I switched from British Gas. Here's what actually happened.

I was with British Gas for years. Not because they were any good, but because switching energy suppliers always felt like one of those jobs you'd get round to eventually. Like cleaning the gutters or sorting the loft. It just sat on the to-do list.

When my bills crept up again, I finally did it. Switched to Octopus Energy. The whole thing was embarrassingly easy and I still slightly resent how long I left it.

Here's exactly what happened, start to finish.

Why I left British Gas

Nothing dramatic. No billing scandal or spectacular customer service failure. Just a slow accumulation of annoyances that eventually crossed a threshold.

Their prices were always at the Ofgem cap. Never below it, always right at the maximum they were allowed to charge. Their website was clunky. Every time I phoned them, I'd spend 15 minutes navigating automated menus before getting to speak to someone who'd then transfer me to someone else. The app was functional in the same way that a 1990s cash machine was functional: it worked, you just didn't enjoy using it.

The tipping point was hearing about Octopus's smart tariffs. I'd just got an EV and the idea of charging it at 7.5p/kWh overnight instead of 24p on British Gas's flat rate was enough to make me actually do something.

The signup

I went through a referral link (this is how I discovered the £50 credit exists), entered my postcode, confirmed my address and chose the tariff I wanted. Octopus pulled my supply details automatically from the industry database.

Total time: about five minutes. I did it on my phone while waiting for the kettle to boil. No phone calls, no paperwork, no meter readings needed upfront.

Octopus sent a confirmation email straight away. The email was clear, friendly and didn't have any of that corporate waffle that British Gas emails were full of. It told me what would happen next and when.

The waiting period

The switch took about 17 days in total. During that time:

• Day 1: Signup done. Got confirmation email from Octopus.
• Day 2: Got a letter from British Gas saying they'd been notified I was leaving. No guilt trip, just factual.
• Day 5: Octopus emailed to say the switch was progressing and gave me an estimated completion date.
• Day 14: British Gas sent a final statement with my closing balance.
• Day 17: Octopus emailed to say they were now supplying my gas and electricity. My account was live.

I didn't have to do anything during this period. No meter readings to submit, no forms to fill in, no phone calls. The energy supply was uninterrupted throughout. Same gas through the same pipes, same electricity through the same wires. Nothing physical changes when you switch suppliers. It's purely a billing change.

What surprised me

It was genuinely painless

I'd been putting this off for years because I assumed switching energy suppliers would be complicated. It wasn't. The online signup took minutes, British Gas didn't try to retain me, and everything happened automatically. The hardest part was choosing which Octopus tariff to go on, and even that was straightforward once I looked at the numbers.

The immediate price difference

My first Octopus bill was noticeably lower. British Gas had been charging me at the full price cap rate. Octopus's Flexible tariff was a few percent below that, and once I switched to Intelligent Go, my electricity costs dropped significantly because of the cheap overnight EV charging.

The £50 referral credit appeared about four weeks after the switch completed. It just showed up in my account. No chasing required.

Customer service felt different

I had a question about my smart meter (it went dumb during the switch, which is a common industry issue). I emailed Octopus and got a helpful reply within a few hours. Not a template. An actual answer to my actual question, written by a person who seemed to understand what I was asking.

After years of British Gas's call centres, this felt like a different planet.

What was slightly annoying

The smart meter hiccup

My smart meter stopped sending automatic readings during the switch. This is a known issue across the energy industry (not an Octopus problem specifically). When you change supplier, older SMETS1 meters sometimes lose their connection and need to be re-enrolled on the new supplier's system.

It took about three weeks for Octopus to get my meter communicating again. During that time, I submitted manual readings through the app. Mildly inconvenient, not a disaster.

The Direct Debit was set too high initially

Octopus estimated my monthly usage based on industry averages for my property type. Their estimate was about 20% higher than what I actually use. I had to manually adjust my Direct Debit in the account settings. It would be better if they asked for a recent bill during signup to get a more accurate starting figure.

Would I do it again?

Without question. My only regret is not doing it sooner. Every month I spent on British Gas's full-cap pricing was money I didn't need to be spending.

The switching process itself was trivially easy. If you can order something online, you can switch energy supplier. Your energy doesn't get cut off, your old supplier doesn't hassle you, and the whole thing sorts itself out in a couple of weeks.

If you're still with British Gas, EDF, E.ON, OVO or Scottish Power and you've been putting this off: just do it. It takes five minutes. You'll wonder why you didn't do it ages ago.

If you want a step-by-step walkthrough, the switching guide covers everything in detail.