A relative drops a link into the family group chat. Switch your energy through this, they say, and we both get paid. There is a screenshot of the reward, a cheerful line about how easy it was, and nothing at all about terms. Somebody clicks. Two months later the aunt in Belfast is asking why the site would not accept her postcode, the cousin who did switch has been charged a fee for leaving his old tariff early, and the person who shared the link is quietly wishing they had not.
The United Kingdom is unusual in how much of that can be checked in advance. In several regulated sectors, a public body publishes an actual list of names: the companies that have agreed to rank offers honestly, the retailers big enough to be held to a statutory code, the fuel stations obliged to put their prices in the open. None of these lists is a badge of moral quality, and none of them will tell you whether a scheme pays well. What they do tell you is whether the organisation behind the link has accepted rules that somebody can enforce, which is a far more useful question than whether the website looks professional.
While you are still working out whether a scheme deserves your family's attention, apps such as I am Beezy pay you for viewing content — videos, articles, advertisements — which is a smaller and much duller way to put money into an account, and one that does not require you to persuade anybody of anything.
Which UK sectors publish a list of who may be paid?
Three sectors are worth knowing about, because between them they cover most of what a family actually shares with each other: energy, groceries and fuel. In each one, the list is free, public, and takes under a minute to check.
Energy: nine comparison sites have signed Ofgem's voluntary code
Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, states on its switching guidance that some price comparison websites listing domestic energy tariffs have signed up to its voluntary code, and it names them: Energylinx, The Energy Shop, Money Supermarket, My Utility Genius, Simply Switch, Switch Gas and Electric, Quotezone, Unravel It and Uswitch (Ofgem, Switch energy supplier, consulted 16 August 2026). Signatories undertake to show tariffs in price order rather than in an order that suits whoever pays the most commission. That is precisely the conflict of interest sitting behind every energy referral link, and it is the reason the list exists.
Groceries: fourteen retailers are named by the adjudicator
The Groceries Code Adjudicator designates the fourteen retailers whose UK grocery turnover exceeds one billion pounds, and publishes their names: Tesco, J Sainsbury, Asda, Wm Morrison, Aldi Stores, Lidl GB, the Co-operative Group, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Iceland Foods, Ocado Retail, Amazon, B&M European Value Retail and TJ Morris, which trades as Home Bargains. Two facts in that list surprise people: Amazon has been a designated grocery retailer here since 2022, and Ocado has no shops at all. If a scheme claims to be an official partner of a supermarket, the retailer's own site is where that gets confirmed.
Fuel: the Competition and Markets Authority put the prices in the open
Fuel Finder, the open data scheme run by the Competition and Markets Authority, requires forecourts to publish any price change within thirty minutes, and the authority has been prioritising action against non-compliance since 1 May 2026. The same authority found average margins of 9.6 pence per litre at supermarket forecourts against 11.1 pence elsewhere over January to September 2025, concluding that competition in road fuel retail remains weak. The practical point for a household is blunt: nobody needs a referral link to find a cheap tank of fuel, because the data is already public.
The Northern Ireland mistake that quietly ruins a family link
This is the error that costs the most goodwill, because it looks like the recipient did something wrong. She did not. The link was for a different market.
A Great Britain energy link does nothing in Belfast
Ofgem's price cap and its accredited comparison sites cover England, Scotland and Wales only, and Northern Ireland is regulated separately by the Utility Regulator. Great Britain had seventeen active domestic suppliers at 31 March 2026. Northern Ireland has five electricity providers, of which four are named publicly by the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland: Power NI, SSE Airtricity, Budget Energy and Click Energy. There is no overlap in the sources reached. A switching link built for the British market has nothing to offer a household in Derry or Newry, and the reward attached to it will never trigger.
Three gas networks inside one small nation
Northern Ireland's gas market is split into three separately priced networks — Greater Belfast, Ten Towns and Gas to the West — with no equivalent anywhere in Great Britain. Home heating oil also occupies a place there that the Consumer Council tracks specifically. A comparison built on a single national gas tariff is not merely imprecise for a Northern Irish reader; it describes a market that does not exist where she lives.
