Utility Warehouse operates in the utilities MLM niche, under parent company Telecom Plus since 2002.

Utility Warehouse is based out of the UK and headed up by CEO Stuart Burnett.

Per Burnett’s Utility Warehouse corporate bio;

Stuart joined Telecom Plus in 2016 as Legal & Compliance Director and then moved on to become Commercial Director, managing all commercial activity, including our key commercial relationships and customer proposition, before becoming COO in 2019.

Stuart became sole CEO in 2024, having been made Co-CEO in 2021, after two years as COO.

Burnett (right) is also the CEO of Telecom Plus, which on its own website claims to be “the UK’s only multi-service provider”.

Why invest in Telecom Plus?

Telecom Plus is a unique UK multi-service provider with a purpose: to stop households wasting time and money on essential services.

We have partnerships with leading suppliers of energy, broadband, mobile and insurance, and a high quality customer base.

This leads to a high growth, predictable, capital-light and cash generative business model supporting a clear capital allocation policy of high returns through dividends supplemented by share buybacks.

Telecom Plus was founded in 1996 and is a publicly traded company in the UK. Outside of Utility Warehouse and Telecom Plus, Burnett was a corporate lawyer.

Other than a fine in 2021 related to customer debt management, neither Utility Warehouse or Telecom Plus have had recent regulatory issues.

Read on for a full review of Telecom Plus’ Utility Warehouse MLM opportunity.

Utility Warehouse’s Products

Utility Warehouse markets utility services spanning energy, broadband, mobile and insurance.

One of the core problems with evaluating utilities niche MLM companies is that services and plans are typically tailored to individual customers.

This is the case with Utility Warehouse, so I can’t really comment on competitiveness. That said, Utility Warehouse does claim to be “the UK’s cheapest energy supplier” for bundled services.

Life’s better when you get it together – we’re the cheapest energy provider for variable energy tariffs when you take more than one service with us.

There’s also a “you’ll save money” guarantee;

We promise. If you don’t, we’ll pay you double the difference, and you can leave without exit fees.

In addition to utilities services, Utility Warehouse also markets a cashback card.

Load money onto it from your bank account or debit card via the UW app.

Online or in store. You’ll get up to 10% cashback with our retail partners, and 1% everywhere else.

Acquired cashback can be put towards paying Utility Warehouse bills.

Utility Warehouse’s Compensation Plan

Utility Warehouse’s compensation plan pays on the sale of utility services to customers.

