Free to do, five working days, no interruption

Switching supplier, and the times not to

Changing energy supplier is one of the few household jobs that is genuinely easy: nothing is dug up, nobody visits, and your gas and electricity do not stop for a second. The hard part is knowing whether it is worth doing, and that is the part nobody who gets paid for switches will tell you straight.

Who pays for the comparison

A comparison site is free to you because the supplier pays it a fee when you switch — between roughly £10 and £56 for a gas and electricity switch, depending on the supplier. The accredited ones are not allowed to let that fee change the order of the results, and they have to publish which suppliers pay them. Two things follow that are worth carrying with you. A supplier that pays nobody may not appear on any of them, so it is worth checking one supplier's own site directly as well. And a site that earns per switch has no reason at all to tell you that staying put is your best move.

Which is why the list of reasons not to switch on this page is as long as the list of steps for doing it. Whoever else ends up better off out of a switch, you should be one of them, and there are plenty of weeks when the honest answer is to leave it exactly where it is.

Six steps, in the order that saves the most

Most guides start at step four. Doing the first three first is what turns a comparison into a real saving rather than a guess.

1Find your annual usage, in units
Not what you pay — what you use. It is on your annual statement, and on most bills near the meter readings, as a number of kWh for each fuel. Every comparison you do with a real usage figure is right, and every one you do with a guess is a sales estimate.
2Ring your own supplier first
Ask what their cheapest tariff is for an existing customer, and say you are looking at moving. It costs one phone call, there is no switching to do if they match it, and you keep any credit, any Warm Home Discount arrangement and any repayment plan exactly where it is.
3Check what leaving would cost you
If you are on a fixed deal, there is usually an exit fee, typically £25 to £100 per fuel, and it is on your bill. Inside the last 49 days of a fix you cannot be charged it at all. If you owe your supplier money that is more than 28 days old, you generally have to clear it before you can move.
4Compare, with the yearly figure
Use a site that holds every supplier's tariffs. Compare the cost for a year at your own usage, never the monthly direct debit, which the supplier picks and can change. Sort by cheapest and read the exit fee on whatever comes top.
5Switch, and take a meter reading
It takes up to five working days. Nothing is dug up, no engineer comes, and your gas and electricity do not stop for a second — the same wires and pipes carry the same energy, and only the name on the bill changes. Photograph the meter on the day you switch, because that reading settles the final bill.
6You have fourteen days to change your mind
The cooling-off period starts when you agree, and you can cancel inside it with no penalty. If the switch goes wrong — a bill from both suppliers, a lost credit balance, a switch you never agreed to — the Energy Switch Guarantee and then the Energy Ombudsman are free to use.

Five times you are better off staying put

Switching is not always the answer, and a page paid by the switch will never say so. Each of these costs somebody real money every week.

The exit fee is bigger than the saving
Two fuels at £75 each is £150 to leave. A deal saving £90 a year costs you £60 to take. Work out the saving over the months you have left, not over a full year.
You owe your supplier more than 28 days' worth
You usually have to clear it first. On a prepayment meter you can move with up to £500 of debt per fuel and the debt moves with you, which is a rule worth knowing because suppliers rarely mention it.
You are being helped, and the help is with this supplier
A repayment plan you have agreed, a hardship grant part-way through, or a Priority Services Register entry all sit with the supplier you are with. The register moves easily; a grant does not.
You cannot find your usage and are about to guess
A comparison run on a guessed usage tells you which supplier is cheapest for a household that is not yours. Wait until the annual statement arrives, or read the meter twice a month apart.
The only saving is a lower standing charge
The low standing charge tariffs put the money back on the unit rate. Unless you use very little — under roughly 1,800 units of electricity and 7,500 of gas a year — you pay more, not less.

Should you fix?

A fix is not a discount, it is insurance. You pay a known price for a year or two and give up whatever a falling cap would have given you. Fixing makes sense if a fall in your bill would be nice and a rise would be a problem — a tight budget, a fixed income, a cold house. Staying on the capped variable rate makes sense if you could absorb a rise and would rather keep the upside.

●Compare the fix against the cap over the whole length of the fix, not against today's cap. The cap changes every three months; the fix does not.
●A fix a few per cent under the cap is a real saving only if the cap does not fall by more than that. Nobody can tell you whether it will.
●Check the exit fee before the price. A cheap fix with a £100-a-fuel exit fee is expensive if anything changes.
●Two-year fixes are usually cheaper per year than one-year fixes at the moment, and they lock you in for twice as long.

