Finance Choices
uSwitch - Saving Money on Your Bills
Who are uSwitch?
uSwitch is a unique service to householders and is an easy way for you to choose, compare and obtain home services (such as gas, electricity, mobile phones) with complex pricing structures and characteristics, within your are.
Is uSwitch impartial?
uSwitch is an impartial and independent service between you and suppliers of services to your home. We guarantee to give you totally impartial advice in the service areas in which we operate. uSwitch works with all suppliers of gas, electricity and mobile phone service providers across Great Britain. You determine your best deal by providing uSwitch with your preferences. You will then be able to choose, compare and obtain the best deal on line.
How much does it cost to change supplier or obtain a new service using uSwitch?
Nothing - our service is free! We are paid a small commission by the supplier company when customers change suppliers with uSwitch. This does not increase the price you pay to the supplier, nor does it have a bearing on the ranking of the products in our output tables.
Will I pay uSwitch any money?
No - uSwitch will not take any money from your bank account or charge you a fee for using the service.
Summary
uSwitch are a company which operates a comparison site where consumers can peruse deals & offers from a variety of different suppliers to find the most economical package tailored to their needs. By showing you how much you could be saving, uSwitch encourage you to, as their name suggests, switch utility providers. They provide this service not only for gas & electricity but also for mobile phones, home telephones & digital TV.
The site is visually pleasing & easy to use. The calculator is comprehensive & has many options for preference selection so the end results are more finely tuned to the customer's specific requirements. The site also provides information about energy, the energy industry & explains terminology.
uSwitch gas and electricity comparisons
uSwitch broadband comparisons
uSwitch is a unique service to householders and is an easy way for you to choose, compare and obtain home services (such as gas, electricity, mobile phones) with complex pricing structures and characteristics, within your are.
Is uSwitch impartial?
uSwitch is an impartial and independent service between you and suppliers of services to your home. We guarantee to give you totally impartial advice in the service areas in which we operate. uSwitch works with all suppliers of gas, electricity and mobile phone service providers across Great Britain. You determine your best deal by providing uSwitch with your preferences. You will then be able to choose, compare and obtain the best deal on line.
How much does it cost to change supplier or obtain a new service using uSwitch?
Nothing - our service is free! We are paid a small commission by the supplier company when customers change suppliers with uSwitch. This does not increase the price you pay to the supplier, nor does it have a bearing on the ranking of the products in our output tables.
Will I pay uSwitch any money?
No - uSwitch will not take any money from your bank account or charge you a fee for using the service.
Summary
uSwitch are a company which operates a comparison site where consumers can peruse deals & offers from a variety of different suppliers to find the most economical package tailored to their needs. By showing you how much you could be saving, uSwitch encourage you to, as their name suggests, switch utility providers. They provide this service not only for gas & electricity but also for mobile phones, home telephones & digital TV.
The site is visually pleasing & easy to use. The calculator is comprehensive & has many options for preference selection so the end results are more finely tuned to the customer's specific requirements. The site also provides information about energy, the energy industry & explains terminology.
uSwitch gas and electricity comparisons
uSwitch broadband comparisons
posted by Barbara Gordon at 7:50 AM
uSwitch - Saving Money on Your Bills
6 Comments:
I really can't say enough about this site. Found the url by accident in a magazine when we were contemplating changing our providers.
It is clear and concise and for me, who loves to see statistics and facts and fugures..plenty of those too.
I found the recommendations to be unbiased and the fact that I could back track and change details as i went along to ascertain many varied combinations was brilliant..but then i am a self confessed nerd who loves number crunching.
For any one who is thinking of changing providers I would recommend this site highly. There is no commitment, not salesmen ringing you up or calling at the door, unless specifically invited...a brilliant way of researching and comparing your utilities.
I am in the middle of a switch from Br.Gas Electricity to Atlantic using USwitch (via Quidco). It took about 3-4 weeks for Atlantic to send out a postcard to let you know they are in the process of switching. Then another 2 weeks before the actual transfer take place. You will need to ring them (freephone no. shown on postcard) on the transfer day to provide your meter reading.