Utility Warehouse Promoter Ranks

There are twenty-one promoter ranks within Utility Warehouse’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  1. Distributor – sign up as a Utility Warehouse promoter
  2. Qualified Distributor – personally refer and maintain three Utility Warehouse customers
  3. Qualified Distributor* – personally refer and maintain six Utility Warehouse customers and recruit one Distributor or higher ranked promoter
  4. Senior Qualified Distributor – maintain six personally referred Utility Warehouse customers, recruit two Distributor or higher ranked promoters and have twelve customers between you and your downline
  5. Future Team Leader – maintain six personally referred Utility Warehouse customers, recruit two promoters, have one recruitment leg with a Distributor and one with a Qualified Distributor or higher, and have twenty-five customers between you and your downline
  6. Team Leader – personally refer and maintain ten Utility Warehouse customers, have a Qualified Distributors or higher in three individual recruitment legs and have fifty customers between you and your downline
  7. Senior Team Leader – personally refer and maintain fifteen Utility Warehouse customers, have a Qualified Director in three recruitment legs and a Team Leader in two recruitment legs, and have two hundred and fifty customers between you and your downline
  8. Group Leader – personally refer and maintain twenty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Qualified Distributor or higher in two recruitment legs, a Team Leaders or higher in three legs and a Senior Team Leader or higher in one leg, and have seven hundred and fifty customers between you and your downline
  9. Senior Group Leader – personally refer and maintain twenty-five Utility Warehouse customers, have a Team Leader or higher in three recruitment legs, a Senior Team Leader or higher in two legs and a Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have two thousand customers between you and your downline
  10. National Group Leader – personally refer and maintain fifty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Team Leader or higher in one recruitment leg, a Senior Team Leader or higher in two legs, a Group Leader or higher in two legs and a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs, and have seven thousand customers between you and your downline
  11. National Group Leader 1 Star – personally refer and maintain fifty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in three legs, a Group Leader or higher in two legs and a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs, and have eight thousand customers between you and your downline
  12. National Group Leader 2 Star – personally refer and maintain fifty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs and a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs, and have nine thousand customers between you and your downline
  13. National Group Leader 3 Star – personally refer and maintain fifty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two legs, a Group Leader or higher in two legs and a Senior Group Leader or higher in three legs, and have ten thousand customers between you and your downline
  14. National Group Leader 4 Star – personally refer and maintain fifty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in three legs, a Group Leader or higher in two legs and a Senior Group Leader or higher in three legs, and have fifteen thousand customers between you and your downline
  15. National Group Leader 5 Star – personally refer and maintain fifty Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs and a Senior Group Leader or higher in three legs, and have twenty thousand customers between you and your downline
  16. National Network Leader – personally refer and maintain one hundred Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two recruitment legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs, a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs and a National Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have twenty-five thousand customers between you and your downline
  17. National Network Leader 1 Star – personally refer and maintain one hundred Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two recruitment legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs, a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs and a National Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have one hundred thousand customers between you and your downline
  18. National Network Leader 2 Stars – personally refer and maintain one hundred Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two recruitment legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs, a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs and a National Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have one hundred and seventy-five thousand customers between you and your downline
  19. National Network Leader 3 Stars – personally refer and maintain one hundred Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two recruitment legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs, a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs and a National Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have two hundred and fifty thousand customers between you and your downline
  20. National Network Leader 4 Stars – personally refer and maintain one hundred Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two recruitment legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs, a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs and a National Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have three hundred and seventy-five thousand customers between you and your downline
  21. National Network Leader 5 Stars – personally refer and maintain one hundred Utility Warehouse customers, have a Senior Team Leader or higher in two recruitment legs, a Group Leader or higher in three legs, a Senior Group Leader or higher in two legs and a National Group Leader or higher in one leg, and have five hundred thousand customers between you and your downline

Note customers can be retail customers or recruited promoters who have signed up for energy services.

Also note if a downline promoter is at the same rank as you, only 25% of their customers are counted for the downline customer count.

Referral Commissions

Utility Warehouse pays a referral commission per new customer referred to utility services. Customers can be retail customers or recruited Utility Warehouse promoters.

Referral commision amounts are determined by how many services new customers sign up for:

  • one new service = £50 GBP
  • two new services = £100 GBP
  • three new services = £250 GBP
  • four or more new services = £300 GBP

Note that insurance products are excluded from referral commissions.

If an upline helps a Utility Warehouse promoter refer a new customer within their first forty-five days, and they themselves have six or more personally referred customers (one signed up in the last 60 days), they receive an upline referral commission:

  • one new service = £25 GBP
  • two new services = £50 GBP
  • three new services = £125 GBP
  • four or more new services = £150 GBP

If the new customer is signed up after forty-five days or the promoter has six or more customers, referral commission rates are reduced as follows:

  • one new service = £25 GBP for referring promoter and their upline
  • two new services = £50 GBP for referring promoter and their upline
  • three new services = £125 GBP for referring promoter and their upline
  • four or more new services = £150 GBP for referring new promoter and their upline

Finally, Utility Warehouse customers are also able to refer new customers for £50 GBP credit on their bill (2 or more services only).

These referrals are paid to their referring promoter as follows:

  • one or two services = £50 GBP
  • three services = £200 GBP
  • four or more services = £250 GBP

Fast Start Bonus

If a new Utility Warehouse promoter refers six new customers and recruits at least one promoter, they receive a £500 GBP Fast Start Bonus.

Personal Residual Commissions

Residual commissions are paid on utilities services used by personally referred customers.

