If you are responsible for managing your electricity and gas bills, you know how hard it can be to get the best deals in the market.
The major gas companies are always offering new rates, but using comparison websites isn’t always the best plan. Look After My Bills (LAMB) has an easy solution that gets good reviews from its clients.
All you have to do is signup for Look After My Bills, plug in some basic info, and then let the platform do the rest. While it isn’t a perfect platform, Look After My Bills is one of the easiest options out there for UK consumers that want to save money every month.
Instead of bombarding you with loads of quotes that may lead you to just give up on shopping for the lowest gas and electricity prices (and not saving a penny) Look After My Bills uses an algorithm that ensures that you will get the best prices that are on offer (among the service providers it works with).
In addition to being dead-simple to use, Look After My Bills is also 100% free to you. The company makes money via the commissions that many gas and electricity companies pay for referrals, which makes it a simple and cheap way to start saving money on your monthly bills
Saving money on simple things you buy every month is a good way to free up some cash to save, and an automated switching platform is one of the simplest ways to ensure that you are paying good rates on your gas and electricity.
Look After My Bills Will Probably Save You Money
Look After My Bills is perhaps one of the best solutions out there for gas and electric consumers that don’t want to deal with finding the best rates on their own.
One of the best things about the platform is that it is constantly looking for a better deal, so you don’t ever have to worry about being stuck with a standard rate that will eat up more of your earnings than necessary.
While Look After My Bills is probably a money saver for most consumers, it isn’t perfect (what is?).
LAMB is able to do what it does because it takes advantage of the referral commissions that gas and electric companies pay, which means that if a company doesn’t pay for referrals, it won’t be included on the list that LAMB’s algo uses to find new deals.
How to: Sign Up
Look After My Bills advertises a two-minute signup process. If you have the information that you need handy, and a good internet connection, it should be pretty quick.
All you have to do is enter your email and postcode, and select if you want to receive additional offers to save money outside of the platform’s automated switching service.
If you just want LAMB’s automated switching service, it is ok to opt-out of the additional offers. You won’t be penalized for just using the free platform and nothing else.
After you enter those basic details, you will need to locate your current supplier on LAMB’s platform. LAMB has all the major UK suppliers listed first, and then the minor ones. You can’t actually enter the name of your supplier, you have to hunt through the list. This may or may not make the process run over two minutes, but it should still be pretty fast.
Enter Your Current Info
Once you find your supplier and select it, you will need to enter your current tariff, as well as your annual electricity and gas usage.
All this info will be on your current bill (from your existing electricity and gas company), so it would be a good idea to have one in your hand before you start this process.
You will then be able to decide if you want to use 100% renewable energy, and then the signup process of over. Look After My Bills will then put its algo to work for you, and see if it can find a new plan that saves you at least £50 per month. If it is successful, it will display your new option, as well as how much you will save from your current plan.
Unlike comparison platforms, LAMB will only show you the best offer it has based on its algo. In many ways, this is a preferable way to shop for a gas and electric provider but will dive into the advantages of both types of platform below.
Put Payment in Place
- Assuming that you are happy with the cost savings that Look After My Bills has created for you, it is time to enter your bank account details, and also legally authorize LAMB to operate on your behalf.
- Once these details are sorted out, LAMB will let your current supplier know that you will be leaving, and also set up an account at the new supplier it found for you.
- The last thing you will have to do is provide a meter reading to LAMB, so they can coordinate everything with the old and new suppliers.
- You should receive a final bill from your old supplier, and a bill from your new supplier, that it at least £50 cheaper every month.
Look After My Bills is on the Case
Far from being a one-off savings platform, LAMB will keep an eye on what you pay for gas and electricity, and make sure you are getting one of the best deals available. The platform also remembers the terms of your service contract, and when it is going to shift to a higher rate, it will start looking for a better deal.
Anyone who has been buying gas and electric service for a few years will understand that many service providers will offer to lock in a good rate for a little while, then hope their clients forget about the bills as they switch them over to the standard rate.
Look After My Bills is always on patrol for a way to save you at least £50 on your monthly gas and electric bill, as they will get paid whenever they are able to find a deal that helps you save money. The big upside to this system is that when your service provider decides to raise your rates, they won’t get past LAMB’s algo.
Whenever LAMB switches service providers for you, there will be a 14-day ‘cooling-off’ period for you to go back to the more expensive provider.
Why you would want to pay more is something of a mystery, but it is nice that LAMB gives you this option. Once you set up your LAMB account, it is fully automatic, and whenever the platform can save you £50 or more per month, it will make the switch.
If You Want to Cancel your LAMB Account…
One of the only areas that Look After My Bills doesn’t make fully automatic is canceling your subscription to the platform.
While it isn’t difficult to quit LAMB and use another switching platform or make the call on which service provider to you on your own, you will have to email LAMB, and include your postcode in the subject line with the word ‘cancellation’.
Doing this work to cancel your subscription isn’t especially difficult, but it requires a lot more effort than the rest of the platform.