I've actually found, with nPower in particular, that the comparison sites are actually more up-to-date than the supplier's own website! Npower are still publishing their old rates on their website but Uswitch and Energyhelpline etc have the new rates listed.
I never believe what I'm first told about anything, so always double and triple check everything where I can, and you also need to ensure you're actually looking at the right tariffs and comparing like for like as I've found the charges can vary enormously amongst these too, even within the same company.
Has someone knocked at your door and suggested you could save a small fortune if only you'd allow their employer to supply your gas or electricity? Sometimes they appear in a fluorescent yellow jacket to "check that all's well with your fuel supply and ensure that you're getting your discounts". They tell you about the savings that you can make by signing up with them, but what they never do is show you that they're offering the best deal available. So, how do you find the best deal?
The simple answer is that you visit www.uSwitch.com and use their calculators to find the best deal. The site has no links with any of the suppliers that you see on the site ? in fact it's owned by private investors and company employees, so it's unbiased. There are details of all suppliers too, and not just those who pay them commission, which, I'm sorry to say, is a failing of more traditional brokers. Its income comes from the commissions paid by some suppliers when a customer switches their supply online. There isn't even any advertising on the site and the service is completely free to the consumer.
Well, how does it work? Let's have a look at the homepage first. It loads quickly, even on my rather antiquated connection. It's predominantly white, green and blue and easy on the eye. Around the edges are links to information and advice on why you should switch suppliers and how you should use the site. Contact with the site is easy, should it be needed: there's telephone and fax numbers given as well as an email address. There's even an opportunity for you to tell uSwitch your story of how you've been "done at the door" by unscrupulous salesmen, as they're calling for tougher laws to regulate door-to-door selling. I know I'm an old cynic, but I did wonder if there was an ulterior motive here.
In the centre of the homepage are the links to the calculators. Now these are based on up-to-date information from the suppliers and the regulators so they're accurate. Let's click on the gas and electricity calculators first as they're the reason that the website receives more visitors than all the supplier sites other than British Gas.
"You can save an average of £140 a year" it says. The first time I switched, nearly three years ago, I saved about £90 a year. The two switches I've made since have saved me smaller amounts, but they've still been savings. The first piece of information that you'll need is your postcode so that the search is restricted to companies supplying energy in your area. It doesn't mean that someone's got to come and dig up pipes to your property ? it just means that your bill comes from a different company. Why pay more for the same fuel when you can pay less?
Next you'll need details of your current suppliers for Gas and Electricity, how you pay your bill (say by direct debit or on receipt of the bill) and any particular plan that you're on with your supplier, such as Economy 7. You might need a little patience with this page as it updates as you go along, and you can occasionally think that you've lost the information you've already put in.
If you have your last year's fuel bills this is where they'll come in handy, but don't worry if you haven't. You can chose to search for the best deal on the basis of knowing your monthly or annual spend on fuel, your annual consumption in kWh (which gives the most accurate result), the details of your last quarterly bill, or knowing nothing at all. The last option is useful if you're moving to a new property and have no bills to work on. My daughter recently used the site to select her fuel suppliers before she moved into a new house. Choose which details you have available and move on to the next stage.
Next you'll need to choose how you want to pay and there's every possibility listed from prepayment meters through direct debits to paying on receipt of the bill. Paying by direct debit almost always gets you the best deal. You can also chose which services you'd like to have available. Do you want a call centre open seven days a week, or the ability to pay the bill by credit or debit card over the phone? Would you prefer to have a single bill for gas and electricity? The choices are all here.
For a lot of people the choice of an energy supplier doesn't simply come down to the cost of the fuel. It's also possible to choose on the basis of the service ratings of the suppliers or even their Green credentials. These relate to the supply of electricity and are supplied by Friends of the Earth. They're designed to reward those companies who show awareness of their responsibilities towards the environment.