Residual commissions are paid as a percentage these customers pay on their bills:

  • broadband standard, ultra and ultra plus – 4%
  • broadband full fibre – 3%
  • broadband business – 8%
  • landline calls – 6%
  • landline rental – 2%
  • mobile calls – 6%
  • mobile monthly charges – 2%
  • mobile broadband – 4%
  • gas and electricity usage home owners – 2.5%
  • gas and electricity usage established tenants (24 months) – 2%
  • gas and electricity usage tenants – 15
  • home insurance, boiler & home cover and/or income protector – 4%
  • NGN (?) calls – 6%

Utility Warehouse promoters can qualify for residual commissions earlier, by forfeiting most of the referral commissions earned on the same customer services:

  • one new service = £10 GBP reduced commission
  • two new services = £20 GBP reduced commission
  • three new services = £50 GBP reduced commission
  • four or more new services = £60 GBP reduced commission

If the above rates are chosen, residual commissions begin after one month.

Residual Commissions

Utility Warehouse pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places a promoter at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited promoter placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 promoters recruit new promoters, they are placed on level 2 of the original promoter’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 promoters recruit new promoters, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Residual commissions are paid as a percentage of customer bills paid across the unilevel team based on rank:

  • Qualified Directors earn 8% on levels 2 to 8, 50% of 8% on levels 9 to 16 and 25% of 8% on levels 17 and deeper, capped at £2000 GBP a month
  • Team leaders earn 9% on levels 2 to 8, 50% of 9% on levels 9 to 16 and 25% of 9% on levels 17 and deeper, capped at £3000 GBP a month
  • Senior Team Leaders earn 10% on levels 2 to 8, 50% of 10% on levels 9 to 16 and 25% of 10% on levels 17 and deeper, capped at £4000 GBP a month
  • Group Leaders earn 10.5% on levels 2 to 8, 50% of 10.5% on levels 9 to 16 and 25% of 10.5% on levels 17 and deeper, capped at £5000 GBP a month
  • Senior Group Leaders earn 11% on levels 2 to 10, 50% of 11% on levels 11 to 18 and 25% of 11% on levels 19 and deeper, capped at £10,000 GBP a month
  • National Group Leaders earn 12% on levels 2 to 12, 50% of 12% on levels 13 to 21 and 25% of 12% on levels 22 and deeper, capped at £12,500 GBP a month
  • National Group Leader 1 Stars earn 12% on levels 2 to 12, 50% of 12% on levels 13 to 21 and 25% of 12% on levels 22 and deeper, capped at £15,000 GBP a month
  • National Group Leader 2 Stars earn 12% on levels 2 to 12, 50% of 12% on levels 13 to 21 and 25% of 12% on levels 22 and deeper, capped at £17,500 GBP a month
  • National Group Leaders 3 Stars earn 12% on levels 2 to 12, 50% of 12% on levels 13 to 21 and 25% of 12% on levels 22 and deeper, capped at £20,000 GBP a month
  • National Group Leaders 4 Stars earn 12% on levels 2 to 12, 50% of 12% on levels 13 to 21 and 25% of 12% on levels 22 and deeper, capped at £22,500 GBP a month
  • National Group Leaders 5 Stars earn 12% on levels 2 to 12, 50% of 12% on levels 13 to 21 and 25% of 12% on levels 22 and deeper, capped at £25,000 GBP a month
  • National Network Leaders earn 13% on levels 2 to 14, 50% of 13% on levels 15 to 22 and 25% of 13% on levels 23 and deeper, capped at £30,000 GBP a month
  • National Network Leader 1 Stars earn 13% on levels 2 to 14, 50% of 13% on levels 15 to 22 and 25% of 13% on levels 23 and deeper, capped at £35,000 GBP a month
  • National Network Leader 2 Stars earn 13% on levels 2 to 14, 50% of 13% on levels 15 to 22 and 25% of 13% on levels 23 and deeper, capped at £40,000 GBP a month
  • National Network Leader 3 Stars earn 13% on levels 2 to 14, 50% of 13% on levels 15 to 22 and 25% of 13% on levels 23 and deeper, capped at £50,000 GBP a month
  • National Network Leader 4 Stars earn 13% on levels 2 to 14, 50% of 13% on levels 15 to 22 and 25% of 13% on levels 23 and deeper, capped at £60,000 GBP a month
  • National Network Leader 5 Stars earn 13% on levels 2 to 14, 50% of 13% on levels 15 to 22 and 25% of 13% on levels 23 and deeper, capped at £83,333 GBP a month

