The energy comparison sites are hoodwinking consumers into deals where they earn kickbacks rather than switching households onto the best tariff, according to collective switching website The Big Deal. It has accused rivals of hiding the best energy deals and behaving unethically.
Its chief allegation is that the sites invariably ask consumers if they want to switch “today”. By doing so, the results presented to consumers only show the deals where the switching site is earning a commission.
The Big Deal has written a letter of complaint to Compare the Market, Go Compare, uSwitch, MoneySuperMarket and Confused.com and claims its research found almost a third of deals were hidden.
The website has also sent its letter to the energy secretary, Ed Davey and said it wants the Competition and Markets Authority to expand its investigation of the energy market to include the activities of price comparison websites.
We tested the major sites this morning and found filter questions that do indeed remove lots of plans from the eyes of unsuspecting consumers. One site, Gocompare.com, did not even give consumers the option of showing all tariffs before throwing users automatically into its results page.
Uswitch showed only 30 out of 54 deals and MoneySuperMarket 51 out of 100 deals when putting consumers through to results pages where they could switch that day.
The snap test this morning also found that the sites automatically put a “yes” to filtering out plans that don’t pay commission, leaving consumers to untick it if they want the full results.
But the test also found little appreciable difference in the final bill. Only Uswitch failed to show the best tariff when consumers accept the “yes to today” filter, and the difference in cost was only 76p.
We tested a three-bed detached home in East Sussex, for a dual fuel (gas and electricity) customer who uses the home during the day as well as night, has gas central heating, cooks with gas and pays by monthly direct debit. Here were our results.
Uswitch.com
After inputting address and bill details, the site says “Show plans we can switch you to today”. When we ticked yes, it took us to a results screen showing 30 deals, with the best listed as nPower, saving us, we were told, £330.06 off our estimated bill.
When we ticked ‘no’ we were taken to a results page showing 54 deals, with the best listed as from Extra Energy, a relatively new entrant to the market, saving us £330.82.
The remaining best buy deals – from First Utility, Ovo and Scottish Power – were the same irrespective of whether we clicked yes or no to the “show deals today” option.
GoCompare.com
This site did not ask us if we wanted to see all tariffs before showing us the results. It automatically took us through to the results where it could switch us immediately, which in general means where they have a commission deal.
Consumers have to look in the box along the top of the results to find a “show me” option that allows them to see all tariffs. On pressing this, we were shown an extra 53 tariffs.
However, these tariffs were all poor value and the end result was that it did not matter if we ticked “show me all” or not. In both cases, the best tariffs were from Extra Energy, nPower, First Utility and Scottish Power.
Confused.com
This site asks “what is important to you?”. It then goes on to include a line “show me the tariffs I can switch to today”. This is autofilled “yes”.
Accepting the “yes’ filter took us to 59 results, while saying “no” took us to 100 different tariffs.
But again most of these additional tariffs were poor value and did not change the results for a bargain-hunting consumer. Whether you ticked “yes” or “no”, the site displayed the top five as Extra Energy, nPower, First Utility, Scottish Power and Ovo.
Comparethemarket.com
This is the site that could be most seriously accused of hiding results. When we searched, it took us through to a results page automatically, without asking us if we wanted to see all tariffs. “We’ve found you 109 tariffs for gas and electricity” it said.
But if consumers see a small tab at the top of the page, and then click “refine your results” they are taken to another page, showing “other options”. Only if they click this are they shown all tariffs. In our case, it gave us the option to see a further 48 tariffs.
But the reality in terms of billing was the same. The best tariffs shown were First Utility, Extra Energy, nPower and Scottish Power.
Moneysupermarket.com
Another site which has an automatically ticked “show energy deals we can switch you to today” filter. Turning it on meant we were shown 51 deals. When we unticked it, we were shown 100 deals.
But again the top five deals shown were identical in both cases.
Energyhelpline.com
Energyhelpline.com provides the comparison information for the Guardian’s compare and buy service.
At first we were happy to see a button which said “What tariffs are you interested in”, which automatically ticked “all tariffs”.
But further down it said: “Filter my results to show” followed by “tariffs we can switch you to today” which is already pre-populated as the preferred option, or “all tariffs”.
We tested both, and the results were the same: Extra Energy, nPower, First Utility, Ovo and Green Star.
Conclusion
The Big Deal is right to highlight that the comparison sites nudge consumers towards the tariffs where they have commission deals. On our test, the actual financial loss to consumers was tiny. But that may be simply down to how tariffs are currently working. Who is to know if at another time, a much better deal is excluded because the site has not stuck a commission deal with the provider?
This lack of clarity has been going on for some time. In 2004 the Guardian’s then Jobs & Money section first highlighted that some switching sites – most notably uSwitch – were not giving customers the full picture. Often the firm that offered the cheapest prices would not appear on the search result if it didn’t have an arrangement with the site.
As a result, the regulator Ofgem came up with a code of conduct, which required the switching sites to offer users the option to see all tariffs, not just the firms with which the website can manage the customer’s switch.
However, it’s evident that the sites interpret these code in different ways, and not all sites are accredited by Ofgem’s “confidence code”.
