Checkatrade for Electricians and What Each Lead Site Charges

A registered electrician already has one public record that householders can search. Joining an electrical competent person scheme puts the business on the Electrical Competent Person Register, which GOV.UK describes as a single place for householders to find registered electricians in their area. Paying Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark or TrustATrader is a separate decision about leads, and each one charges in a different way. This guide sets out those charges as each company published them on 8 November 2026, the contract terms that sit behind them, and a free route based on Google reviews.

Where a company's live site could not be read on that date, the facts come from copies of its own pages saved earlier in 2026, and that is noted in the text. Prices and terms change, so confirm the current version with the company before signing anything.

Scheme registration travels with you

Some of the platforms below ask about an electrician's registration, and registration with a scheme is separate from any of them.

• GOV.UK lists BESCA, Blue Flame Certification, Certsure (which trades as NICEIC), NAPIT and OFTEC as the schemes for electrical installations in homes. A registered installer can self certify notifiable work instead of the customer applying for building regulations approval.
• TrustATrader's own pages, in a copy saved in February 2026, say it asks electricians for proof of registration with a governing body and proof of Part P compliance when they join.
• Checkatrade's electrician page tells homeowners to ask whether an electrician is registered with a Competent Person Scheme, and to look for proof of qualifications for the specific job.
• MyBuilder says it asks for certifications for regulated jobs, or an online skills check, at registration.
• To claim government chargepoint grants for customers, an installer has to be authorised by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, and the application asks for a Competent Person Scheme number or an Electrical Contractors' Association membership number.

So the registration that lets an electrician certify a consumer unit change or a new circuit is the credential that GOV.UK and Checkatrade's electrician page tell customers to look for. The money question is only about how the work reaches you, and what each route costs per job won.

Checkatrade plans as published for trades

Checkatrade's trade pricing page lists three plans. It does not say whether the prices include VAT.

The pricing page also showed a time limited offer of the first month free. Checkatrade says its members pass up to 12 checks and that the free Checkatrade Guarantee, which is discretionary, pays up to £1,000 per approved claim. Beyond the plans, Checkatrade sells three other ways to buy work.

• Pay as you go plans bill each lead, and Checkatrade counts calls, messages, quote requests and clicks through to a trade's website as leads. The fee per lead moves with job value, channel, location, season and supply and demand, and the current range is shown only inside the members area, according to the pay as you go terms updated on 20 February 2026.
• The Opportunities Board lets trades browse leads free and unlock them with credits sold in bundles of 10, 25, 50 or 100. The price per credit is not published, and credits are not refunded if the job does not go ahead. Fixed and pay as you go members get first sight of new enquiries. A lead still without a tradesperson usually lands on the board after a delay of about 4 hours.
• Sponsored Listings are paid promoted placements charged per click, which may show above regular results and in Request a Quote. The smallest monthly budget is £100 (the page read does not say whether VAT is included), and any lead that follows is billed on top of the click.

Checkatrade contract terms as published

Checkatrade's Master Service Terms, last updated 13 October 2026, set out how long a paid agreement runs and what can change during it.

• An agreement rolls into a further term of the same length unless the trade phones to give notice, and that call cannot be made more than 35 days ahead of renewal. The pricing page footnote says Fixed Plan memberships are for 12 months, while the terms say the length is set in each Confirmation Email.
• Checkatrade can raise its fees at renewal if it gives 30 days' notice.
• A new agreement can be cancelled without further payment within two business days of the start date.
• The terms say Checkatrade may charge a non refundable application fee of £250 excluding VAT to cover its vetting checks.
• Fixed Plan invoices arrive a month in advance, and the terms call the lead estimate only an estimate that is not binding.
• On pay as you go, the monthly charge is capped at 120% of the budget, and a deposit of up to twice the monthly budget may be required.

Those terms are worth reading alongside the monthly figure. Asking for the renewal date and the full first year cost in writing settles most of the uncertainty before any money moves.

Rated People leads now run through Checkatrade

Electricians who used Rated People should know that it is now part of Checkatrade Group. Its own sign up page, in a copy saved in September 2026, says Rated People closed all memberships before it became part of Checkatrade, and that leads submitted through the platform are now routed to Checkatrade tradespeople.

• Two routes are offered, both of them Checkatrade products. One is a fixed lead plan on a 12 month term, priced by phone according to trade and area. The other is the Opportunities Board, with a free account and a charge for each lead unlocked.
• Existing Rated People reviews stay on Rated People.
• Leads from the old platform are no longer accessible through a Rated People account.

In copies saved in September and October 2026, Rated People said homeowners can post a job for free and get up to 3 quotes, and that those jobs now reach electricians through Checkatrade.

Paying per lead on MyBuilder and Bark

Neither of these charges a joining fee. The cost arrives with each lead, so the comparison is about what triggers a charge and what happens when a lead goes nowhere.

