Utility Point
As one of the newer gas and electricity providers Utility Point Limited has been around since early 2017 although through most of 2017 it was known as Washington Energy Limited. It offers gas and electricity as well as dual fuel tariffs at a price similar to that of Bulb and Octopus.
All of their tariffs require online management which is not unusual for utilities so if you want a traditional paper bill then the cheapest providers are PFP Energy, NEO and People's Energy who provide the option of receiving a bill through the post.
They have a rewards programme with special offers and discounts from some high street and brand retailers. Details are not available on their website but the scheme is managed through a third party, namely World Privilege Plus.
Utility Point Tariffs
Unusually they do not offer a variable rate tariff where the rate can vary depending on market prices. Variable rates tend to cost less than fixed rate deals and do not have early exit fees. They do offer 3 fixed rate deals for 12, 18 or 24 months, fixed rates tend to cost more but they give you peace of mind knowing the rates will remain the same over the term of the contract.
The rates they offer change every week with a new price for each tariff. The tariff name reflects the week such as their 'Just Join UP 12M Fixed Wk44' tariff being their rate for week 44.
In terms of cost there prices do not put them in the budget energy provider category but within the cheapest third of gas and electricity companies. They are generally cheaper than the Big 6 but don't think you will get the lowest priced energy by switching to them.
There prices are very close to that of Octopus and Bulb who you will probably be more familiar with.
| Tariff Name | Electricity daily standing charge | Electricity pence per KWh | Gas daily standing charge | Gas pence per KWh |
| Just Join UP 12M Fixed Wk45 | 24.04 | 17.4377 | 23.77 | 3.0521 |
| Just Join UP 18M Fixed Wk45 | 24.04 | 17.3335 | 23.77 | 3.0272 |
| Just Join UP 24M Fixed Wk45 | 23.30 | 17.2195 | 21.67 | 3.0411 |
Just Join UP 12M Fixed Wk45
The shortest fixed deal they offer is their 12 month fixed tariff which has a £36 per fuel early exit fee. For a typical household with average energy usage you would expect to pay £90.10 a month, the equivalent of £1,081.20 per year.
Price wise, to put this into context, the lowest priced gas and electricity dual fuel energy deal costs £69.50 per month or £834 per year for a similar 12 month fixed energy tariff.
Oddly the 1 year fix from Utility Point does not offer renewable electricity where their 18 month and 24 month tariffs do. Most energy companies do offer renewable electricity as standard now and some are starting to offer carbon neutral gas.
After checking their tariffs against an energy comparison site I found that their 'Just Up 20 Wk44 v2' tariff was still available which is the same as the Just Join UP 12M offered on their website only £10 a month cheaper so it's worth using a comparison service to see if you can get the same deal cheaper rather than going direct.
Just Join UP 18M Fixed Wk45
You can fix for a year and a half with their 18 month fixed price tariff which would cost £89.58 monthly or £1,074.96 over the course of a year for the average household. Slightly cheaper than their 12 month offering so you get a slightly better price for fixing with them for longer.
The Just Join UP 18M Fixed Wk45 tariff is still quite costly as you can get a 24 month fixed price deal through a comparison site from Green Network Energy (GNE 2 Year Amazing Autumn tariff) for £78.93 a month.
This tariff also has a £36 per per fuel early exit fee so you should only sign up to a long term tariff if you are sure you are getting a good deal as it could cost you as a dual fuel customer £72 if you wanted to leave to switch to another supplier before the contract ended.
Just Join UP 24M Fixed Wk45
Their longest fixed price tariff is 24 months and again is slightly cheaper than their 12 and 18 month rate. The Just Join UP 24M Fixed Wk45 would cost you £88.57 a month as a typical energy user which works out at £1,082.64 per year.
Long term fixed price energy does offer price security but it can be a big risk. If energy prices fall you could end up being stuck on a relatively expensive deal and unable to switch unless you pay the exit fees.
If you do like the idea of the price you pay for your energy remaining constant (that's the unit cost of your energy rather than the overall bill) and you dislike switching then make sure you do your research to find a fixed price energy offer that suits you.
If it's just the hassle of continually comparing and switching that concerns you then take a look at some of the best rated auto switching services and have a read of our in depth review of Look After My Bills which is the largest dedicated automatic switching website.
Utility Point Review
I did attempt to contact Utility Point through their web chat and although it said that there were 10 customer service reps waiting it took a full 20 minutes before I was put through to someone. I appreciate that sometimes energy companies can take a while to respond if they are busy but UP also took 20 minutes the second time I tried to contact them.
I did however get my question answered although I had to prompt the operative several times as they seemed distracted. They could possibly be having to deal with several customers at once. However compared to other chat wait times they were overall slower to respond.
I appreciate not everyone has the time or inclination to do this but it is worthwhile asking some questions on the phone or more usually these days over web chat just to get a feel for any company you are thinking of switching too.
Overall this energy provider has some reasonable reviews with their Trustpilot rating of 4.2 out of 5 over 6,318 reviews although the majority of the negative feedback seems to stem from communication problems with the company and being slow at refunding customers who have left or have built up a credit balance.
Overall they are ranked as 42 out of 67 in Trustpilots energy supplier chart.
On their website they seem to favour Feefo as their online ratings provider which currently only has 302 reviews with an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5. A very similar rating to Trustpilot and the negative reviews focus on very similar issues.
Google gives them 3.3 out of 5 from 529 reviews although people tend to leave Google reviews when they are not happy with a company. The issues with the other review sites are iterated on Google with the addition of complaints about lack of customer service.