The cap in force is for 1 July to 30 September 2026, at £1,663 a year for a typical direct debit home. Judge any fix against your own yearly cost, not against that.

Low and no standing charge tariffs

A handful of suppliers now offer tariffs with a much lower daily standing charge, cutting around £150 a year off the part you pay for an empty house. The money does not disappear: it goes onto the unit rate instead, by roughly 3.5p a unit on electricity and 1p on gas. So it is a redistribution, not a discount, and it only pays if you use very little — under about 1,800 units of electricity and 7,500 of gas a year, against 2,500 and 9,500 for a typical home. It is a trial rather than a permanent offer, the numbers of places are limited, and these tariffs sit outside the price cap.

Worth a look if: A flat, a single person, a home that is empty much of the week, or a second property.
Costs you more if: Anyone with average or higher use, and particularly anyone heating with electricity.

Ofgem: lower standing charge tariffs

The suppliers, ranked by how they treat people

Price you can look up in five minutes. What a supplier is like when a bill is wrong, or the meter reads backwards, or you need to agree a repayment plan, you cannot — but it is measured. Citizens Advice scores every supplier with more than 25,000 customers every three months on four things: how many complaints they get, for their size; how long you wait when you ring or write; whether the bills and the meter readings are right; whether they keep the extra commitments they signed up to. These are their scores for January to March 2026, out of 5, best first. The median was 3.26.

Supplier	Score	Worth knowing
100Green	4.33Above average	The smallest name on the list and the highest scoring. Green gas as well as green electricity, which is unusual.
Outfox Energy	4.25Above average	The old Outfox the Market, under a shorter name. An independent that mostly sells variable tariffs, so the price moves with the market rather than being fixed for a year.
E.ON Next	3.71Above average	The best scoring of the big suppliers, and one of the few that has stayed above the median for several quarters running.
Octopus Energy	3.67Above average	The largest supplier in the country. Worth knowing if you have a smart meter: it sells tariffs whose price changes by the half hour or by the day, which suit some homes and punish others.
Co-op EnergyRun by Octopus Energy	3.63Above average	Sold under the Co-op name and run by Octopus, so moving between the two is not really a switch.
Good Energy	3.49About average	An independent that buys its electricity from British renewable generators rather than buying certificates for it.
Ecotricity	3.36About average	An independent green supplier that builds its own wind and solar. Rarely the cheapest, and does not pretend to be.
OVO Energy	3.30About average	Took on the household customers of SSE, so a long-standing SSE account is an OVO one now.
E (Gas and Electricity)	3.22Below average	A small supplier that sells a lot of prepayment meters. Sits mid-table, which for a prepayment-heavy book is a better result than it looks.
ScottishPower	2.94Below average	Below the median. If you are with them and something has gone wrong, put it in writing and start the eight-week clock straight away.
EDF	2.90Below average	Below the median. One of the few suppliers that still offers a wide choice of fixed lengths.
So Energy	2.86Below average	Below the median, and a long way down from where it scored when it was smaller.
British Gas	2.61Below average	The worst scoring of the big suppliers, and the one most households are still with because it was the one they were given.
Utility Warehouse	2.45Below average	Sells energy bundled with broadband, mobile and insurance. Check each part against its own market before you judge the bundle: a discount on a dear price is still a dear price.
Utilita	2.35Below average	Built around pay-as-you-go smart meters. If you are on prepayment you can still switch, and you can still ask to move to a credit meter.
TruEnergy	1.38Below average	Bottom of the table by a wide margin. If a deal from a supplier at this end of the list looks cheap, read what happens when you need to ring them.

Sixteen suppliers, because sixteen is how many are large enough to be scored. A smaller one is not necessarily worse — it is unmeasured, which is a different thing. Scores and the method are Citizens Advice’s own: Citizens Advice: compare energy suppliers' customer service, how the scores are worked out. No supplier on this list can pay to be here or to move up it.

Where to compare every supplier’s live prices

This site does not hold every supplier’s tariffs and cannot complete a switch for you. These do. They are listed alphabetically, because ranking them would mean picking one, and nobody here has any reason to.