Then it's time for the moment of truth. You get your results! There's usually ten companies listed, with the one providing the best results given first. You're shown the name of the supplier, the plan (with a click link so that you can see what this actually means), the annual saving you could make, the service rating expressed as a percentage and how much your fuel would cost you for the year. There's even an opportunity to sign up online in some cases. I've done this twice now and everything went without a hitch.
Do remember that the actual transfer can take between four and six weeks and if you have an outstanding balance with your current supplier you'll need to settle this. If I have one quibble with this site it's that it isn't made very clear that you will need to settle any outstanding bill before transfer. If you pay a fixed sum each month by direct debit and change suppliers at the end of winter when the bills have been at their highest you might need to find quite a substantial sum.
Energy supply forms the main part of the site's traffic and has done ever since it was launched in September 2000, but you can also check on the best deal for Digital TV and home telephones. For many areas of the country digital television is only available through Sky, but where there is a choice uSwitch details all the packages available and the cost, including installation. For me this part of the site hasn't proved particularly useful, as the only choice I have is which of the Sky packages I'd like. It's of rather more use if one of the cable companies has already dug up your street!
Most people will do rather better with regard to telephones as the site suggests that savings of up to 90% are possible. This is perhaps a little optimistic as it does assume that you start from the basis of being on BT's least generous tariff whilst regularly making a lot of calls. Hopefully there aren't many people in that situation. Very little information is required to start the process of obtaining a quote ? just the details of who charges you for your line rental, your tariff and how the bills are paid. You're also asked if you use this line supplier for all your telephone calls.
You'll then need to think about how you use the telephone. Roughly how many calls do you make each day? When do you make them? Are your calls local, national, international, to mobiles or a mixture? Do you regularly call a particular mobile network? You can then choose how you wish to pay your bill and the type of service you require, such as having to dial a prefix number, using an auto-dialler, carrier pre-selection or considering all options. You really can find the supplier best suited to your preferences.
Your results will show the best deals for you giving the name of the supplier, the particular plan (with details available, if appropriate), the annual savings you could make, any costs of installation, and the total cost to you. In some instances there is a link so that you can switch online.
Very little personal information has been supplied to obtain the quotes, but more is required if you decide to switch online. These pages are secure. There is also an undertaking that information will not be rented, traded or sold to others ? so you're not going to end up will an in-box or post box full of spam as a result of visiting the site. The only information which will be passed on is that which goes to your new supplier.
Their aim is to make it as simple as possible to compare and switch suppliers. I visit this site at least once every three months. The fact that you've changed suppliers once doesn't mean that you've still got the best deal going. The companies who supply these services are out to make a profit and they rely on our apathy when prices rise. Did you know that prices have risen recently? In April nPower increased its gas charges by 4.3% and changed its electricity tariff. Scottish Power imposed an extra £5 charge for direct debit users and standard credit users will pay an extra £10 from April. British Gas has increased charges by 2.5%, but Powergen has hiked its gas prices by a whopping 6.2% from May 2003. Your supplier could be out-of-line with the best.
Go and have a look. It's very simple to use and it's only going to take a few minutes of your time. You might be surprised at the savings that you can make. If you've got the best deals then you can look smug and those door-to-door salesmen will get a very sharp answer won't they?
I would LOVE to secure a good deal online vis a vis reducing the levies made on me by service providers eg. gas, electricity etc. I attempted to register with uSwitch, but it rejected my application on the grounds that I did not provide details of a UK land line. I explained that I had both a satellite telephone and several cell telephones, but they remained adamant that such did not meet their criteria. They needed a conventional UK std code, otherwise they were unwilling to accept me.
After being totally computer and technology illiterate only a few years ago (I still struggle with VCR's) I am quite proud (at a relatively old age) of dragging myself into this century, but I am now frustrated by seemingly having overtaken this company's, and several other companies technology. Had I now better get out my pipe and slippers and sit still for a few years until the 'whizz kids' catch up?
BT has called on uSwitch to come clean about commission charges following concerns about the transparency of the online price comparison service
See: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/29/bt_uswitch/
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