Is the Bluedot app any good?

[josh0]

I somehow only just learned about it, despite having had my R1T for a year next month…

In reading the reviews, it sounds like many of the perks are gone, and it basically just gets you a flat 43¢/kWh now, which is comparable to member rates from EVGo and EA in my area.

Is there any compelling reason to use it anymore? Their own site is pretty useless in terms of figuring out what the actual benefits are…

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[Chinna]

Now its good for EVGo mainly and ChargePoint network(some time ChargePoint app has lower prices ), But its lost all good features. I liked it before with cashback offers.

 

[140 degrees]

I recommend avoiding Blue Dot.

I signed up because of the perks. Because I couldn't get a clear statement of charges from Blue Dot, I couldn't tell if I received the advertised perks or not. This was the first warning flag. More importantly, it bricked auto-charge on RAN chargers for me. I had set up Blue Dot as my payment method in order to get a 20% discount. On a long road trip, I stopped being able get a charge from RAN. The call center couldn't initiate a charge manually. I changed back to a regular credit card, reset my truck, and it still wouldn't work. On my third attempt at different RAN chargers, the call center agent informed me that there was a balance due on my Rivian account. It must have been because Blue Dot wasn't paying Rivian. When I paid the Rivian balance with assistance from the agent, auto-charge started working again. I received a refund from Blue Dot of the balance that was remaining in my account, so it wasn't because they didn't have my money to pay Rivian.

The agents who handle charging don't seem to be as well trained as the regular call center personnel. For the benefit of anyone who read this far, the symptoms of the balance due error are:

1) After you plug in, all of the normal initiation messages happen.
2) When the charging ramp up would normally start, the session suddenly ended with 0 KWh delivered.
3) There wasn't an informative error message. I think it just said the session was over.

 

[josh0]

Ok, sounds like I’ll skip it! (Planning a big upcoming roadtrip, so was thinking about options for minimizing charging costs.)

 

[KRivian]

I found out about Bluedot shortly before we picked up our R1T in June, before they transitioned from a debit card to an in-app wallet. It worked well, and saved us 20% on RAN charging once I set the Bluedot debit card as my primary payment method in our Rivian account. We went on a road trip and used RAN every stop except one EVgo station, where I was able to initiate charging via the Bluedot app at $0.30/kWH. With the discount, we were able to average about $0.29/kWh for the entire California trip.

Unfortunately, those prices didn't last, and their new pricing model killed our Bluedot debit card in July, which means no more savings on RAN. This is probably what caused @140 degrees so much trouble with his Rivian account. If you need to use EVgo or Chargepoint, it's still not bad at $0.43/kWh, particularly in So. Cal, where EVgo often charges $0.50/kWh or more, depending on the time of day and the location. You can get better EVgo rates if you sign up for an EVgo membership, but we don't use it enough to make it worthwhile. Also, if you are a AAA member, you can get 10% off for free, which may or may not be better than $0.43/kWh.

I've used the Bluedot app about ten times at EVgo and Chargepoint stations, and it's worked flawlessly every time. You just have to initiate charging in the Bluedot app and the station is authorized within seconds. I also like some of the other Bluedot perks, like the monthly free charging day, but they did restrict this a bit by forcing you to charge five times the previous month, and it happens on a random day. I have some concerns about the company staying in business, but I guess I'll take advantage of the deal while I can?

It's sad that $0.43/kWh is a "good deal", but California energy prices are crazy. ?

 

[IGR]

I recommend to stay away from BlueDot, one of the recent changes is their “app service tax” of 10.75% which is not mentioned anywhere. I had to contact their customer support and after couple days they answered my question:

This brings cost per kw to about $0.48

Hope this helps.

 

[KRivian]

This brings cost per kw to about $0.48

Thanks! I hadn't seen that tax on any of my transactions, but then I haven't had to top off my account since the transition.

EVgo pricing is really hard to find outside of their app, but in the San Diego area, it looks like it's between $0.48/kWh (11pm-6am) and $0.69/kWh (10am-9pm). Even with the 10% AAA discount, it's still much higher than Bluedot pricing most of the day, at least in our region.

 

[josh0]

I didn’t even know about EVGo’s AAA discount! Plus no session fees and significantly discounted level 2 charging! Does the discount stack with other plans? I’ve been on their basic plan, because you just need to charge once for it to pay for itself by eliminating the session fee, then upgrading on the months when I have a road trip planned, but it’s not clear that there’s any benefit to paying even just 99¢/month with the EVgo discount.

 

[SPITmadFIRE]

The app itself is horrible. Very unreliable, broken functionality all over the place. On the plus side, I've gotten multiple free charges out of their own app issues as a result.

It used to be $0.25 per kWh which is an absolute steal here in Northern California. PG&E charges double that on most plans. Now that it's $0.43 per kWh, it's Fine but I don't use it nearly as much anymore.

They also mysteriously stopped doing their "Free Charging Day" promotion the last month or two, so I doubt that's still a thing at this point.

 

[KRivian]

I didn’t even know about EVGo’s AAA discount! Plus no session fees and significantly discounted level 2 charging! Does the discount stack with other plans?

Not that I know of. It appears as a separate plan in the EVgo app, with 10% off standard rates, no session fees, and reduced level 2 charging. It's better than the $0.99/month Basic Plan, but free.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Ok, sounds like I’ll skip it! (Planning a big upcoming roadtrip, so was thinking about options for minimizing charging costs.)

got an adapter? Supercharger membership

 

[waitingforrivian]

I switched from Bluedot to Future.

10% cash back on all EV charging fees using Future app and debit card (set it as payment method with charging networks):
https://getfuturecard.com/1da581bc-98cc-43de-84dc-2392410d1dc8
Get $15 when you sign up for a FutureCard and spend your first $50 on the card.

 

[josh0]

got an adapter? Supercharger membership

Well damn. I realized my ABRP settings were having it exclude Tesla except where it was the only good option. Switching Tesla to a preferred network cuts the estimate charging costs on an upcoming road trip by about $300!

I guess I didn’t quite understand before when people complained about the prices at chargers! ?

 

[josh0]

Huh. But the Supercharger right by the EVgo charger that I usually use is basically the same price. How does their pricing work?

 

[nellbarr]

I somehow only just learned about it, despite having had my R1T for a year next month…

In reading the reviews, it sounds like many of the perks are gone, and it basically just gets you a flat 43¢/kWh now, which is comparable to member rates from EVGo and EA in my area.

Is there any compelling reason to use it anymore? Their own site is pretty useless in terms of figuring out what the actual benefits are…

Well, it used to be USEFUL. As it worked as a reward type of card or discounted rates at tesla and EvGo. However it’s now only at EvGo and at least in my area they are horribly unreliable even at new stations with new chargers. Frequently out of service for extended periods of time. Or, you need to try mulitiple chargers at the same station as it will not connect.

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