In recent months I’ve had a closer look at our home energy bill, and through work I gained some valuable insights into the energy providers’ industry. Here is what I learnt and what you should keep in mind when aiming for the best energy deal.
Rule #1: don’t be stupid, don’t waste it!
When our energy bill came through in July, I nearly fainted! It was so high! But why I wondered? Our London flat is not big and even for England our summer had been warm if not even hot. Defeating the urge to change energy provider on the spot, I went on a quest to find out why.
After some focused digging, I realised that our heating was on at specific hours of the day. In summer. While most of our windows were open a lot. One was open for 3 consecutive months since the summer was so warm.
I switched it off and our next bill was £90 lower. Lesson learnt the hard way.
Comparison websites
In the meantime I started checking suppliers on comparison websites while I waited for the next bill, ready to jump ship.
During this time one of our newer work clients, a medium-sized energy provider, decided they needed to become more competitive. In this industry only two elements will get you more clients:
- The cheapest tariff
- A green tariff
They are still working on their green tariff, so they launched a new, cheaper tariff. Which they made available only on ONE comparison website. In the UK there are 4 main ones – they offered the deal only to one. And that same deal is not available on the energy provider’s own website.
This is proof of how powerful comparison websites are.
Trouble is, switching energy provider (or insurance or phone provider) is… well… boring. What if you could get someone else to do it for you?
Auto-switching services
A new niche in the market has been found. And a pretty good one if you ask me. You sign up to their service once, and they check at regular intervals if you are on the best tariff for your specifications, then switch you automatically without you moving a finger. Easy peasy.
Curious as I am, I decided to test it. A couple of days later they emailed me to say they wouldn’t switch me because I was already on the best deal. Hurray!
I then decided to find out which energy providers they work with. Well, only with some, the ones that they chose to work with, but they go into any more details that this. Which begs the question if I’m really getting the best deal possible.
In an ideal word, one in which I could spend several hours just wading through tariffs and website and reviews and referral bonuses, I would do just that. But most of us never actually do that…
So what about the Saudi oil attack?
You may have read in the news that earlier this month two oil processing facilities in Saudi Arabia were bombed and 6% of the global oil destroyed. But what does this have to do with your electricity and gas at home?
Our client at work decided they would pull their new, cheaper tariff from the comparison website. Their thinking was that soon other providers would increase their tariffs as a response to the attack and the increased costs on their side, so they wouldn’t need to lower theirs in order to stay competitive.
What I do about this
I have decided I will not spend hours searching if there is a better deal around. I am happy with Octopus, my energy provider, and with Look after my Bills, my auto-switching provider.
I value my time.
And now I know how the system works.
If at any point my bills returns to be too high, I’ll figure out why and what to do then.
If you want to try them out, use the links in this post and you’ll get a referral bonus worth £100 from Octopus and of £20 from Look after my Bills if you sign up.
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