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A story of ordinary discrimination

I don’t like writing about politics, despite me having strong opinions on some matters. The last time I spent time writing about this, it was about xenophobia in software, and this time it’s a very related story.

Before I start with the tale, I need to prefix that at a first read, it might sound like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. This is probably true for me, as I’m playing on the lowest difficulty setting, being white, wealthy and from a country that is, in most parts of the world, well considered (what I have read more than a few racist commenter define “a good immigrant”). I want you to think twice, though, if this would be just as “silly” for someone with a higher difficulty setting.

So this tale starts with me signing up for a energy supplier programme. This is a Very British Thing to do, so let me explain a bit about this. Like at least a few countries in Europe, and all those I lived in, the UK has a “liberalised” energy market, which means the consumers (including the tenants) can choose which company to give their money to, for their electricity (or gas).

Because of human nature, capitalism, marketing, and whatever else happens, the normal behaviour of these suppliers is to offer you what is usually a very good deal with a lock-in contract of 12 months. After the contract expires, you’re on a monthly-basis on a terrible tariff — you can then either choose to lock in with them for another 12 months for a less-terrible tariff, or switch supplier to one that offers you a better deal yet. From a purely monetary point of view, switching is always a winning strategy. From the human point of view of not wanting to bother, it’s not uncommon to renew with the same supplier, or even not noticing the contract expired and being overcharged.

Since looking at different suppliers, figuring out the best option, and actually switching are time-consuming tasks, it can get to the point where the money saved is not worth the time spent. And that created an opportunity for middlemen to insert themselves into the picture, in the form of energy supplier switching programmes. These programmes take your information, find you a better deal, and even sign you up to switch, with various degrees of automation.

iChoosr in particular tries to find deals for groups, with the idea that you can get a better deal from a supplier by giving them a ballpark of how many people would sign up for it. This is the middleman that Unite the union chose to run their twice-yearly switching programme. I signed up for it last year, because I was able to — I was provided with a no-lock-in contract with EDF when I moved into the apartment, but was getting annoyed at them calling me every two weeks or so to ask me if I wanted to install a smart meter (my landlord didn’t want, I didn’t want to bother.)

Last year, the chosen supplier was So Energy, which turned out to have a very friendly website, too. I switched. Then this year when the time to renewal came I signed up for the programme again. The answer was different this year (unsurprisingly), and E-On Energy was chosen, which was even more interesting to me, as Santander also had a “retailer offer” to sign up for E-On.

And here is where things went badly. I got the offer and went to their website to fill in the form, but when I stated that I lived at this address for only one year and eight months, I was asked for my previous address, which had to be in the UK. No overseas address option was available in the form. And I couldn’t even mess up with the fields, because it wanted to look up the address by (UK) post code.

I already wrote about this in the previous post of course. So that’s not entirely surprising either, but it is a non-small annoyance. It turns out that you need three years of addresses in the UK to be able to pass the credit check that E-On requires. It’s a “tax on the immigrants” in the sense that you will have to choose a more expensive supplier if you can’t provide that data. I decided to renew with So Energy, if nothing else because they are not unfriendly to recent immigrants — and the difference being less than £100 a year made it not worth the hassle to chase E-On around.

I did, though, send a complaint to iChoosr about the fact that their service is not friendly to immigrants. And today that complaint got an answer:

Dear Mr Diego Elio Petteno,

Thank you for contacting us.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please note that the system asks for your previous address for the credit check by the supplier. However, if your previous address is not in the UK we would advise you to please fill out that you have lived in the UK more than 3years. That way you may be able to complete your switchover process.

For your convenience Please find below the link to your personal offer (if the link does not work then copy the entire link and paste it into your browser’s address bar). This page provides you with your personal details, current energy figures and your offer:

[Continues with usual drivel with link and request for information — F]

“Dianah” from iChoosr support

As I complained on Twitter after reading this email, their answer is worse than the problem! (El tacon pexo del buxo in my dialect.) They suggested, in writing, for me to lie on a credit check form. Let’s not even comment at how they keep calling it a “personal offer”, given that it is not available to me.

Now it is very possible that, all other things being the same, the credit check would pass just fine. If nothing else, Santander giving me a credit card seems to have taken care of most of those problems. And to be honest, I could probably just have asked my girlfriend to sign up in my place, since she’s been living in the UK much longer than me. But beside me not wanting to give money to a discriminating supplier, there is the other “small” problem of lying in credit check forms.

Again, remember I’m playing at the lowest difficulty level. Lying on the credit check form will probably not do me any harm. But what about a worker with a lower salary who just arrived from a different country? What if the credit company noticed the inconsistency and marked their credit rating further down?

Anyway, after complaining on Twitter, because that’s something I do, iChoosr stated that this is not their standard operating procedure, and even offered to “manually switch” me, without the requirement of three years in the UK. Note that once again, this is for me, a white male working for a big company, coming from a country that is not associated with immigration as much as it should be.

This is unfortunately the norm. If you lived all your life in the UK, all of this is hidden away: of course you have more than three years worth of addresses! If you have enough money that you don’t really care about switching provider, then of course you don’t notice credit checks or anything of the sorts. But it does create a much less friendly environment for those of us who move into the country.

Luckily, there are other cases. The dentistry clinic that just opened across the street from us is staffed mostly by immigrants. They know how hard it is, they remember how annoying it was when they arrived. And they made sure that the financing company the signed up with is able to take overseas addresses. Given that there is no interest applied on the financing, I fear they might have just taken the hit of paying higher fees to guarantee that.

Of course the consideration there is not just for their own experience; assuming that would be naïve to say the least. The other side of that calculation is that their location in West London is as such that a lot of their customers are likely immigrants, that might or might not have lived for three years in the UK already, and might thus need a bit more relaxed credit check environment than, say, Richmond High Street.

This is why I’m upset with Unite, too. The fact that their provider does not care to select offers that accept immigrants out of the box throws a shade to them just as much as iChoosr: many of the people counting on these deals are likely on lower salaries than mine, and for them the price difference can be an actual difference. Even more so if they have recently moved to the country. I should send my complaint to them just as much at this point.

Take my experience of this molehill, think it through with the lenses of someone who might not be as privileged as you are, and then start pressuring the companies you work for, or that you pay money to, to actually care about the real people. Rather than just about their bottom line.

Comments 1
  1. As a new immigrant from the US to France, my eyes are very much opening to things like this. I know I’m still very much on ‘easy’ mode, even despite the fact that I’m still working at learning the language. But I’m amazed at how much the ‘system’ makes getting started off difficult.

    Just finding a place to live was tough. Since to get approved for an apartment, you need 3 months of paychecks. To get paid, you need a bank account. To get a bank account you need proof of your permanent residence. I couldn’t have imagined how hard it would have been if I didn’t have a French company that really wanted me here.

    There’s so much you take for granted when you’re living in your home country..

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