Rank Achievement Bonus

Utility Warehouse rewards promoters for qualifying at Qualified Director * and higher with the following one-time Rank Achievement Bonuses:

  • qualify at Qualified Director within 30 days of signing up and receive £300 GBP (£300 GBP also paid upline)
  • qualify at Qualified Director* within 30 days of qualifying as a Qualified Director and receive £200 GBP
  • qualify at Senior Qualified Director within 60 days of qualifying at Qualified Director and receive £200 GBP
  • qualify at Future Team Leader within 90 days of qualifying at Qualified Director and receive £250 GBP
  • qualify at Team Leader within 6 months of qualifying at Future Team Leader or 9 months for Qualified Director, and receive £300 GBP
  • qualify at Senior Team Leader within 18 months of qualifying at Team Leader and receive £500 GBP
  • qualify at Group Leader within 24 months of qualifying at Senior Team Leader and receive £2000 GBP (£1000 GBP if after 24 months)
  • qualify at Senior Group Leader within 36 months of qualifying at Group Leader and receive £5000 GBP (£2500 GBP if after 36 months)
  • qualify at National Group Leader within 48 months of qualifying at Senior Group Leader and receive £10,000 GBP
  • qualify at National Network Leader within 60 months of qualifying at National Group Leader and receive £20,000 GBP

Leadership Bonus

The Leadership Bonus rewards Utility Warehouse promoters when their downlines rank up within set timelines.

  • if a recruited promoter qualifies at Team Leader from Future Team Leader within 6 months, the first upline Group Leader and Senior Group Leader receive £300 GBP each (£150 GBP paid to first upline Group Leader only if qualified for outside of  6 months)
  • if a recruited promoter qualifies at Senior Team Leader from Team Leader within 18 months, the first upline Group Leader and Senior Group Leader receive £500 GBP each (£250 GBP if qualified for outside of 18 months and bonus £800 GBP to first upline Group Leader, Senior Group Leader, National Group Leader and National Network Leader if qualified for within 12 months)
  • if a recruited promoter qualifies at Group Leader from Senior Team Leader within 24 months, the first upline Group Leader and Senior Group Leader receive £2000 GBP each (£1000 GBP if qualified for outside of 24 months and bonus £2500 GBP to the first upline Group Leader, Senior Group Leader, National Group Leader and National Network Leader if qualified for within 12 months)
  • if a recruited promoter qualifies at Senior Group Leader from Group Leader within 36 months, the first upline Senior Group Leader and National Group Leader receive £5000 GBP each (£2500 GBP if qualified for outside of 36 months and bonus £7000 GBP to the first upline Senior Group Leader, National Group Leader and National Network Leader if qualified for within 12 months)

Note bonus amounts are on top of regular Leadership Bonus amounts.

Enhanced Income

Senior Group Leaders, National Group Leaders and National Network Leaders can qualify for Enhanced Income.

Enhanced Income entails:

  • removal of tapering (I don’t know what this means)
  • extra 1% paid on energy services (assumed to be referral commissions?)
  • residual income paid for accounts with more than one mobile service
  • minimum residual income uplift of £300 GBP a month (assumed to be a £300 GBP residual income bonus) and
  • one-off £3 GBP bonus on homeowner services sold over the prior quarter, capped at £7500 GBP per quarter

Unfortunately Enhanced Income requirements are kept secret and are subject to change:

Exact targets are calculated each quarter and communicated to SGLs and Nationals individually via email.

Retirement Plan

Upon ranking at Senior Group Leader and higher, a Utility Warehouse promoter can opt to cancel all commissions except cashback and residual commissions. This is referred to as “retirement”.

Once retired, Utility Warehouse promoters no longer have to maintain rank qualification.

The catch is retirement residual commissions aren’t regular residual commissions, they are capped by Utility Warehouse as follows:

  • Senior Group Leaders receive 8% down to level 5
  • National Group Leaders receive 8% down to level 8
  • National Network Leaders receive 8% down to level 8 and then 4% on levels 9 and 10

Joining Utility Warehouse

Utility Warehouse promoter membership is £10 GBP and then £3 GBP a month from the third month.