What to send a relative in Northern Ireland instead
Send the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland's own comparison tool, which is a public body's service rather than a commercial one, and say plainly that no referral reward is attached. A relative who is told there is no commission in it tends to trust the next recommendation more, not less.
| What you are sharing | England, Scotland and Wales | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| Energy regulator | Ofgem | Utility Regulator |
| Default tariff price cap | £1,862 a year for a typical direct debit household, 1 July to 30 September 2026 | No Ofgem cap applies |
| Active domestic suppliers | 17 at 31 March 2026 | 5 electricity providers, 4 named publicly |
| Accredited comparison sites | 9 signatories to Ofgem's voluntary code | Consumer Council tool |
| Gas market structure | One national network | Three separately priced networks |
What does a referral reward actually cost the person you refer?
A reward is paid by somebody, and in a switching scheme that somebody is usually the customer being switched. This is not a scandal, but it does change how you should present the link to people who trust you.
The exit fee lands after the decision
Ofgem is explicit that a household may have to pay an exit fee if it switches tariff or supplier before a fixed rate tariff ends. Nothing in a referral message mentions this, because the person sharing the link is rarely the person paying it. Before sending anything, ask the recipient one question: are you on a fixed tariff, and when does it end? If the answer is yes and the end date is months away, the fee can swallow the saving and the reward together.
Fourteen days to change their mind
New domestic energy contracts can be cancelled within fourteen days, according to Ofgem's guidance, which is worth knowing in both directions. It protects the person you referred. It also means a reward you have already counted can evaporate if the switch is cancelled inside that window, so treat a confirmation email as provisional until the period has passed.
Five working days, and what completed means
Ofgem states that a household switch can take up to five working days. Most reward terms pay on completion of the switch rather than on sign-up, and some add a further waiting period on top. A reward that has not appeared after a fortnight is usually a timing question rather than a broken promise, and a reward that has not appeared after two months usually is not.
| Mistake | How it looks at the time | What it actually costs |
|---|---|---|
| Sending a Great Britain link to Northern Ireland | A helpful family message | No reward, and a relative who thinks she did it wrong |
| Using a comparison site with no accreditation | A slick site at the top of the results | Offers ranked by commission rather than by price |
| Ignoring the exit fee | A saving quoted before charges | The person you referred is worse off than before |
| Counting a reward before the cooling-off period ends | A confirmation email | A reversal fourteen days later, already spent |
| Treating rewards as invisible to HMRC | Small amounts, several schemes | A gross total that crosses a threshold nobody was watching |
Funding the gap between referrals with I am Beezy
Referral income is lumpy by design. A good month depends on somebody else deciding to switch, and there is no version of it where you control the timing. That is a poor foundation for a household budget and a fine reason to keep something steadier running alongside.
What the app pays for
With I am Beezy you view content — videos, articles, advertisements — and each view generates earnings, with active users reporting roughly £4 to £13 a day. It asks for no persuasion, no audience and no link in a family chat, which makes it a different sort of income from a referral scheme rather than a competitor to one.
Where the money lands on a British account
A UK account is identified by a six-digit sort code and an eight-digit account number, not an IBAN, and the domestic rail is Faster Payments. Have those two numbers ready and correct before any scheme asks for them, because a mistyped sort code is the single most common reason a payment that was genuinely sent never arrives.
The paperwork a household should keep either way
Rewards from several small schemes add up faster than people expect, and the tax question is answered by a threshold most households have never had to think about.
The £1,000 line is gross, not profit
HMRC's guidance on tax-free allowances on property and trading income sets the trading allowance at up to £1,000 a year, and defines gross income as the total you would put on your tax return before any allowances or expenses are taken off (GOV.UK, consulted 16 August 2026). Somebody who receives £1,200 in rewards and spends £400 chasing them is at £1,200, not £800. Below the line there is no return to file, but the records still have to be kept.
There are two allowances, not one
The property allowance is a separate £1,000, and the same guidance confirms that a person with both kinds of income gets an allowance for each. A household earning £900 from schemes and £900 from letting something out is inside both.
5 October is the date that bites
The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, not from January. Anyone who crosses the threshold must tell HMRC by 5 October following the end of that tax year, with the online return and the payment due by the following 31 January. Missing the October date is the quiet failure, because nothing happens at the time.
Before you share the next link
Run three checks and you will avoid nearly all of the damage. Find out whether the sector keeps a public list and whether the organisation is on it. Establish which of the four nations the person receiving the link actually lives in, because energy, and much else besides, is not one market. Ask the recipient what it costs them, not what it pays you, and say the answer out loud in the message. A referral you would still be comfortable with if the reward were zero is the only kind worth putting in front of family. And if you want a steadier line running underneath all of it, an account on I am Beezy costs nothing and pays for content you were going to look at anyway.
