The short version
Ad: Octopus50 is an independent site funded by the Octopus referral scheme — if you switch through our link and qualify, you receive £50 account credit and we may also receive £50.
Who receives what
- You (new home customer)
- £50 energy account credit if you qualify
- Us (the referrer)
- £50 referrer reward on a qualifying switch
- When
- Paid on supply and the first monthly Direct Debit successfully taken
- Cost to you
- None. Referral does not change your tariff or price.
- Relationship
- Independent website. Not Octopus Energy and not endorsed by them.
What we do not earn from
- We do not charge readers anything
- We are not paid per click or per quote
- We do not sell your data, and we do not collect quote or bank details
- We do not accept payment to remove a limitation from a page
How we keep it balanced
- Every page carries the disclosure above the fold, not buried in a footer
- A second named reviewer checks every commercial claim before publication
- Our review publishes who should choose a different supplier
- We refuse timing and 'guaranteed' claims that would convert better but are not published by Octopus
- Corrections are logged publicly with dates
How the business referral route differs
Octopus Energy runs a separate referral scheme for business customers, currently worth £75 for the switching business and £75 for the referring customer. We do not publish a business referral link, because the domestic identifier shown on this site (melon-crane-917) is for home energy accounts and could be attached incorrectly to a business switch. If you are switching business premises, follow the steps in our business referral guide and get a business-specific link from an existing business customer instead.
How this compares with price comparison sites
Mainstream comparison services are usually paid a commission by the supplier when you switch through them — often a larger amount than a referral reward, and sometimes shared with the tariff results you are shown. Our model is narrower: we cover one supplier, we are paid the same reward any Octopus customer could earn by referring a friend, and we do not rank or filter competing suppliers because we do not list any. The trade-off is obvious — a comparison site can show you the whole market and we cannot — so we say it plainly: check a whole-of-market comparison before you switch, and use the £50 as a tiebreaker, not a reason.
What the money pays for
Referral income covers the running costs of the site — hosting, domain, the time spent checking offer terms against the live scheme, and the writing and review work described in our editorial policy. Because income only arrives weeks after a completed switch, and only if Octopus Energy's conditions are met, we have no incentive to push borderline cases: a sign-up that fails the eligibility checks earns nothing and damages the one thing the site depends on, which is being accurate.
What we will not do for money
- Describe the credit as 'free money' without the conditions attached
- Quote payment timings Octopus has not published, or promise dates we cannot control
- Hide the cases where a different supplier is the better choice
- Publish a business referral link that could misattribute a business switch
- Accept sponsored placements, advertorial or supplier input into our verdicts
Judge the tariff, not the credit
Treat the £50 as a one-off joining credit, not proof that a tariff is cheapest. Before switching, compare the live annual estimate, unit rates, standing charges, tariff type, exit fees, payment method and any smart-meter requirements.
More on our standards in the editorial policy, and on the people responsible on our author pages.