How to choose an energy supplier, top tips from Jinni.

Have you thought about switching energy supplier, but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you’ve used a switching site, but you’re overwhelmed by the choices?

As part of my role as a Home Energy Advisor for SDCE I help people navigate this on a regular basis, and thought it may be useful to share some tips.

What’s the best company to switch to?
This varies depending on your energy use and the offers available at the time. We always check an Ofgem accredited comparison site such as Uswitch, using the most up to date information from your energy bill. The information you need can all be found on your bill under the ‘About Your Tariff’ section.

How do I narrow down the options given?
Before getting too lost in the potential savings it’s worth checking the filters on the left hand side. This allows you to select suppliers who support paper billing, for example, or to look for suppliers who support the Warm Homes Discount scheme. It’s worth including suppliers that you have to go to directly, as these can often offer better savings as they don’t have to pay the comparison site for the referral, and it’s not much more work to switch that way. I normally recommend keeping the options wide open if you’re looking for the cheapest deal.

There’s still too many options!
So you’ve entered your details and filtered the selection. Chances are that you don’t recognise the name of the top 10 (at least) cheapest options. So how to choose?
This is where it gets subjective, but I can outline what I look for in a supplier:

• Do they compete on more than price?

Many of the cheapest options will be smaller companies. They can often undercut the ‘Big 6’ because they don’t have such large overheads. But if price is all they’re competing on they may be more at risk of going under in such a competitive market.
If I’ve not heard of a company before, I head over to their website to look at their ‘About us’ section. If they offer a bit more; working directly with suppliers of renewable energy, providing a community benefit fund or assisting fuel poverty reduction work that is a big plus.

• Are they well established?

Though you may not have heard of them before, many of the smaller companies have been around for a fair while now. If a company has been operating for less than a couple of years then it’s more of a gamble, but if they’ve met the criteria above and have a really good offer they may still be worth considering. Ofgem has a safety net for the unlikely event that your energy supplier goes out of business - Click here for more info

• Can they offer good customer service

This one can be tricky to work out. Looking at reviews will normally throw companies into the worst light (people are more likely to bother complaining than complementing). If I’ve not heard first hand reports from friends or clients I will find and excuse to phone with an enquiry to test this out.
 
Once you’ve whittled down the list, it may be worth looking at Top Cashback, Quidco or similar cashback sites, or seeing if any friends have a referral code you can use to get a welcome bonus, these can be worth up to £100 in some cases!

And of course if you need any advice please get in touch with our Energy Advice team, you can call or email, pop down to a drop in session or we can visit you at home if its hard for you to get out and about.

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