The expensive thing is doing nothing
Nobody switches business energy because they enjoy it. They switch because the alternative - letting a contract lapse and rolling onto whatever rate the supplier chooses - is the most expensive way to buy energy in the UK.
Out-of-contract rates are typically the highest tariff a supplier offers. They are what you get automatically if a contract ends and nothing replaces it. No warning letter is required to be acted on, and no discount applies.
Doing nothing has a price, and it is charged monthly
A fixed-term business contract that expires without a replacement does not simply continue on the same terms. The supply moves onto out-of-contract or deemed rates, which exist precisely because the customer stopped paying attention.
Most businesses that end up there did not decide to. They missed a date.
Your renewal window is narrower than you think
Business energy contracts usually carry a termination notice period, and if you miss the window your existing supplier can decline the switch entirely and hold you for another term.
This is why the single most useful thing you can do today is record your contract end date somewhere that will remind you - not somewhere you have to remember to look.
Small businesses have historically been served worst
The traditional broker model is built on high-touch sales, which only pays for itself on large contracts. Below a certain consumption level it stops being worth anyone's time - so smaller businesses get less attention, fewer options and worse rates, not because their energy costs less to supply but because their custom costs more to win.
Automating the sale is what makes serving smaller supplies viable at all.
Fixing your price is a decision about risk, not just cost
A fixed contract is not automatically cheaper than a variable one. What it does is make your energy cost knowable for the length of the term, which for a business with thin margins is often worth more than a rate that might turn out lower.
Be careful with the word "fixed", though. Some contracts fix only the wholesale element and pass through non-commodity costs, which means your unit rate can still move. Ask which one you are being offered.
Switching supplier changes nothing physical
The same wires, the same pipes, the same meter, the same engineers. Your supply does not stop, flicker or degrade. What changes is who bills you and at what rate.
Under Ofgem's Faster Switching rules the transfer should complete within five working days.
Where the money actually goes
Your bill is not all energy. A significant portion is network charges, environmental and social levies, and other non-commodity costs that every supplier pays and passes on. Those parts do not vary much between suppliers.
What does vary is the wholesale element, the supplier's margin, the standing charge, and any commission built into the unit rate. That is the part worth shopping, and it is why two quotes for the same meter can differ by a meaningful amount.
If you are not ready to switch yet
You do not have to. The most valuable thing you can do, if your contract has months to run, is tell us when it ends so we can come back to you while you still have options.
That is free, it takes about thirty seconds, and it costs you nothing if you decide to stay where you are.
Two ways to start
See live prices for your meter now, or set a reminder for when your contract is up.
Get my quote Set a renewal reminder