The deal
Look After My Bills (which you may remember from BBC show the Dragon’s Den) aims to take the hassle out of switching energy providers. Instead of manually searching for the best deal each time your current one comes to an end, you simply sign up – which can be done in a few minutes – and Look After My Bills will do the searching for you. It will switch you to a company on its panel of around 50 providers every time your current energy deal comes to an end, as long as you will save at least £50. It also, crucially, has an option to search only renewable energy providers.
The service is free and you can cancel any switch that Look After My Bills begins within 14 days of being alerted about it. It is worth noting that Look After My Bills will only switch you to an energy provider that pays it commission (they all pay the same amount, so there’s no issue with bias). This means that it doesn’t cover the whole market and there may be a cheaper deal out there. It does, however, usefully screen out those with a bad track record or poor customer service.
You can use Look After My Bills if you’re a UK energy customer on a dual-fuel tariff or if you just have electricity.
The service works with standard electricity meters, prepayment meters and economy 7 electricity meters. If you have a smart meter, you can still use Look After My Bills, but there’s no guarantee the smart meter will continue working after your switch. In this case, you’d have to supply manual readings.
User-friendliness
The biggest draw of Look After My Bills is that it makes finding the cheapest energy deal for you completely hassle-free, year after year. If you normally struggle with finding not only the cheapest but greenest provider, Look After My Bills takes care of that too by giving you the option to “choose only renewable energy providers”.
To sign-up, you enter your email address and postcode on the Look After My Bills home page. You’ll then need to submit a few details about your current energy supplier and the tariff you are on. You can either estimate your gas and electricity usage or submit exact figures (it’s definitely worth giving the exact ones). Look After My Bills will use this information to calculate how much it can save you.
If the savings look worthwhile, enter a few personal details to complete your registration and begin the switch. Look After My Bills will then take care of everything for you, including contacting your old supplier (meaning you get to avoid phoning a call centre). Remember to send your meter readings to your new provider as soon as you are prompted to so you get accurate bills from the start.
While signing up is simple, leaving Look After My Bills is a little less so. Instead of being able to leave with a few clicks on the website, you have to email the support centre with your postcode and ‘cancellation’ in the subject line.
Is it safe?
Look After My Bills screens out any companies that score poorly on customer service, so you can have confidence in those that it recommends.
Sustainable option
You can opt for Look After My Bills to only compare suppliers of renewable energy. It will then select the cheapest renewable energy tariff on the market for you – and keep you on the cheapest one for good by auto-switching you each time a new deal comes up. All green tariffs come with 100 per cent renewable electricity, however there is no such guarantee for green gas.
Unique selling points
- Big savings. Look After My Bills says it will save the average customer £253. Some of its competitors promise a bigger average saving, so it’s worth checking out what they offer too, and specifically if they have the option to compare only renewable energy providers.
- Get the “best” deal not just the cheapest. Price isn’t the only thing Look After My Bills takes into account. It looks at customer service (this is important if there is an issue with your account), how easy it is to sign up, and how well a provider rates with independent organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.
The plus points
- Free. The service is completely free.
- No fee to leave. You won’t be charged any exit fees.
- Make money by signing your friends up. Refer a friend and you’ll both receive £20.
- Efficient switching. You won’t be switched unless you can save at least £50.
- Screening. Look After My Bills filters out companies with a bad track record or poor customer service.
- You can change your mind. You have a 14 day cooling off period if you don’t like the provider you’re switched to.
- No need to wait. You can sign up even if your current deal hasn’t ended.
Any drawbacks?
- Infrequent switching. Look After My Bills won’t switch you as often as some of its competitors will, but you may feel that constantly switching isn’t always efficient. It will switch you if it can save you at least £50, but only when your current energy deal is coming to an end – this means you won’t face exit fees.
- Only for residential customers. Look After My Bills is not yet available to business energy customers.
Cost of use
Look After My Bills is completely free to users as it makes its money from commission paid by providers when a switch is made.
How do these costs compare to competitors?
Flipper charges an annual fee of £30 (you don’t pay for your first ‘flip’) while Switchd has a variable monthly fee depending on the level of service you choose. While this may on the face of it seem more costly, not taking commission from providers may mean that they have access to a wider range of available tariffs. Both Flipper and Switchd have the option to choose only renewable energy providers (again, for electricity only).
Other options
Similar auto-switching services worth considering are:
Top 6 truly green energy providers for 2020
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