Energy company rating

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • chrisgare
    Automated Home Guru
    • Dec 2013
    • 182

    Energy company rating

    Here is the Citizen's Advice energy company rating.



    I have used Bulb for the last three years and have been very happy.

    It's very easy to forget that the choice of provider is still the most critical thing when buying gas!

    Chris
  • DBMandrake
    Automated Home Legend
    • Sep 2014
    • 2361

    #2
    Surprised to see SSE score a better customer service rating than Bulb.

    I switched from SSE's Scottish arm to Bulb nearly two years ago - customer service from SSE was dreadful (big faceless corporation) while support from Bulb has been great, and I have dealt with them both through their forum when initially signing up and then later by email. All email enquiries were responded to in less than a few hours, some within 30 minutes. I could have phoned but prefer to email.

    Although Bulb has had to put their gas price up significantly this November due to the big increase in wholesale gas prices this year, I'm sticking with them as I know they'll be one of the first to drop their price when wholesale rates go down again. (They're quick to drop prices and slow to raise them in the time I've been with them, and very transparent about what they're doing and why they're doing it)

    Comment

    • jvallis
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Feb 2018
      • 29

      #3
      Personally I have absolutely zero loyalty to energy suppliers, but it all depends on how proactive you are about reading meters.

      I use an app called Meter Readings, iOS only, see https://grahamhaley.co.uk/meters/ for details and an app store link, as I refuse to have one of those Smart Meters (at least until the data can be used by me), and take a reading every Sunday. At the beginning it's pretty useless and you'll ask yourself why you do this, but once you have a year worth of meter readings, it's massively useful as you will know your exact kWh usage and it will give you a deep analysis of your energy usage. Alternatively you can use a device like a Loop Energy or Smappee to effectively do the same, but I still think the cheap little app and a bit of manual meter reading works for me.

      With 3 years worth of usage, I just plug in my measured annual kWh into a comparison site like https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub or https://www.energylinx.co.uk/ and check which supplier is cheapest. I was a customer of one of the energy companies that went bust - Iresa - but Ofgem protected my ridiculous credit on the account and switched me to Octopus. Once switched, I just switched again to a cheaper tariff.

      The point being is there's no point being loyal. Just go for the cheapest supplier, pay them their direct debit, and keep abreast of changes. The MSE Energy Club will also email you when there's a cheaper tariff and you can switch to it whenever you can.

      Comment

      Working...
      X