Automated Switching v. Comparison Sites
Look After My Bills is an great platform that doesn’t cost you a thing to use. Like a few of the other free automated switching platforms described below, all you have to do is set up an account, and it will see to the rest. While automated switching platforms will probably save you money, they may not get you the best deals that exist in the marketplace.
The reason why LAMB is free is the same reason why it may not be getting you the absolute best deals available. Because LAMB requires that a service provider give a commission for their referral, it can’t include service providers who offer no commissions.
There may or may not be better deals lurking out there, but it will take a service provider comparison site to find them. Service provider comparison sites require that you look through numerous offers on your own, and then make the change to a service contract that is a better deal.
All that looking will take up your time, and it isn’t an automated process.
For example, if you use Look After My Bills, it will look through every gas and electric service provider that offers a commission for referrals, and then get you the best possible deal. If there is a service provider that doesn’t offer referrals, you won’t know about it.
The big plus side to an automated switching platform is that you have to spend so little time dealing with your service rates, and it is likely that you will be getting one of the best deals in the market.
All of the service providers are required to pay the same amount of commission for a referral, so you don’t have to worry about automated switching sites giving your business to a service provider that pays a larger commission.
If getting the absolute best rate on your gas and electricity is a priority for you, and you don’t mind spending time on comparison sites, you may consider using them over an automated switching platform.
Other Platforms to Consider
Look After My Bills is an amazing automated switching platform that is totally free to use. There are other automated switching platforms that can also save you money, and offer things that LAMB doesn’t. If you want to use a platform that takes a look at the entire energy supplier market, you have a few options to consider.
When an automated switching platform is free, it has to use energy supplier incentives to make its business model profitable. There are automated switching platforms that will take a look at every option in the market, but it will cost you a little bit every month. Here are a few of the other options you have if you want to take a wider look at the energy supplier market.
Flipper
Flipper is another automated switching platform that looks at the entire market and claims to save its clients an average of £385 per year. The platform costs £2.50 per month and has a very easy to use website. Once you sign up, the platform will just keep looking for better deals, and make sure that you are getting the absolute best price in the marketplace.
The math is pretty simple, even at a cost of £30 per year, Flipper will easily pay for itself. The company will also seamlessly interface with smart meters, which makes your life a lot easier. While it does cost something every month, Flipper is a good option to consider if you want to know that you are getting the absolute best deal on electricity and gas.
Switchd
Switchd offers its clients the best of both worlds. If you want to have access to a free automated switching platform, Switchd has you covered. It also offers paid plans at £1.99, £3.49, and £4.99 per month. Like LAMB, Switchd’s free plan is limited to energy suppliers that offer an incentive for referrals, but the paid plans will give you access to the entire energy supplier market.
The company breaks down what you get at every service level on its website, and as the price goes up, you will get extra access to support and are also likely to save more money. Switchd claims that the free plan will save clients an average of £300 per year, while the paid plans will save clients £400 or more annually.
Switchd will look through the marketplace for its clients, and lock in a deal for six months at a time by default. If you want to make a change more often or modify the minimum amount of savings needed to trigger a switch, that is all possible in your account options with the platform.
One of the big advantages of Switchd is that it will look through the marketplace all the time for a better deal, even with the free plan. If you are after a platform that can guarantee that you are getting the best deal out there, Switchd is a great choice. It is also free to try, and see if you like how it is set up.
Dragon’s Den Investment
Look After My Bills was featured on the TV program Dragon’s Den where the two founders obtained investment from two Dragons: Tej Lalvani and Jenny Campbell.
The deal is described as one of the best “Den Deals” of all time with all 5 Dragons offering to invest in the fledgling company.
Look After My Bills – The Rundown
Look After My Bills is a solid platform that is almost guaranteed to save you a few hundred pounds every year. It costs nothing to use and will make sure that you get the best deal on gas and electricity from service providers that offer an incentive for referrals.
The company has a good track record and also received one of the best equity deals in the history of the ‘Dragon’s Den’ TV show. It is also supported by Silicon Valley heavyweight Y Combinator.
If you are looking for a simple way to save money of your gas and electricity, LAMB is one of the best choices out there. It is easy to use, and if you have the right paperwork in front of you, your signup process should take less than 10 minutes.
Pros
- Free to Use
- Easy Signup
- Will Look for Best Deals Among Service Providers that Offer Incentive for Referral
- Totally Automatic
- Likely to Save You a Substantial Amount Yearly
Cons
- Will not Include Service Providers With No Incentive for Referral
- No Paid Option for Inclusion of the Entire Market
Have a Look at LAMB – Save Some Money
Whether you decide to use Look After My Bills or another form of automated switching or service provider comparison site, it is a good idea to get a handle on your gas and electricity. Service providers aren’t always working in your best interest, and you need to be your own advocate when it comes to your utilities.
Automated switching platforms are probably the best choice for a person who works full-time, and needs to make sure they are getting a good deal on their gas and electricity. Losing £300+ per yeat due to overpayment isn’t a great idea, and automated switching platforms like Look After My Bills make it easy to be a savvy shopper.
If you have more time on your hands, you might consider using a comparison platform, and doing all the changeovers between service providers yourself.
For most people, an automated switching platform is a must, and Look After My Bills is one of the best options in the marketplace.