“Accredited” below means the site says it follows Ofgem’s Confidence Code: independent of any supplier, sorted cheapest first by default, audited, and obliged to publish which suppliers pay it. Worth having. It is not a promise that the site shows you the whole market, because since 2018 an accredited site may show part of it, so long as it does not claim otherwise. Each one checked on 9 September 2026.

EnergylinxAccredited
One of the longest-running, and the tariff data behind several better-known names.
MoneySavingExpert Cheap Energy Club
Pays part of its own fee back to you as cashback when you switch through it, and says so plainly. Not in the Confidence Code, but the most transparent about the money of any of them.
MoneySuperMarketAccredited
One of the big four, so it will be there next year, which matters if something goes wrong with a switch.
My Utility GeniusAccredited
Smaller, and one of the few that lists time-of-use and electric vehicle tariffs alongside ordinary ones.
Simply SwitchAccredited
Has a phone line, which is worth knowing if you would rather not do this on a screen.
The Energy ShopAccredited
Independent and accredited every year since 2003. Shows the whole tariff table rather than a shortlist.
UswitchAccredited
The biggest, and the one most likely to have every supplier's current deal.

Whichever you use, put your own usage in kWh into it rather than letting it estimate, and read the exit fee on whatever comes top.

What protects you

Your supply cannot be cut off by switching
The gas and electricity reach your home through the same pipes and wires whoever bills you. A switch changes an account, not a supply, and nothing is ever disconnected as part of it.
Fourteen days to change your mind
The cooling-off period runs from when you agree. Cancel inside it and nothing happens, at no cost.
A credit balance is yours
Money sitting in credit with the old supplier belongs to you and must be refunded, usually within ten working days of the final bill. Ask for it: it is not always sent automatically.
Eight weeks, then the Ombudsman
If a switch goes wrong, complain in writing and start the clock. When eight weeks have passed without it being put right, or you get a final answer you do not accept, you can take it to the Energy Ombudsman for nothing. Their decision binds the supplier and not you.
Energy Ombudsman
If your supplier goes bust, you are covered
Ofgem appoints a new one, your supply continues, and your credit balance is protected. Do not switch in a hurry while it is happening — take a meter reading and wait to be moved.
Ofgem: what happens if your supplier goes bust

If a supplier will not put it right

1Complain to the supplier, in writing
Email or the complaints form on their site, not the phone, so you have the date. Say what went wrong, what you want them to do, and that you are making a formal complaint. Keep the reply.
2Wait, but not more than eight weeks
They get eight weeks. If they have not fixed it by then, or they send you a final response you do not accept, you can take it further and it costs you nothing.
3Take it to the Energy Ombudsman
Free, independent, and their decision binds the supplier but not you. They can order an apology, a correction to your bill and compensation.
Energy Ombudsman
4Get help making the case
The Citizens Advice consumer helpline will talk you through it and can refer you to the Extra Help Unit if you are vulnerable or off supply.
Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 0808 223 1133

Questions about switching

Will my gas or electricity be cut off while I switch?

No, and it cannot be. The same wires and pipes bring the same energy to your home whoever sends the bill. Nobody visits, nothing is disconnected, and the only thing that changes is the name on the account and the price.

How long does it take?

Up to five working days, plus a fourteen-day cooling-off period that runs alongside it. Take a photo of your meter on the switching day: that reading closes the old account and opens the new one, and it is the single thing that prevents an argument later.

Can I switch if I owe my supplier money?

If the debt is more than 28 days old you usually have to clear it first. On a prepayment meter it is different and better: you can move with up to £500 of debt per fuel and it moves with you. Suppliers rarely mention that, so ask for it by name.

Can I switch if I rent?

If your name is on the energy bill and you pay the supplier directly, yes, and your landlord cannot stop you, though your tenancy may ask you to tell them or to switch back at the end. If energy is included in the rent, the choice is your landlord's.

What if I have a prepayment meter?

You can still switch, and you can also ask to move to a credit meter, which suppliers now have to do free of charge for most people. Prepayment has the cheapest capped rates of the three ways of paying, so switching meter type is about convenience rather than price.

Will a smart meter stop working if I switch?

Older first-generation meters sometimes lose their smart functions and go back to needing manual readings. Newer ones do not. It is worth asking the new supplier before you agree, and it is not usually a reason on its own to stay.

Work out what your energy costs first — a comparison is only as good as the usage figure you put into it. What to say when you ring your supplier if you would rather not move at all.