Automatic energy switching goes mainstream as GoCompare launches weflip

GoCompare has today launched weflip, an innovative switching service designed to automatically keep households on cheap energy deals, forever.  Removing the hassle of energy switching for millions of people, weflip’s ‘sign up once, save forever’ service moves its customers onto better deals, putting an end to overly-expensive energy bills for good.

weflip has been launched against a backdrop of rising energy prices¹, staggering overspending figures (15.1 million GB customers² are overpaying £352 a year on energy³) and low switching confidence (61% of domestic energy customers have never, or only once, compared and switched energy deals²). By automating the switching process, weflip takes the onerous responsibility away from customers, ensuring that poor-value standard variable tariffs (SVTs) are avoided and that households are always on great value energy deals.

weflip is inviting its first customers to sign up to from today, Monday 15 October, and is the first automatic saving (auto-saving) service to have the backing of an established company with significant reach and a long history of saving people time and money. weflip combines energy industry expertise and market-leading tech capabilities to make energy switching as simple as possible.

How does it work?

• Customers go to weflip.com
• They enter their personal details and preferences⁴ (takes minutes and it only needs to be done once)
• weflip’s algorithms will match their details with the best tariff available through the service
• They choose the first deal to flip to from weflip’s broad selection of suppliers
• After the initial switch, weflip will take over and scour the market, flipping them to better deals automatically, for life (when a minimum saving of £50, including exit fees, can be made)
• No further manual comparisons are needed, as weflip chooses for them

Matthew Crummack, CEO of GoCompare Group, of which weflip is part, said: “Today, most households² are still stuck on expensive SVTs and as a result are paying, on average, £352³ per year more than they need to. That’s money that should be in people’s bank accounts, or put towards things like a family holiday, the kids’ school uniforms, or could even pay for about six weeks’ worth of groceries.

“Despite a long series of industry-wide campaigns to encourage switching, progress has been painfully slow. Not least because the onus has always been on customers to take action year after year. Through weflip, we’ve removed as much hassle as possible from the process of finding and switching to better energy deals. We believe that our easy to use, hands-off approach to continuous saving has the potential to bring overpriced energy deals to an end, for good.

“This hugely powerful tool will track energy deals daily, but we anticipate customers will be switched once or twice a year, when a significant (at least £50) saving can be made.

“With weflip we are creating something that will appeal to the occasional switcher who ultimately ends up back on an SVT, and to those who have never switched.  A significant barrier to switching is the hassle – perceived and real – that people associate with the process, along with their disinterest in the energy market more generally. weflip aims to remove that hassle by allowing households to simply outsource this burdensome chore, saving everyone precious time and money year after year.”

Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said: “There is an army of loyal consumers in Britain who, for one reason or another, simply do not have the time or resources to shop around for the cheapest deals. 

“Currently, the onus is on those households to make difficult and time-consuming choices between different deals offered by suppliers, often based on confusing tariffs, amongst all the other competing demands that life throws at them. Hence the ease with which suppliers can continue asking them, year after year, to pay over the odds for the gas and electricity. 

“Any moves to address this injustice by helping those hard-up households who, as loyal consumers, have long been paying too much for their gas and electricity, are to be welcomed.

“I hope the scheme being announced today will begin an upheaval of the energy market which eventually leads to all households being placed automatically on the cheapest available tariff which matches their patterns of consumption.”

As with all the services available through the GoCompare Group plc companies – GoCompare, MyVoucherCodes and Energylinx – weflip is completely free for consumers to use. weflip’s services are paid for by the fees received from the energy suppliers that customers are switched to.

Fast facts:

• weflip is a new tech brand built by GoCompare Group plc and powered by Energylinx. Energylinx is a GoCompare Group company that operates an Ofgem-accredited energy comparison and switching service, and has more direct supplier relationships than any other comparison or switching provider
• Ofgem has found that 61% of UK households have either never switched (34%) or only done so once (27%) – these households make up the majority of the 54% (15.1 million households) that are stuck on expensive default tariffs²
• According to Ofgem, the average difference in cost between a dual fuel SVT and the cheapest available tariff is £352³
• weflip is GoCompare Group plc’s first brand that’s firmly focused on its Savings as a Service™ strategy

 -ends-

 Notes to Editors

 1 10 Sept 2018 saw Bulb Energy hike bills for the third time this year, marking the 41st bill increase announced by an energy provider so far this year (reference: The Independent)

2 Ofgem’s State of the Energy Market report for 2018 confirms that 54% of GB’s 28m households are on poor value default tariffs (typically with one of the Big Six energy providers) 

3 Ofgem’s Retail highlights September 2018, states that in August 2018, there was a £352 variance between the average Big Six SVT tariff (dual fuel / direct debit) vs. market cheapest equivalent

4 Address, current energy supplier and tariff, usage, payment method. All suppliers available through weflip, only popular suppliers, or existing supplier

For further information, please contact

Anders Nilsson or Martyn John  at: media@weflip.com

 
About weflip

weflip is a smart savings service that helps people save money by automatically switching them to better energy deals.

weflip is a completely free, automatic savings service that guarantees cheap energy forever.  After customers sign up, weflip simply flips households onto cheap energy tariffs automatically, doing all the hard work on their behalf, so they never have to worry about overspending on energy ever again.

weflip is part of GoCompare Group plc, which operates GoCompare, one of the UK’s largest and most trusted comparison sites and has been saving customers money on a range of financial and non-financial products since 2006.

weflip’s energy service is powered by Energylinx, which is also a GoCompare Group plc company, and one of the UK’s most established and respected energy comparison services.

weflip takes customer privacy seriously and does not sell customer data.

For more information visit www.weflip.com and www.gocomparegroup.com.

About Energylinx

Energylinx is a domestic and business energy comparison and switching service that, through its market-leading supplier relationships, helps its customers find, compare and switch to the best value energy tariffs.

Based in Alloa, Scotland, Energylinx is also a trusted provider of white-labelled energy comparison services to over 200 partners, including some of the UK’s best-known consumer organisations, including Which?.

Energylinx is fully accredited under the Ofgem Confidence Code.

Visit: www.energylinx.co.uk and www.energylinxforbusiness.co.uk