In the UK, the price of gas and electricity for homes has been in the news a lot in the last few weeks, and for good reason. Many of the big utility companies have just raised their prices, which has hurt a lot of people, especially the elderly and people with lower incomes. People who stuck with their original supplier are thought to be paying 20–30% more for their home fuel than those who switched. With an extra 14.2% added to the bill and rumours that British Gas has lost almost half a million customers just this year, it's no wonder that people in Britain are saying "enough is enough." Privatization and deregulation were supposed to stop these monopolies from charging ridiculously high prices, but from where I stand, loyalty seems to be rewarded by ripping people off. New customers of these huge utility companies are given special treatment to get them to sign up, but only for a very short time. After that, they are charged the same higher "standard rate" prices as everyone else.
So, the smart consumer's answer is to shop around, but that's where another problem comes in. Getting quotes by phone or going to the few remaining showrooms takes time. Very time-consuming and difficult because you have to compare all the different prices and options. Because of this, many people search on the Internet. If you type "gas and electricity comparison" into a search field like the one on the Yahoo! homepage, you'll get a list of sites that claim to compare prices "independently." Uswitch.com is likely the most well-known of these sites. I've recently read several articles in top national newspapers that praised these "independent and unbiased websites" and how they "give you a completely unbiased and objective assessment that leads to recommending the best deal for you."
But please, stop and think for a minute before you go to one of these online services and start entering all your personal information. How do you think these big sites, which take a lot of time and work to keep up-to-date and running, make money? Most of the time, they don't have a lot of advertising banners on each page, so they must make money some other way. And yes, they get paid through commissions, just like most other advisers or consultants. Big utilities companies pay these fees to "independent" websites for each customer who switches to them through the website.
I did a little research and found that even when the same companies are listed on different comparison websites, the results are different. Some of these websites are clearly making more money when they tell me to buy one deal over another. Not only do they tend to recommend the deal that works best for them, but they also only list deals for which they can get a commission. This means that not all of them list every option that a consumer has. Not very independent and fair! For example, none of them list the Utility Warehouse and only a small number of them list Equipower/Equigas because neither of these companies pays commissions to the owners of comparison websites.
But for the vast majority of people in Britain, Utility Warehouse is by far the best choice, as long as you don't mind paying by Direct Debit. They promise to be the cheapest provider of gas and electricity in the UK for customers with normal usage. Equipower may be a better choice for people who don't use much electricity and can pay by check every three months. My advice is to look a little deeper, and you'll find more deals than these sites can show you. But that comes back to time and effort, which are valuable "goods" that most people aren't willing to spend just to lower their bills.
So let me help you by telling you what I learned from my research:
If you use standard, average, or high amounts of gas and electricity like most homes in the UK, check out the Utility Warehouse's guaranteed cheapest gas and electricity tariff. You'll need to apply through one of their representatives. You can find a good one at www.cheapest-gas-supplier.co.uk or www.cheapest-electricity-supplier.co.uk.
If you don't use much electricity or gas, you might want to check out the Equipower/Equigas scheme at www.ebico.co.uk.
Gas and electricity prices shouldn't be so hard to find, but maybe that's what the big utility companies are counting on. Too bad we now have different ideas...
