Go Effortless Energy Review
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Tired of the big energy suppliers with their tricky tariffs and confused by their jargon and hard-to-understand bills?
In that case, you couldn’t get much more small scale and straightforward than Go Effortless Energy. This is a company that started selling energy just two years ago (Jan 2015) and is run by Andrew and Melanie Burns in Staffs. The couple launched their project initially to supply family and friends with energy supply and to escape the confusing offers from the Big Six. The couple soon realised that they need to a certain scale to be viable and make prices competitive. The company’s biggest selling point is that it keeps things simple and straightforward. Have a look at what they offer by comparing deals on A Spokesman Said. 
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Go Effortless Tariffs
Go Effortless Energy automatically puts customers on the lowest-priced deal once their existing fixed-price period comes to an end. There’s a big emphasis on making bills easy to read, so customers know how costs are broken down and where there money is going. But they don’t offer lots of different tariffs and deals – it’s a take-it-or-leave-it one tariff offer only. That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on how competitive that tariff is. It’s fixed for 12 months, so it’s easy to compare with other offers on the market. You’ll need to check, though, that you are in an area of the country Go Effortless supplies. You can call the company on 0800 9888 375 to find out. Supply is broken into ten regions around the country and what tariff is available depends on what area you are in, which is normal. The company does boast on its site, however, that it can you 25% on your energy bills. Of course, that proud boast comes with an asterisk, which says this percentage is based on an average customer as defined by Ofgem. In July this year, the average Go Effortless for duel fuel was £875, but you need to check your area to see what tariff and therefore what annual cost you’d pay. As we always say, the only true way to know if you'll save is by crunching the numbers on a comparison tool. |
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Costs breakdown
Where Go Effortless is definitely as good as its promise is in giving a comprehensive breakdown of how a customer’s energy bill is calculated and how costs for the company are divided up. We think it’s one of the most comprehensive accounts out there and you can check out all the detail here. We say it’s a tribute to the company’s commitment to honesty and transparency. It concludes that the simplest and fairest pricing model it has found is a mixture of daily standing charges and pence per kilowatt hour charges, but, for the first time that we’ve seen, it actually explains why this is the case. Customer service The help section on the website is very limited and offers only basic advice. The only way to make contact with the Stoke-on-Trent based staff is via email. This is to keep costs down. Here’s what the company says: “We don't have a contact number for customer enquiries. As a small company the cost would push up our prices, we also think from personal experience that contact centres are largely unable to answer your queries accurately as the energy industry is extremely complicated.” There’s certainly some truth in that, but it’s not entirely true that problems can’t be dealt with efficiently and quickly on the phone. The choice is yours. The How We’re Doing section, though, makes refreshing reading – number of complaints in the whole of the first three quarters of 2016: One. Number of complaints resolved within the eight-week benchmark: One. Hard to beat that! Online offering Very simple website, but little information beyond the basics. Clear and easy to submit readings online, although you don’t appear to have to go through any security to do so. You only need to know your account number or customer ID, name and address. Paying Go Effortless They aim to send you your bills at least quarterly. Payment is by direct debit unless you have a pre-payment meter, which will involve different charges. 
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Green credentials
Difficult to say as no information has been made public. Our verdict: Pros: * Genuinely open and transparent company that appears to be trying to do its best by its customers. * Low overheads so tariffs may well be competitive, but you’ll need to check what’s on offer depending on your area. * Simple tariff offering. Cons: * It’s small and, as we saw with GB Energy, smaller energy companies can struggle to survive when they are locked into supplying energy at fixed tariffs and then wholesale prices rise. * Bigger companies can both generate their own energy and protect themselves against price volatility by hedging. * Many experts forecast that other smaller energy companies are likely to go under this winter. * Lack of a contactable call centre may put off some customers who value having someone to talk to. Having said that, as we saw with the collapse of GB Energy, customers’ energy supplies are not disrupted and they are able to switch if they don’t like then new supplier Ofgem appoints. If you like what you hear, compare energy deals now and consider switching to Go Effortless Energy. |
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