Totally free. Whole of market. SAVE £100s year after year
Today we launch the UK's first free full AUTO COMPARE & SWITCH energy tool - let us do it all for you
You'll never need to switch yourself again
 

For years on here, the telly and the radio, I've yelled, cajoled, ranted and tried to seduce the millions languishing on big energy providers' standard tariffs to ditch, switch and stop wasting £100s a year.

Today I'm smiling. I hope we've cracked it (fingers crossed). I first came up with what we call the auto-compare-and-switch concept over five years ago. And after an 18mth build, by a big and brilliant team, that concept's come to fruition. Forget the 'price cap', this will save many £150-£250/year over that right now, and some very substantially more.
 

MSE Autoswitch in a nutshell... Tell MSE Autoswitch your details and priorities - price, service, name you know, green, fixed, exit penalties - and it then compares and picks YOUR top whole-of-the-market switch based on that. Then annually, with just a one-click verification, it switches you to your new top deal, again based on those preferences.

As I've learnt at my TV roadshows, when helping those who say 'comparing is difficult', the real sticking point usually turns out to be picking a winner - leaving many frozen in indecision, or worried as they've been burnt before by switching to tiddler firms with dire service. They often say: "Can't you do it for me?" MSE Autoswitch does that.

The market's long relied on many firms attracting switchers with cheap year-long tariffs, knowing most stick for a good while longer, paying a much higher price. Autoswitch could be the final nail in the coffin for that. In future, we aim to ask providers to offer cheaper 'retention tariffs' via it to retain their own customers.

Who can and can't use this? It works across the UK, except NI (see NI comparison). It isn't yet available for prepay tariffs (we don't want to autoswitch people to firms where they can't top up their credit, but we're working on a solution - meanwhile, do a  prepay comparison), nor for a few niche tariffs such as Eco 10.

To join MSE Autoswitch, currently you need to be switching tariff (we're working on a join anytime facility), so if you find you're already on a great tariff, wait and join when it ends.

Our tool isn't the first autoswitch proposition. A few sites already try it, but I believe we're taking it on two leaps and a bound. We believe this is the first true, full, free auto-compare-and-switch tool.

Many existing autoswitch tools simply switch everyone to the same tariff, or just a select few, from a limited panel of firms they've a relationship with. As Which? found, you may be overpaying with them as they can be far from the cheapest deal. I wasn't willing to put MSE's name on something that blunt. Here's how our Autoswitch differs...

1) MSE Autoswitch uses our 'Pick Me A Tariff' system to select your best tariff by doing an auto-comparison. We don't just switch everyone to the same deals - we use our unique, new Pick Me A Tariff tool. Here, after telling us your details, you're given 21 preference points (I originally called 'em balls, but decided better of it later).

You then allocate them across six categories - price, service, green, fix, name you know and exit penalties - depending on your priorities.

- Not sure of what's important? I put my balls preferences on show, with a 'Martin's pick' balanced tariff option you can select to start you off.

Whatever you choose, our algorithm then selects your winner and the next two closest matches - aiming to mimic what you'd pick yourself if doing a comparison. So prioritise green and service, and you'd get the cheapest top service green deal.

2) Your deal is selected from the WHOLE OF THE MARKET. We don't ignore providers we can't switch you to. MSE auto-compare-and-switch  includes all providers, whether we've a switching (ie, commercial) relationship with it or not.

If the top pick is one we can't switch you to, it's still your top pick, but as choosing it means you can't then be on Autoswitch, we also show the alternative top autoswitchable tariff you can choose.

PS: Whole of market means every available open tariff. We can't always include other comparison sites' exclusives, and very rarely small firms don't provide their rates (or have them on beta test tariffs, such as Octopus Agile), so until they do, we can't include them.

3) You stay in control, with a one-click Autoswitch verification. A year after your switch (later if you're on a longer fix), we'll contact you by email or text with your new top tariff based on your preferences. You then switch to it with just a one-click verification. If you don't want to switch, just don't click it. You can opt out of Autoswitch at any point.

4) It's not just free, we give you £25 cashback. The only autoswitch (there are no other auto-compare-and-switch) services that look across the whole of the market charge a fee. Yet with MSE, switch via the tool and as we, like other comparison sites, get paid, we don't charge a fee.

Instead, we actually give you £25 dual-fuel cashback (£12.50 single-fuel) - roughly half what we get. That means in effect it costs you less than even going directly to the provider, and it covers our costs (and hopefully some profit) for providing the service. A win-win.

5) If there's a major market move, we've an editorial override. When building this, one of my concerns was: "What if there's a huge market shift, or a 'top service' provider we've switched people to suddenly has an IT meltdown causing hideous problems?" So we've built in an editorial override rule.

If the worst happens, we can override the automatic 'wait a year' rule, and send you an urgent update suggesting you switch earlier. This is only for extreme circumstances, we'll try not to use it, and it'll always need signing off by me (or, in my absence, MSE Editor-in-Chief, Marcus).

More info and questions answered in MSE Autoswitch FAQs.

MSE Autoswitch is great if you just want to stay on a cheap energy tariff with no hassle. We've kept it simple, to encourage the many who don't like switching, and (usually) will only switch you annually. Yet there are some for whom Autoswitch isn't suitable...

- Those doing complex switches (eg, EV tariffs, homes with multiple meters).
- Energy nerds, a compliment from me I assure you. They're those who know what they're doing and want to interrogate all tariffs themselves.
- Frequent switchers - those who like to constantly keep on the perfect tariff, so switch more than once a year.

For all those, stick with our DIY energy comparison. Like all MSE energy tools, it's free, whole-of-market and you get the cashback.

We also have a halfway house Pick Me A Tariff tool - where you still use the 21 preference point tool to select a tariff, but after that you don't sign up to Autoswitch (though can opt into it at a later date).

A bravo for the team - and do let us know what you think.

This has been a huge job with 10,000s of hours of work in it - we're very proud of it (and hope it's so busy it'll struggle to hold up). We also aim to continue to add more bells and whistles. I can't promise perfection on day one, but we're trying, and to help, please do send us MSE Autoswitch suggestions/comments (or, heaven forbid, glitches).

This week, my big briefing is on 'Savings in Crisis' and what you can do to max interest after NS&I's shock rate cut (more below). Plus a host of other important latest info to keep your finances shipshape. As we're live, you can tweet suggested questions to @MartinSLewis but you must use the show's hashtag #MartinLewis. Do tune in or set the VideoPlus.