By Nicholas Earl
Customers of collapsed energy firm Bulb Energy (Bulb) have been warned they will face extra charges if they are unable to pay their bills, following an update to their customer information.
The supplier revealed it may charge customers if it has to install a pre-payment meter or take legal action against households struggling to pay their bills.
In an email, it revealed if a customer is struggling to pay, Bulb wants to work with them to help.
However, if they don’t hear from customers, it may charge them for the cost of recovering the debt.
When approached for comment, a Bulb spokesperson explained: “We recently updated our terms and conditions to adapt to industry changes like faster switching rules, which came into effect recently. We’ve also reviewed our wider terms and conditions and have brought them in line with other suppliers where they weren’t before, giving our customers 30 days’ notice of any changes, and clearly outlining where anything’s changed.”
This comes amid forecasts the consumer price cap could spiral to £3,500 per year this October, and climb as high as £3,850 per year in January – during the coldest month of the year when demand is at its peak.
Such a painful hike in prices, which would represent a near-quadrupling of in energy bills over less than two years, will put even more pressure on Brits struggling with the cost of living crisis.
Bulb fell into de-facto nationalisation in November last year, collapsing from the lethal combination of insufficient hedging, the constraints of the price cap and soaring wholesale costs.
It has since been on life-support, propped up by taxpayers through regular transfusions of public money – estimated at £3bn.
This would make it the biggest state bailout since the collapse of RBS in 2008.
Hayden Wood, long-serving chief executive, announced plans to step down earlier this month – having held onto his £250,000 per year salary for months after the supplier slipped into special administration.
The firm is one of 29 suppliers to crash over the past 12 months, with market carnage directly affecting over four million customers.
Currently, Bulb is undergoing its sales process, with Octopus Energy remaining as the final bidder.
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