Would you switch energy to a company you’ve never heard of?

[ItsAlrightAlright]

We’re with one of the big energy suppliers. Their current fixed price deal is hundreds more than we’re currently paying.

Uswitch has come up with about half a dozen cheaper suppliers but I’ve never heard of them.

Has anyone else switched from a ‘big one’ to an unknown? Is there anything I need to bear in mind?

Hmm, this is getting pretty difficult given that all the possible suppliers on USwitch want us to install a smart meter - which we do not want!

@ItsAlrightAlright

We switched supplier recently to non main 6 energy supplier (from British Gas) - its cheaper and the customer service is so much better! There are lots of good resources on the internet to help so have a look. This video may also help

Yes. We are now with Octopus and I'm so happy with them! You do your meter readings monthly and it shows you in real time how much you're using, suggests when you should take a refund, pay more etc. It's ace and we are paying less per month than we were with EDF.

Genuinely interested. Why don't you want a smart meter?

Yes I switched to bulb a few months ago and it’s so much better than the big companies. Over £100 per month cheaper, such a simple website to use and also really easy to send readings.

I'd check reviews and so on (and check for any major controversies associated with the company), but otherwise yes absolutely - you can often get a better deal and better customer service with the smaller/newer companies. I'm also with Octopus now and think they are pretty decent so far.

I switched recently and didn't feel comfortable moving to a smaller supplier - I stayed with one of the big 6.

The additional cost was pretty minimal. I know logically that your money is protected should a smaller supplier go bust but just didn't feel confident with them.

clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub/register?_ga=2.240842307.1377390891.1567854860-1577146382.1567232220

From memory this one lets you compare specifically ones that are more well known.
However I changed to a new one in 2017 that I hadn't heard of and I just checked their rating and read reviews. It's been fine.

I barely know any energy companies - I only see their names when I go on moneysavingexpert or whatever to check up on prices. Whether they have an advertising budget or not is of no relevance to whether they'll have decent service and supply.

All the little ones are rebillers rather than real suppliers, same as telephone lines. They all use the same actual electricity lines/gas pipes.

Find someone with sane prices. Check into their service quality with a quick google search. Switch if it looks good.

Wow Malteser my mind boggles at what you were paying if you are saving 1200 a year.
We are with the co_op.. A lot of people are surprised but I find them pretty reasonable

No, I wouldn't. Personal experience of two small companies from the employee side (not me but family member) shows that they cut corners by staff training side. You could call up and have someone who has absolutely no idea how to deal with your query because instead of training it's a case of 'learn by doing'. So if you're lucky, you get someone who can solve your problem...but if not, you get someone who, through no fault of their own, has no idea how to even take a payment.

I swapped to an unknown
Company recently. Only thing I would recommend is check their exit charges. I’m not having a smart meter yet as you can’t currently swap providers easily if you have a smart meter

I switched from British Gas and Eon to Zog gas and SoEnergy for electricity about two years ago. Never heard of them until they came up on the MoneySavingExpert cheap energy club. They are small but both had decent customer service reviews. I haven’t had any problems with them and both switches went fine. Neither have insisted on a smart meter which does mean you have to upload readings regularly otherwise they estimate usage and they don’t have an app but it’s a two minute job once a month to log into the account.

I've just renewed and stuck with who I was already with as the difference was nominal with the big 6(well apart from British gas who were £££) octopus came up as cheaper but if never heard of them so stayed ckear, bulb are popular with some friends but they only do variable rates and my mum always drilled in to me to go fixed

I'm with Octopus too, they're great. I'd never heard of them before. Don't even need to submit meter readings as I have a smart meter. I'm about £250 in credit so far whereas when I was topping up my payg meter with the same amount when with eon and it was all gone every month and sometimes I'd have to top up more.

I switched to Bulb about a year ago and I'd never heard of them. Saved £55 a month.

We're with octopus, it's great. We're in credit which we never were with Scottish power. The bills are so much easier to understand.
With Scottish power they made a right mess of the billing, reducing our direct debit then saying we were in debt by 200?! It was never clear what their billing period was. Every bill covered a different time frame ( so one was a month, one was 6 weeks, one was 2 weeks...) it made it impossible to work out if we were somehow overly wasteful or if we were being charged too much.
With octopus, we're in credit (as we should be for this time of year) and we get extra from referrals!
The bills make sense and they are super fast to get hold of!

DH likes to swap suppliers regularly! Currently with Tonik. No problems so far...

I moved to Toto over a year ago
No problems
Joined again this year
No smart meter...definitely don’t want one..enough electro magnetic smog in the house as it is
Plus S meter isn’t going to stop me putting the lights/ kettetc on if needed

Our bills for gas and electric are really low about £70 a month
And I’m a big user . If I’m cold the heating goes on etc summer or winter
( but you should see our holiday bill 😱)

Why don't you want a smart meter?
Why is it harder to switch if you have one?
We have one but it doesn't seem to work as supplier still emails to ask us to give readings

We have been with So energy for around 8 months now. No problems at all and we are paying around £30 less a month.

I switched to bulb when I hadn't heard of them. Interesting to hear that others are really happy with them. From a gas / electricity supply point of view- fine .. but I switched as my monthly payments had just been put up to 140 instead of 120 by Scottish power, initially bulb was much cheaper, but they have kept increasing my monthly payments and this month was 160!!

I haven't suddenly started using more and I know they like to make provisions for the winter but even so! I recently had a smart meter installed so I would have thought my payments should be a an Accurate reflection.

My theory has been (thus far) that they lure you in with their friendly marketing campaign and cash back promise, then put their prices up sneakily over time!

@Lemonsaretheonlyfruit Bulb tell you the exact prices per unit on every statement.

So far this year, the only change has been gas getting cheaper back in March.

Whatever's changing, it's in your usage and not Bulb's charges.

We did. Switched to Bulb and they’re fantastic.