Bulb customer information page – updated regularly

Sit tight. You'll receive an email from Bulb soon with everything you need to know. There’ll be no change to your service yet – you’ll be looked after by the same dedicated Bulb teams, and pay and manage your account the same way you always have.

We’ll contact you over the next few months with information about when your individual account will switch to our systems. We’ll work quickly and carefully to transition you over to Octopus, and share regular updates on this blog.

• Your energy supply won’t be interrupted or affected in any way. You will not be cut off.
• Any money Bulb owes you is safe and will be moved to your new Octopus account as soon as possible.
• If you pay by Direct Debit, there’s no need to cancel it. This will continue as usual.
• Government support schemes such as the Warm Home Discount and Energy Bills Support Scheme will continue as normal (for more info on the schemes head here).

Please don’t contact Octopus Energy about your Bulb account just yet: the Bulb team will still look after your account and the Octopus team don’t have any more information to share about Bulb’s move to Octopus.

You'll be in safe hands throughout the transition: we're one of the UK's most experienced suppliers for major customer migrations like this. People who joined us from failed supplier Avro Energy got the best customer experience of any transfer in the market this year.

Here's what a few of our customers had to say on Twitter – one came to us from Iresa and another from Avro.

Please don’t cancel your Direct Debit, you should keep paying exactly as normal. When the time comes for your account to be moved to Octopus systems, your Direct Debit will be automatically transferred to us too, so you don’t need to lift a finger.

If you already have, just set one up again as normal with Bulb so you can keep paying for your energy as normal during the transition. When the time comes for your account to be moved to Octopus systems, your Direct Debit will be automatically transferred to us too, so you don’t need to lift a finger.

We’ll move your Direct Debit over to us as the same amount you were paying with Bulb, and it will be paid on the same day of the month.

Once you are on supply with us, our system will check periodically to make sure your payment is enough to cover your energy costs over the year without you falling behind. If it needs to change (up or down), we will be in touch to let you know with plenty of notice.

If you think your account is falling behind or getting too far ahead, you will also be able to adjust your monthly payments up or down online in your Octopus Energy once your account is fully set up with us. We will let you know shortly once this has been done.

Your Bulb account balance is unaffected by the move to Octopus, so you won’t lose your credit. Of course, you’ll keep being charged for the energy you use throughout the transition so your balance will change to reflect different incoming and outgoing payments as normal.

Your prices won’t change as a result of this announcement. Bulb customers are on a variable tariff which always means your rates can change, but your tariff still has the same protections as before (including Ofgem’s energy price cap and the government’s Energy Price Guarantee). We’d always give you plenty of notice about any future changes to your prices.

No. Your energy supply will not be affected by this process at any time.

You can still get help from Bulb as you always have, through the same contact methods, and you’ll be looked after by the same dedicated Bulb team.

Octopus and Bulb have a few difference to the way we send out bills. Here's some common questions we get asked.

The same dedicated Bulb team is still here, working hard to look after customers throughout the transition, so they’re here to work through any issues you’re having.

Bulb’s customers should sit tight to help make sure the migration is as swift and straightforward as possible for your account. You don’t need to do anything. Now that Bulb’s future has been decided and all customers will soon be migrated to Octopus systems, Bulb customers won’t be able to switch to Octopus via a referral either.

In 2021, rising global gas prices sent the UK wholesale price of energy to record highs. The cost made it unsustainable for Bulb to continue operating. Read more about how the energy crisis impacted suppliers.

All the time Bulb’s been under special administration, the government has had to buy gas and electricity for Bulb’s 1.5 million customers, without hedging, in an energy crisis.

Octopus is paying the government to take on Bulb’s customer base – believed to be more per customer than any supplier paid in taking on the 29 failed suppliers since September 2021.

In addition, taxpayers will benefit from a profit-share agreement for a period of up to 4 years, reducing the overall cost to UK taxpayers.

Octopus is paying the government a nine digit sum and in addition will be paying a high proportion of any profits made through Bulb. The total amount Octopus is paying will be in the hundreds of millions of pounds.

For more information about the deal, head to the government website here.