Switching energy providers - Is it really a faff?

You know, I’m really not known for my patience.

If I’m being kept waiting (or being irritated) I’m cool as a cucumber for about 15 minutes, smiling under the pressure to ‘Hulk Out’. However, the minute ‘I’m over it’ – the world better watch out!

I’ll walk out of a restaurant, I’ll cause a scene, I’ll refuse to ever buy from that brand again etc. You get the idea.

And to me, the companies that are likely to cause me a stress are the household bills ones (like, have you ever had to call up a broadband company to sort out issues with speeds? The Pope would lose his cool!).

However, there are a couple of areas that have a bit of a bad reputation, such as banking (thanks to seven-day switching it’s easy now) and also switching energy providers which is about as far from complicated as something can be, and will save you a small fortune.

I say a small fortune, but I doubt even millionaire (billionaire?) Richard Branson would turn his nose up at a free £618. Yep, that’s the amount energy experts uSwitch say you could save A YEAR by making a quick switch.

The scary thing about it is that 65% of households (17 MILLION people) are still on Standard Variable Tariffs – which is the most expensive energy plan someone can be on. Seriously – that’s most of the country out of pocket for no reason at all.

The problem is, most people don’t even realise they are on one. Are you? Do YOU know what your tariff is?

Switching is such a no-brainer, a bit of me wants to go knocking door to door, forcing people to switch. Like an energy-saving Mormon. Ha!

Although energy prices are going up all the time you don’t have to put up with it. British Gas is upping its prices by 12.5% but there are much cheaper fixed deals you can switch to, to protect you from similar rises.

Long story short – by switching to a cheaper fixed-deal – you WILL save money.

How to switch

Ok, I’ve clearly convinced you to switch energy suppliers. If I haven’t, go back and re-read the last
paragraph, but this time, imagine I’m Mel Gibson on a horse giving an impassioned speech in a bad
Scottish accent.

Cool, now we’re on the same page.

So how unbearable is switching? Well, put it this way – it’s the quickest £600 you’ll ever going to make because it takes as little as 10 minutes.

There have been so many people in the past (including MPs) that have said the switching process is too complicated, but I’m calling it out as rubbish.

1. Got to an energy comparison site such as uSwitch.
2. Click the button directly in front of you that says ‘Start my energy comparison’.
3. Enter your postcode, email address and phone number.
4. Enter the really quick questionnaire (have a recent bill to hand to save on time). By way, I
didn’t have one, so just pressed the ‘estimate’ button. See easy. It took about three minutes
to fill out.
5. See the list of providers it gives you with the amount you can save.
6. Pick one (I went with the ‘Most popular plan for my region’), entered my details and clicked
‘switch’. It really isn’t complicated.

So when you click ‘Confirm my switch’, uSwitch will pass on your details to the new supplier, so they can set up an account for you. It will then let you know when the switch is going to happen.

You LITERALLY (and it’s not often you can use that word correctly) don’t have to do anything. The new supplier will cancel the old contract, your old supplier will request a final payment from you if payments are outstanding… basically, once you’ve clicked the button, it’s all sorted.

What could you do with that extra cash?

We’ve all agreed you’re not going to be one of the 65% of people unnecessarily forking out money
they don’t need to be. So let’s say you’re one of the lucky ones who has saved £600!