a month more in winter. then chances are it doesn't matter if they charged you £20 more in summer. as it's £20 over a month they would have spare in their pockets.

if you don't have £20 in your pocket then you have far bigger issues than some utility pricing plan.

 

[Slade2]

Pure Planet now offering £100 referral fees (50/50 split between referrer and referee) which I think is inline with Bulb

just had a look at there prices and its not really worth me switching away from bulb currently. It might be soonish depending on what happens. I managed to convince a few people to switch as I was one of the first people to jump on the switching band wagon and made around £500 in referrals. If I could speak to these people directly and it was worth my time and effort to save them some money again then it might be worth it but currently looking at the usage I might save some money on the gas but its not enough to make it worth the hassle of switching just yet. I need a good enough deals to bring my followers with me

 

[D.Roberts]

Hi all longgggg time no speaky.
Was hoping to get a little help please.
I am currently with British gas for electric and gas and some of you may know that there stopping the paypoint topup service so you need to go else where EG post offices ETC yes I could do this but in all fairness I have been looking at changing for a while now.

I must point out we are a HUGEEEEEE electric consumer so we currently pay about £30/£35 a week on electric most days we use about 30KWh that's a lot I think.

As for gas MEH not so much.

Now I am looking at sticking with pay as you go so to speak yes yes I know it costs a bit more but I prefer to be in total control with it.

So I was looking at BULB but still unsure.
If any one could help or advise that would be great.

Just want some recomendations to what you lot use ETC

Thanks in advance.

 

[touch]

When you say "pay as you go" do you mean you want to stick with pre-pay or do you want to be billed monthly for the exact amount you've used?

 

[D.Roberts]

ah sorry I want to pre pay using the gas card and electric keys.

thank you

 

[a1ex2001]

Bulb get good reviews so I would say if they are a good price go with it.

What on earth are you doing to use that much electric? You should definitely go with a non-prepayment meter you would make significant savings.

 

[D.Roberts]

I am sure I would save but it scares me to know that when the bill comes in its going to be one lump sum LOL.
I was looking into why its a lot (I got me a smart meter thing).

The biggest use is the tumble dryer we have 3 kids that needs clean clothes,school uniform ETC ETC so always being washed and dried.

We have an old LCD TV that seems to use a fair bit which is connected to a PC that has an i5 760 in it so those two things use up a fair bit and is on pretty much all day.

so yeah I need to also lower our electric consumption some how
this is one of the reasons I like pre payed meters we use a lot some weeks its stupid high others its just high LOL

 

[Brizzles]

Jump leads on a lampost is pretty cheap.

Gas gets a bit tricky.