Energy Helpline
- Ofgem accredited
- Whole of market
- Free comparisons and switching
- Results are easy to understand
- Rated 9/10 'Excellent' by customers
- Freephone helpline open 7 days
In This Review
Do you expect to be paying more for gas and electric by the end of the year? If this year is anything like 2018, wholesale prices will continue to trend upwards meaning higher bills for most of us yet again.
If you’ve made the decision to do something about it and switch to a better tariff, your first step is probably to visit a price comparison website. But which one should you trust?
As a bare minimum you should stick to those that have signed up to the Ofgem Confidence Code. This is a list of eleven regulator approved online comparison websites that agree to meet a set of standards which “ensure that the prices and options displayed have been calculated fairly in an unbiased way“.
One of the founding members of the code was Energy Helpline who remain one of the leading accredited comparison sites today. But with eleven potential ‘approved’ switching services to choose from, what does Energy Helpline do better than their competitors?
Why Consider Energy Helpline?
- Free to use and switch supplier
- Whole of market comparisons
- Ofgem Confidence Code accredited
- Support by phone and email 7 days a week
- Rated 9/10 ‘Excellent’ in verified customer reviews
Who It’s For
Whether you’re a home owner or tenant, the energy comparison and switching service is free to use. Even if you have a prepayment meter or are currently on a capped or fixed tariff, the process can still work for you if the potential savings outweigh the cost of any early exit fees from your existing supplier.
What I Like
- Easy to use quote form with helpful summary
- Excellent results page with market leading summary features
- Powerful results filters for most important data
Like most energy comparison sites, the first part of the process requires you to confirm your current supplier, tariff and usage. Nothing hugely different from Energy Helpline here, although a simple summary of your form filling and annual spend is kept in view to minimise errors. A simple touch that other sites miss but hints that a lot of effort has gone into the quote process.
Where Energy Helpline really excels is after you click the big blue button and view the quote results page. From a list of hundreds of tariffs each with it’s own pricing and data, the ‘Featured Deals’ summary is what you’ll notice first and really helps to quickly focus your search on the cheapest, most popular and cheapest fixed plans. For me, it’s the best energy comparison results page online right now.
There’s also a good range of filter options to fine tune your results down by tariff type, payment method, service rating and much more.
What I Don’t Like
- Supplier service ratings are basic
- No indication of suppliers signed up to the Energy Switch Guarantee
I’m happy to confess it’s a challenge to come up with anything I don’t like about the Energy Helpline service. Their quote process is first rate and the number of five star ratings by verified customers indicate that the attention to detail and customer satisfaction continues through the switching process too. The only improvement I would suggest is to add greater detail to the supplier service ratings on the quote results page and an indication of tariffs which are covered by the Energy Switch Guarantee.
Energy Helpline Compared to EnergyLinx
EnergyLinx
We're always being told to 'switch' and save hundreds of pounds on energy bills! So much so that the message may be ...
Energy Helpline
Do you expect to be paying more for gas and electric by the end of the year? If this year is anything like 2018, ...
As our previous highest rated energy comparison service, Energylinx offers an impressive combination of features and positive customer feedback that no other service had come close to surpassing. So how does Energy Helpline measure up?
Where it really matters, both sites are quite similar as founding members of the Ofgem Confidence Code and providers of whole of market comparisons. However, differences start to emerge on the quote request forms where Energy Helpline offers a better experience thanks to helpful summaries of current usage data as you enter more detail. There’s also an option to join their free ‘Price Watch’ service which will alert you if they find a cheaper tariff.
Energy Helpline impresses even further once you reach the results page as their simple but powerful featured deals summary does an excellent job of narrowing down hundreds of tariffs to the cheapest, most popular and cheapest fixed supplier. If you need further clarity there’s an impressive choice of filter options which are far from an afterthought and show a good understanding of what really matters to consumers.
Where Energylinx still stands apart is their detailed supplier ratings and extra tariff details such as Energy Switch Guarantee indicator.
Customer Reviews: Rated 9/10 (Excellent)
Energy Helpline has managed to maintain a 9/10 ‘Excellent’ rating after almost 2,500 customer reviews on Trustpilot.com. Out of the five possible rating choices on Trustpilot, just 3% of reviewers chose ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ with 93% choosing ‘great’ or ‘excellent’ and the remaining 4% ‘average’.
- “Easy to use”
- “Seamless transition”
- “Stress free”
Of the more positive comments left by reviewers, the common opinion is how ‘easy’ the comparison tool is and those that went on to switch frequently mention a ‘seamless’ and ‘stress free’ process.
- “Customer service non existent!”
- “Haven’t had any correspondence”
- “Never received my cashback”
Comments left with poor or bad ratings were largely focused on problems with communication errors and delays from energy suppliers or cashback problems after a successful switch.
Common Questions
Q. How are comparisons calculated?
Q. Are there any hidden costs if I decide to switch?
Q.Can I switch if I have a prepayment meter?
How to Get Cashback on an Energy Helpline Switch
If you have an account with either Top Cashback or Quidco, you can earn up to £31.50 for a successful dual fuel switch with Energy Helpline. Please be aware that terms and conditions apply to all cashback deals and it can often taken 3-6 months to receive your funds after a switch is confirmed.
Alternatives
There’s a growing choice of energy price comparison sites, but not all are approved by the UK regulator Ofgem. At the time of writing, there are just eleven accredited services in addition to Energy Helpline…
- Energylinx
- Moneysupermarket
- My Utility Genius
- Quotezone
- Runpath
- Simply Switch
- Switch Gas and Electric
- The Energy Shop
- Unravel It
- uSwitch
Final Opinion
Energy Helpline has replaced EnergyLinx as our top rated energy price comparison site. It was close but not in any doubt after testing the quotation process of both services.
Looking at customer feedback, EnergyLinx has an enviable Trustpilot score of 9.2/10, but is only based on a few hundred reviews compared to Energy Helplines’ similar score from over two thousand verified customers.
Overall, what won it for Energy Helpline was it’s impressively summarised quote and results pages which make finding the right deal from a list of hundreds a breeze.
