Our Honest Review of Becoming Utility Warehouse Partners

Hey guys, this is Lee, and this is mine and Carla’s honest review of becoming Utility Warehouse partners, and whether it is worth it as a genuine side hustle. Make sure you read to the end, I promise it will be worth it!

Right, so we’ve both known about Utility Warehouse (UW) for a few years now. I used to play golf with a UW partner, a high-ranking MET police officer who started doing UW on the side, then eventually left the force completely because he was earning more (and living a far nicer lifestyle) doing UW full time.

For anyone who doesn’t know, UW is a multi-service utility provider in the UK. They offer some of the cheapest energy deals, part and full fibre broadband, and SIM-only deals around, and the more services a customer takes, the cheaper they get. They also offer insurance, including boiler & home emergency cover, income protection, and home insurance. Energy and broadband count as ‘core’ services, and you need to take at least 1 core service to qualify for the cheap SIMs or insurance.  

They’re an FTSE 250 company, multiple WHICH? recommended, and growing ridiculously fast. So they are definitely bona fide.

The only reason most people haven’t heard of them is that they don’t chuck millions into big flashy adverts; they pretty much rely on referrals instead. Their model is this: you save someone money, and they tell their family/friends, you then save them money. And so on. And that model is how they keep prices low.

Their SIMs run on EE (the UK’s best network), and one of their big USPs is that all your utility bills come on one monthly statement. Energy, broadband, SIMs, everything in one place. And if anything goes wrong, you get their award-winning customer service team in London, not some mystery call centre.

Another massive incentive they offer is their cashback card. Basically you earn anywhere between 1-10% cashback when using their card, that’s 1% on everything and up to 10% at certain stores. This then comes off your monthly bill. So you get even more money off your bill just by doing your normal shopping.

Oh, and they even offer up to £400 to pay off contracts to help you switch.

Anyway, the reason I didn’t sign up years ago was simply that Koala Digital (our agency) was manic at the time. I had zero brainpower for a side hustle. But fast forward a few years and Carla had become friendly with another UW partner, Jo, who eventually twisted our arms enough to give it a go.

About six weeks ago, we finally said sod it, let’s try this properly. So we did!

And this blog is exactly what happened, how we felt, and whether we think it was worth it. So here is our honest review of becoming Utility Warehouse partners.

Jo explained everything over a video call. In a nutshell:

• Residual income:

You earn a small percentage from your customers’ bills, regardless of whether they are tenants or homeowners. So if they pay £170 a month, you get a small piece of that. This also counts for any partners you sign, and their customers, and so on and so on. Yeah, it’s small, but it builds. Long-term, I can see this turning into a nice monthly income. And another thing we really liked, it’s inheritable. So if we ever got to the stage where we were earning a genuine secondary income, it would eventually pass on to our kids. And we love that.

• Upfront payments for signing homeowners — the big money:

• 1 service (a core service) £50
• 2 services (including a core service like energy or broadband): £100
• 3 services (inc. a core): £250
• 4 services: £300

PLUS, if you sign four homeowners in a month, you get £100 extra per customer.
So four homeowners on four services = £1,600 for the month.

There are also holidays, hampers, and other incentives.

And then there’s the “grow your own business” element: you can recruit partners, earn from their sign-ups, and from partners they bring in, and so on.

Becoming a partner costs £10, and you get 30 days to hit the “magic six” customers (tenants or homeowners) AND recruit a partner who signs at least one customer (they can sign a new customer or make themselves their own customer to qualify)…do that, and you get a £500 bonus. 

Obviously, we wanted that £500.
So… we got cracking!

At the start, Jo told us to begin with the people closest to us, the “top table at your wedding” crowd. The idea is simple: you ask them for a favour and explain that you’ve started a new little venture and need a couple of friendly guinea pigs to practise on. So that’s what we did. And not just so we could try and sell, it really was so we could practice our presentation on our closest people to show them the savings on offer & the earning opportunity. It helps that your closest family and friends are usually more than happy to jump on a quick call to help you out, and it takes the pressure off because you’re practising your presentation on people who actually like you before you start speaking to acquaintances or total strangers. Plus, if they do end up making a saving (which most of ours did), you’ve helped them and gained a customer, so it’s a win-win all round.

So, we started messaging friends and close family to ask them to be a guinea pig for our new business and to let us practice our presentation on them. And we knew if they then signed up, then great, especially if we could get 6 customers and a partner in the first 30 days. So off we went!

Obviously, we couldn’t start pitching this to others if we weren’t customers.
As we were with Octopus Energy (one of the cheapest energy providers out there), we didn’t actually save that much money on energy (it was £4 more per month). BUT it was a 12-month fixed price, which mattered to us.

The big saving came from mobile SIMs. We had three phone contracts (mine, Carla’s and a shared work phone). By switching to UW unlimited SIMs, we saved £160 per month. That’s nearly £2,000 a year, just from SIMs.

So we became our own first customers.

She had just moved into a new tenancy and needed broadband.
She knew exactly what the call was about and signed up straight away. About as simple as we could hope for.

We didn’t tell him what the call was about, just asked him to be a guinea pig (as instructed), so when Jo popped up on the Zoom too, he looked a bit surprised. 

His wife handles all the bills, so we couldn’t quote anything on the spot. He later messaged saying he wished I’d told him beforehand, fair enough. BUT he was still interested, and we’re meeting him soon to switch broadband, energy and a SIM. Just not in the first 30 days.

I told her what it was about because, well, she’s my mum haha.
She sat next to me during the call with Jo. To be honest, she was a little sceptical but she was happy to be a guinea pig, and when she saw she saved £40 a month on energy, she signed up immediately. 

Happy mum = happy life!