Utility Warehouse Conclusion

On the surface Utility Warehouse seems like a simple MLM opportunity; sell utilities services to customers and get paid. And indeed that’s what is presented on Utility Warehouse’s website.

In fact I thought things were smooth sailing until I realized what I was breaking down on Utility Warehouse’s website stops short of going into the MLM compensation plan.

This prompted me to go searching for Utility Warehouse’s actual MLM compensation plan, at which point I learnt it was forty pages long.

Needless to say Utility Warehouse’s compensation plan didn’t pass the headache test.

It’s not so much that Utility Warehouse’s compensation plan is complicated with respect to commissions and bonuses. Rather it feels like 30% of the documentation details commissions, and the other 70% is gotchas and additional restrictions designed to screw promoters out of as much as possible.

There are so many gotchas that halfway through the plan I started tuning out. Nonetheless here’s one example pertaining to residual commissions (CB);

CB is not paid where new occupiers move into a home previously occupied by a UW customer.

Note that’s just one out of four gotchas for referral commissions.

And having taken 40 pages to present the compensation plan, you’d expect Utility Warehouse to have gone over every aspect thoroughly. Not the case.

Several sections of the compensation plan refer to “Achiever Points”. E.g., the Leadership Development Bonus gotchas:

LDB Bonus will be paid to the first upline leader of the promoted partner.

The upline partner must have held the required Status within the 30 days preceding the down line partner’s promotion and must also have accumulated the required number of achiever points, as outlined below:

  • GLs – 12 Achiever Points in the previous 3 months, prior to the date of the downline promotion.
  • SGLs – 12 Achiever Points in the previous 3 months, prior to the date of the downline promotion.
  • NGLs – 8 Achiever Points in the previous 3 months, prior to the date of the downline promotion.
  • NNLs – 8 Achiever Points in the previous 6 months, prior to the date of the downline promotion.

What are Achiever Points? No idea – they’re not defined or explained anywhere.

The retirement plan is another gotcha. Sounds great, give up commissions and bonuses for cashback and residual commissions only. But then you find out those aren’t the same residual commissions you were getting paid. Both rates and the levels you were getting paid on have been slashed.

Granted this is disclosed but it’s easy to overlook in the sea of gotchas on every page.

Despite it’s confusing and gotcha riddled compensation plan, the premise of Utility Warehouse remains simple; “earn by helping others save”.

If Utility Warehouse is as competitive as they make themselves out to be, this is probably an easy win on customer acquisition. Why Utility Warehouse then pitch their opportunity as “get paid to help friends and family save on their bills.”

Circa 2023, Telecom Plus reported having 949,180 household customers. I noted on Utility Warehouse’s website it claimed to have “over 70,000” promoters.

I took that to be under 100,000 promoters, which is a healthy promoter to customer ratio in MLM – even with promoter customers being counted with retail.

As per a 2025 census there “were 29.0 million households in the UK”. Utility Warehouse servicing over a million households isn’t dominant but does give them a sizeable market share. I’m assuming this is reflective of Utility Warehouse’s claimed competitiveness.

So from a customer perspective Utility Warehouse is likely favorable. From an MLM perspective however I think most promoters are going to have to accept that while they’ll get paid for selling services (hopefully beyond friends and family), there’s going to be a “black box” effect where they might not fully understand how.

Commissions and bonuses could and are likely going to be reduced due to countless gotchas and tucked away qualifications, potentially making Utility Warehouse not the best financial performer among its MLM peers.

That said Utility Warehouse has the utility niche in the UK cornered, there are currently no MLM competitors.

With that in mind testing the waters with friends and family might actually give new promoters a taste of how things might look once they venture outside the warm market.

If the savings are there for customers, along with commissions and bonuses, selling utility savings should be pretty straight-forward.

I just hope there aren’t anywhere near as many gotchas in Utility Warehouse’s customer contracts as there are in its MLM compensation plan.

Approach with caution.