Utility Warehouse to become energy giant with purchase of npower subsidiaries
Utility Warehouse set to be the newest big player in the energy market after buying Electricity Plus and Gas Plus.
The Big Six energy providers are to become the Big Seven, thanks to Utility Warehouse purchasing npower subsidiaries Electricity Plus and Gas Plus.
The deal, which is still subject to approval by the shareholders of Telecom Plus (Utility Warehouse’s parent firm) and Ofgem, is expected to complete in late December or early January.
If it does go ahead, more than 770,000 customers will move over to Utility Warehouse as a result, turning it into one of the biggest energy suppliers in the UK. It’s worth noting that while Electricity Plus and Gas Plus were owned by npower, their customers were actually being supplied with energy by Utility Warehouse since 2006. So from a practical standpoint, there should be little, if any, disruption as a result of the deal.
Utility Warehouse currently has a little over 500,000 customers, so it’s a massive jump, taking it significantly ahead of other 'challenger' suppliers like First Utility, which has 190,000 customers. However it’s still well behind the other energy giants. Npower will still have nearly 5.5 million customers, for example, while British Gas supplies the energy for a whopping 12 million homes.
How Utility Warehouse works
Utility Warehouse is basically a discount club, which allows you to bundle up your home phone, broadband, energy bills and mobile phone from one single supplier, and get a better deal as a result.
It also offers a cashback prepaid card, which offers up to 7% with certain retailers, as well as a cashback hub allowing you to get money back on your online shopping without getting the card.
Customers get further discounts if they can get other people to sign up. Read Utility Warehouse reviewed for more on its pros and cons.
Get switching!
This winter has seen another round of price rises from the nation’s biggest energy suppliers, ranging from 3.9% from EDF to 10.4% from npower.
The only way to ensure you aren’t overpaying for your energy is to regularly shop around and see how your existing deal compares. It takes a bit of time but it could save you a significant amount.
You can compare the deals available in your area with our gas and electricity comparison engine, but in the meantime the table below details the cheapest tariffs currently on the market.
|
Supplier |
Tariff |
Average Cost |
Saving vs Typical Bill* |
Payment Method |
Fix or Discounted Variable |
Notes |
Cancellation Penalties |
|
First Utility |
£1,178 |
£242 |
Monthly DD |
Fix |
Fixed until June 30, 2015 |
£30 per fuel if switching before fix end |
|
|
E.ON |
£1,178 |
£242 |
Monthly DD |
Fix |
Fixed for 12 months |
£10 if switching prior to fix end |
|
|
Green Star Energy |
£1,182 |
£238 |
Monthly DD |
Fix |
Fixed for 12 months |
£31.50 for electricity if you switch away before end of fix |
|
|
Green Star Energy |
£1,191 |
£229 |
Monthly DD |
Fix |
Fixed for 24 Months |
£31.50 for electricity if you switch away before end of fix |
|
|
npower |
£1,202 |
£218 |
Monthly DD |
Fix |
Fixed until the 30 April 2015 |
None |
*Saving calculated against an average bill as declared by OFGEM, 2013. Source: energyhelpline.com, 21/11/13. Average usage as defined by OFGEM is 16,500 kWh pa of gas and 3,300 kWh pa of electricity
What do you think? Is it a good thing that the Big Six have become the Big Seven? Would you consider switching to Utility Warehouse? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below
More on gas and electricity:
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Who owns the UK's big energy companies?
Most Recent
Comments
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hopefulton - as far as I am aware Utility Warehouse have never been fined (or even investigated) by the regulator for misselling etc, unlike some of the Big 6. meldrewreborn - npower originally bought out Utility Warehouse's gas and electric business in 2006 when they got into financial trouble trying to go it alone buying on the open wholesale fuel market. They continued to manage the business for npower and I believe got a commission for doing so (obviously npower insisted on supplying them with the fuel and will continue to do so but at cheaper rates which UW aim to use to reduce their prices amongst other initiatives). They have acquired hundreds of thousands of customers since then and now are in a position to buy back the business they had to sell (the market cap. is now approx £1.3 billion). The vast majority of these are domestic customers and I'm sure many of them will also be taking UW's telecoms services in addition to fuel (some could have as many as 5 services from the company if you include mobile). I would imagine very very few of them would have even realised they were officially npower customers as the billing and customer service etc has always been carried out by UW.
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
Longer established Lovemoney members may recall the lengthy " debate " on Utility Warehouse from a couple of years ago : see the article " utility Warehouse reviewed " referred to by John. Some of the more blatant self-promoting contributions ( under various names ) have been removed, but for me the question remains could I trust a company that finds the need to resort to such tactics ?
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Its not clear to me who the customers of electricity plus and gas plus are. Googling doesn't give any good clues so I'm wondering if these "customers" are actually businesses rather than domestic consumers. If I'm wrong then its a very tangled web indeed- even more than i can visualise given the paucity of the information provided.
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26 November 2013