They’re tenants, not very tech-savvy, and had zero idea what the call was about.
They were sceptical at first, but once they saw the savings:

• £30 a month on energy
  
• £15 on mobiles

They were in. They preferred paying quarterly with British Gas, but the savings were too good to ignore. They switched to monthly DD and became customers.

Good friend. Homeowner. Interested. Lovely.
Very money savvy and had very recently switched her energy supplier to find a cheaper option, however turns out she was on the wrong type of energy contract (Economy 7) so we were very grateful for her to be our guineapig and she was very grateful on the advice and although we didn’t switch her to UW (couldn’t match her current rates), she managed to speak to her energy supplier to switch to correct contract type to save herself further money. Hubby is a software developer so he needs the best broadband possible and every latest phone model (obviously), and has just signed new mobile contracts. So unfortunately, she couldn’t switch anything. 

Another lovely friend. Her husband works in the force and gets cracking phone deals. Energy was roughly the same, so again, no sign-up.

With 10 days left, we still needed:

• 2 customers
  
• 1 partner (who also needed a customer)
  …to get the £500.

But we were determined to get that 500 quid, and we don’t give up easily, so we cracked on.

This was the call where I started to really love UW.
My uncle and his wife are tenants, paying nearly £80 a month for broadband (UW was £28), so they made a massive saving straight off the bat.

But then we went through the energy quote…
He could save £170 a month. That’s over £2,000 a year.

More than £2.6k total savings annually by switching both.

He wants to switch ASAP but is waiting for an energy dispute to be formally cleared, so he couldn’t sign within the 30 days, but he WILL definitely be a customer.

Council tenant had just moved, needed a new energy provider.
Signed up for energy + 2 SIMs
Lovely and straightforward haha!

Our Partner – Cheryl

Carla’s friend and already a UW customer. She agreed to become a partner, which was ideal because she effectively became her own customer too.
She just needed to pay the £10 and do the training videos.

Great news, we had our partner sorted.

Customer 6 (Or So We Thought) – Dan

Dan is my cousin. We arranged a few calls (which were cancelled for one reason or another), but eventually got him on one.
His savings weren’t huge, maybe £5 a month, but he liked the idea of a fixed deal and wanted to help me out, so he signed up.

And then Carla and I celebrated with Prosecco as we’d done it!
Actually…nah.

Two days later, Dan backed out.

We now had 3 days left and were one customer short.

My uncle wasn’t ready.
John needed more time.
Everyone else was either skint, busy, or ghosting us for their own safety haha.

We tried asking friends and family without sounding desperate (“Hi, fancy saving money on bills? No pressure, but also… PLEASE”).

Nothing.

The Last Day Miracle

Remember, this is an honest review of becoming Utility Warehouse partners, so the following is 100% true.

Literally on the final day, not a joke, I swear, I messaged my niece again.
She said her boyfriend might be interested in broadband.

We got him on a call immediately.
He was paying £75 for broadband, out of contract, and happily switched to UW full fibre for £35.

Saving nearly £500 a year AND becoming our official sixth customer.

We’d actually done it, with a few hours left. Cheers, James, not only had he saved £500 a year, but that meant we had earned our £500 bonus too 🙂

Our Honest Review of Becoming Utility Warehouse Partners. Was It Worth It?

Although it was touch-and-go, and there were definitely ups and downs, overall? 100% yes.

We earned the £500 bonus, and although we didn’t sign any homeowners, we’ve started building our residual income and genuinely saved people money in some cases, huge amounts. And that’s what we love most about this, we are earning by saving people money. Love that!

Our customers are already referring people to us, we have more calls booked.
And now the pressure is off, we can take it slow and steady.

This is a proper side hustle:
You get out what you put in.
You help people.
And you get paid well for doing it.

We have been completely honest in our review of becoming Utility Warehouse partners, and we’ll definitely carry on. There is no minimum commitment, you can work whatever hours you want, and it’s a very low joining fee. Most importantly, we’re helping people save money (and potentially make money) which is the most rewarding part for me. So if you’re reading this and on the fence, hopefully our honest review of becoming Utility Warehouse partners will help your decision.

In fact, Carla had more to say about our review of becoming Utility Warehouse partners.

In Carla’s words…”I’m not moving on from UW.

And I don’t mean that in a “this is the best thing ever” kind of salesy way. I mean it in a real, genuine, “this just makes sense for me” kind of way.

The business itself is solid. The passive income? Yes please. But what’s surprised me the most is how supported I’ve felt since joining.

Running a business can be really lonely. There’s no one to bounce ideas off or give you a pep talk when you’re having one of those days. But with UW, I’ve got a whole new circle of people who get it. People like my amazing leader and now good friend Jo, who checks in, keeps us motivated, and just gets it. No pressure, no ego, just support.

Last night on our team call, one of the ladies said something that really stuck with me. She said, “Just show up every day. Even if it’s just one message, one post, or one quick chat with someone.” And she’s right. Lee literally messaged one person during the call and booked a chat for the next day.

Another lady on the call was feeding her baby twins and said she often sends voice notes to people while scooping up formula. That’s the beauty of it. You can fit it into your real life and still see results.

In our usual jobs we’re trading time for money. UW is different. You put the time in once and it keeps paying you after. It’s not magic, but it’s smart. And it works if you show up.

So no, I won’t be letting go of this one. I’ll still be testing other side hustles and sharing what’s great (and what’s not) but UW is staying firmly in the mix for me.”

Want to Try UW Yourself?

If you want to become a UW partner and want honest help from people who have done it, message either me or Carla.

We’ll happily jump on a call and show you exactly:

• how it works
  
• how to get started
  
• how to earn that £500 bonus
  

Just drop us a message on our Facebook page, we’d love to chat!