Re: Avro and Green Cease Trading
 

Might open up the fireplace and get the chimney swept . . . I either get affordable heat & light or the environment gets it :D

Re: Avro and Green Cease Trading
 

The rates you should be comparing are the increases in the UK and the increases in Germany. That helps in deciding if 90 days' gas storage is helpful in keeping price rises lower or not.

---------- Post added at 18:20 ---------- Previous post was at 18:18 ----------

Wood can be free but getting the chimney swept is pricey since that pesky law about not using kids was implemented by our woke MPs. :D

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

I got an email from Bulb this week trying to increase my direct debit by about £25 a month and waffling on about protecting my account credit against higher winter energy bills. This despite my account already being about £250 in credit, which is more than twice what I actually spend on electricity per month.

For any house that is lit by LED bulbs and heated by anything other than electricity the old adage that you spend a lot more on electricity in the winter no longer holds true. You certainly do spend more, but the difference is not as big, and the stuff that draws power in your house is likely to be in equal use all year round (your router, your games console, your multi-USB charger station, etc). If you have electric showers and an electric cooker then these are the real biggies and their usage will be the same year round. Actually in our house, running a B&B, those things were more used in the summer than winter.

Anyhoo … I went into my account online and reduced the direct debit back to the minimum they would allow, which is now a mere £10 per month more. I will be keeping a close eye on my credit level with them and if it goes up over the next 2 months I will have to contact them directly and insist they reduce the direct debit further. At the moment I can’t shake the feeling that they are more interested in improving their cash flow than in the health of my account.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

Agreed - that's why I left them (I was in credit by £100+ as well).

Went to Shell for the same amount I was on at Bulb (£122 per month, which Bulb had wanted to increase by around £20), and since then, Shell have reduced my DD by £15 (and I get 3% off the price of up to 60 litres of petrol per month).

Re: Avro and Green Cease Trading
 

But they don't have 90 days worth stored, and what if they did?
Did you think I made up the reference to their 20% carbon tax hike?
MOD EDIT - Please provide links to any quotes, as this helps protect CableForum under the "Fair Usage" Policy...

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news...t-media-report

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

When I logged into my Bulb account the other day a message popped up saying they suggest i increase my direct debit from £73 to £93 but I won't as I am around £160 in credit.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

There is no fee to leave bulb.
Shell were another option I looked at.

You can move supplier every 28 days if you want.
So if bulb start getting silly, or expensive, I'll move.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

Bulb are rumoured to be the next ones going under so their DDs might be irrelevant. Octopus are said to have their tentacles on it....

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

Rumours are just that.

As it stands, Bulb disagree

Also, even if they did, and someone [like Octopus] took over, I could still just move afterwards if necessary.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

I’m being moved to Shell. But I’ll wait until we’ve moved before I look elsewhere.

Luckily I was with GOTO until a few weeks ago and left them to go to Green. I was £1200 in credit with GOTO and got it all back. I was only with Green for 4 weeks before they went under.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

Your choice might be increasingly limited and prices all very similar and sky high. God bless the free market !

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

Well, it’s not ideal but it could just be one price with no recourse or options at all.

If you’re happy with that proposition, then why not just have one price for every commodity?

Forget brands, just tins with white labels that simply say “soup” on them, no need for Heinz, Baxter’s or Batchelors or Tesco’s own.

Let’s just have make and model of car………and call it a Lada for old times sake.

Choice is overrated, we just need one of everything, that’ll be much simpler.

Drink vodka, be happy.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

Because some products are genuinely best to the free market. But there has to be attributes of an actually free market with a large number of suppliers and genuine choice throughout the supply chains. Low barriers to entry for new suppliers and little consequences if one fails.

The same isn’t true of the energy market and they’re all relying on the taxpayer to underwrite failure. Unlike a distillery making a diverse range of Vodka brands.

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

I think you may be over simplifying/drinking too much vodka ;) But as far as electric/gas is concerned it's all very similar out of the pipes/wires. Why you pay different depending on which area of the country you're in or which company is bizarre. The OFGEM price cap does effectively mean most will now pay paying very similar high prices, with choice getting restricted by the day.

Go on I'll say it. Nationalise it, with the same price for everyone rich or poor, Shetlands or Cornwall, paying the same rates. The railways are going that way so why not energy? Tragedy of the current system is that the poorest with pre-payment meters pay most. Dickens would have had a field day...

Re: Energy companies collapse
 

I think you’re expecting a bit too much in the way of reasoning and logical thought here. Slogans are as much as some people can cope with.