Bark prices each lead in credits according to the service, the size of the job, where it is and how close the customer is to hiring, and the figure appears before any credits are spent. Each customer request can be answered by up to 5 professionals. Elite Pro, according to Bark, lets professionals appear higher in the seller list shown to customers and adds a 20% credit discount and 2 free leads a week. Bark also sells Credit Pack Subscriptions that run for up to 12 months and then continue unless cancelled.

Bark has started a subscription model called Bark Marketplace, but its help centre lists only cleaning categories as live in the UK. Electricians are not on that list, so for now they stay on credits.

TrustATrader membership for electricians

TrustATrader runs on membership rather than lead fees. Its live site could not be read on 8 November 2026 (it returned HTTP 429, too many requests), so these points come from copies of its own pages saved between November 2025 and August 2026.

• It charges a yearly membership fee. The amount and the contract length were not found on the pages read.
• Its join page tells traders they never pay for leads, and there is no commission.
• Members are limited for each trade in an area, with waiting lists in many areas.
• Joining needs at least 5 references, insurance documents, signed terms and an information form. Its checklist also asks for at least 2 years in the trade and all qualifications required by law.
• For electricians it asks for proof of registration with a governing body and of Part P compliance.
• Customers can register an agreed job for its guarantee, which its own pages summarise as covering poor workmanship up to £1,000 (the full terms were not read).

Testing a platform against your own work

An electrical business does very different jobs, from a single socket to a full rewire, an EICR for a landlord or a charger on a driveway. A lead platform can be good value for one type and poor value for another, and only your own records will show which. A simple tally over a few months is enough.

1. Record every enquiry from each platform with the job type, for example fault finding, EICR, consumer unit, charger or rewire.
2. Note which ones you quoted for and which you won.
3. Add up everything paid to that platform over the same period, including membership, lead fees, credits, clicks, any application fee and VAT.
4. Divide the total by the jobs won, then repeat the sum for each job type.
5. Set the result against the margin on that type of job, and include the time spent travelling to price work that did not go ahead.

Landlord inspections are worth tracking separately. Private landlords in England must have their electrics inspected and tested at least every five years, so a satisfied landlord can come back without any platform being involved the second time. The guide to what an EICR certificate is explains the rules customers ask about.

Questions for any sales call

• What will an electrical business pay in the first year in total, including VAT and any application fee?
• Is the lead estimate for this trade and postcode binding, and what happens if fewer leads arrive?
• How many other electricians receive the same enquiry?
• What counts as a chargeable lead, and can a click or an unanswered call be charged?
• When does the agreement renew, how is notice given, and can the price change at renewal?
• What happens to the reviews and the profile if the business leaves?

Get the answers in writing before signing. Each company's terms are the final word, so keep a copy of the version that applied on the day you joined.

A free listing built on Google reviews

Top Rated Electricians is free for electricians and free for homeowners. Nobody can pay to be listed, and the organic ranking cannot be bought. Electricians in each town are ranked by Google star rating weighed by the number of Google reviews, using a Bayesian average, and the method is published on the About page. Up to three Featured spots can appear on county and town pages, labelled Sponsored, and they do not affect the ranking.

A listing needs an active verified Google Business Profile, a working website and at least 5 Google reviews. Customers need no account. They see the rating, the review count and the breakdown by star, can shortlist up to three electricians and compare them on one screen, and then call the business or visit its website directly. The site does not check insurance or qualifications, which is one more reason for an electrician to mention their scheme registration on their own website and Google profile.

Paying for leads can still suit some businesses, such as one that is newly set up with few reviews so far. Reviews left on Google sit on the business's own Google profile. The guide on how to choose a local electrician shows what homeowners are told to look for before they call.

The certificate handover is the moment to ask for a review

Electrical work has a natural point to ask for feedback. The electrician hands over an Electrical Installation Certificate or a Minor Works Certificate at the end of the job, and for notifiable work the scheme sends the customer a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate within 30 days. Both moments remind the customer of the job, and both are a good time to ask.

• A direct Google review link, from the free business tools, can go in the email or message that carries the certificate.
• A QR code and printable review cards can be left with the paperwork for customers who prefer to do it later.
• The tools also work out the number of extra five star reviews needed to climb a place in the town ranking.
• Any listed electrician with 5 or more reviews and a 4.0 rating or above qualifies for the Top Rated badge.

Where to start this week

1. Check the business appears correctly on the Electrical Competent Person Register under the name customers know.
2. Pull the last six months of spend and jobs won for each platform you pay, split by job type.
3. Before renewing or signing any agreement, get the first year cost, the renewal date and the notice rules in writing.
4. Add the review link or QR code to the message that goes out with every certificate.
5. Once the Google profile has at least 5 reviews, apply for the free listing.

To see how electricians in your area are ranked today, find an electrician near you on the free directory.