Business energy questions, answered plainly

No. There is no fee, no retainer and no invoice from us. Our service — the comparison, the negotiation, the switch and the follow-up — costs you nothing. We never charge you directly: our fee is included in the price we negotiate with the supplier, so there are no additional costs on top. You only ever pay for the energy you actually use.

The supplier you choose pays us a fee that is already built into the contract rate. It is the same fee they would have spent finding that customer themselves, so the price you are quoted is the price the supplier would have quoted you directly.

No. You get the supplier's own tariff at the supplier's own rate. The difference is that several suppliers are competing for your business instead of you asking one of them.

No. A quote is a quote. Nothing is signed, nothing is submitted to a supplier, and you can walk away at any point before you tell us to proceed.

Suppliers right across the market on every quote. A comparison that only asks three or four suppliers is not showing you the market, which is the most common reason a business thinks 'this is just what energy costs'.

Your postcode, the meter numbers if you have them, who you use now, roughly how much you use and when your current contract ends. A recent bill answers all of that in one go.

No. The form works without one — send your details and we will work from what you give us. A bill just makes the quote closer to your real cost, because it shows your actual usage, unit rate and standing charge rather than an estimate.

Within 24 hours of your request. You get a confirmation the moment you submit so you know it has arrived, and the numbers follow the next working day.

Because the headline unit rate is only half the story. Standing charges, contract length, meter type, payment method and the supplier's view of your credit profile all move the real annual total. That is why we compare the estimated yearly cost, not the cheapest number on the page.

Yes. Sole traders, partnerships, limited companies, charities and community groups are all welcome, and the service is the same whichever you are.

No. The wires and pipes stay exactly as they are and the same meter keeps running. A switch is an administrative handover between suppliers — nobody comes to your premises and nothing goes off.

Most complete within 28 days. Where a contract is still running or a credit check is needed it can take longer, and we tell you which applies to you before anything starts.

It is a short permission form that lets us speak to suppliers and act on your account. It does not sign you into anything — you still choose the deal yourself. You sign it online from the link we email you, it takes a minute, and you can see exactly what you have authorised.

Sign the Letter of Authority and confirm the deal. We handle the rest: the contract, the notice to your old supplier, the switch date and the first bill check.

Yes. One reading on the switch date closes your old account cleanly and opens the new one accurately. It takes two minutes, and it is usually the difference between a correct first bill and an argument about estimates.

That is an erroneous transfer, and it happens more often than people think — usually after a change of occupier or a bad address match. We raise it with both suppliers, get the account put back and chase any billing damage it caused.

Six months before your contract ends. That is the window where suppliers still compete for you; inside the last couple of months the field narrows and the negotiating goes the other way.

You roll onto out-of-contract rates, which are typically far above anything you could have fixed and can climb again with no warning. It is the single most expensive thing a business can do in energy.

It depends on how much certainty you need. A longer fix protects you from rises but costs more to leave early; a shorter one keeps you flexible but exposes you to whatever the market does next. We show you both totals side by side rather than picking for you.

Sometimes. Exit fees usually apply, but a bad supplier or a wrong bill can cost more than the penalty. Tell us what you are paying and what you have been quoted and we will work out whether leaving is genuinely worth it. If your contract has already ended and you never signed a new one, you are on out-of-contract rates and can usually switch straight away.

Yes. We note your end date when we quote and flag it well before it arrives, so the decision is made on purpose rather than by accident.

Send it to us. Estimated readings, a meter swapped and never reported, a standing charge for a meter you are not using and a rate that does not match your contract are the usual causes, and all of them are correctable.

Usually a standing charge increase, a rate change, a switch from actual to estimated readings, or the end of a fixed term. The fix is always the same: compare what you are being charged against what you signed for.

Yes, and we keep chasing. You get the updates, not the hold music. If the supplier will not resolve it properly, it goes further — we are registered with the Energy Ombudsman under reference C35EQUA01, so an unresolved complaint has somewhere to go.

Yes. Where you have overpaid we pursue the credit and the interest the supplier owes, and we check the corrected bill actually lands rather than assuming it will.

Normally no — that debt belongs to the business that ran it up, not to you. In practice suppliers sometimes refuse the address until it is cleared, which is where it stops being a theory and becomes a trading problem. We deal with the supplier so you can trade.

If the address has unsettled debt, a poor payment history or a complicated meter, some suppliers simply decline it. It does not mean nobody will. We know which suppliers take these sites and what they will ask for.

That is a change of tenancy, and it needs reporting to the supplier with the right dates and meter readings. Get it wrong and you inherit someone else's usage. We handle the transfer and check the opening balance.

Often within days where a meter is already live; longer where a new meter or a credit check is needed. We push the supplier's process along and tell you honestly what is holding it up.

No. We are an independent UK energy broker. We compare and arrange contracts; the supplier you choose is what you buy from, and their terms are what you get.

Equal Payments Ltd is incorporated in England and Wales under company number 13564738, and our Energy Ombudsman registration is C35EQUA01. Both are public records you can verify yourself.

We use them to prepare your quote and to run your account. They are not sold on, and you can ask us at any time what we hold and to remove it.

No. We compare across the market and show you the options with their real annual totals. If one deal suits you best, that is because of the numbers, not because of a relationship.

We're based in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, but we quote and switch businesses anywhere in the UK — everything works by phone, email and online. You speak to the same people from first quote to first bill.

Yes. Plenty of people come to us mid-contract with a bill they cannot explain. Checking it costs nothing, and if the deal you are on is genuinely good we will tell you that too.