User guide
Finding your way around the guide
To navigate between pages, click or tap the arrows to go forwards to the next page or backwards to the previous one. The arrows can be found either side of the page and at the bottom, too (circled in green, below).
Menu/table of contents
Click or tap on the three horizontal lines in the top-right of your screen to open the main menu/table of contents. This icon is always visible whether you're using a computer, tablet or smartphone. The menu will open on top of the page you’re on. Click on any section title to visit that section. Click the cross at any time to close the table of contents.
Text size
On a computer, you'll see three different sized letter 'A's in the top-right of your screen. On a smartphone or tablet these are visible when you open the menu (see above). If you’re having trouble reading the guide, click or tap on each of the different 'A's to change the size of the text to suit you.
Pictures
On some images you'll see a blue double-ended arrow icon. Clicking or tapping on this will expand the picture so you can see more detail. Click or tap on the blue cross to close the expanded image.
Where we think a group of images will be most useful to you, we've grouped them together in an image gallery. Simply use the blue left and right arrows to scroll through the carousel of pictures.
Links
If you see a word or phrase that's bold and dark blue, you can click or tap on it to find out more. The relevant website will open in a new tab.
Jargon
If you see a word or phrase underlined, click or tap on the word and small window will pop up with a short explanation. Close this pop-up by clicking or tapping the cross in the corner.
Help
On a computer, you'll see a question mark icon in the top-right of your screen. On a smartphone or tablet this is visible when you open the menu (see above).
Clicking or tapping on the question mark will open this user guide. It opens on top of the page you're on and you can close it any time by clicking or tapping the cross in the top-right corner.
What we do at Which?
Which? is the UK’s consumer champion, here to make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone.
Which? research gets to the heart of consumer issues, our advice is impartial, and our rigorous product tests lead to expert recommendations.
We’re the independent consumer voice that influences politicians and lawmakers, investigates, holds businesses to account and makes change happen.
As an organisation we’re not for profit and all for making consumers more powerful. Find out more about who we are here.
We help to create change by:
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Identifying Best Buys, Eco Buys, Great Value products and Recommended Providers.
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Influencing politicians and lawmakers and holding businesses to account.
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Shining a light on important services to help consumers make better decisions.
We focus on four key areas where we can have the biggest impact:
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Consumer rights – We identify companies that aren’t complying with consumer law and help consumers get redress when things go wrong. We’re also currently working to influence government reforms to modernise consumer markets and working to ensure the government maintains high food standards.
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Money – In the past year, we've helped to protect more consumers from authorised push payment (APP) fraud, we secured a commitment from the government to introduce legislation to protect people’s access to cash and we've been working to shape pensions policy so consumers can save enough for their retirement.
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Scams – Our advice and support services including our helplines, our Scam Alert service, our scam sharer tool and our content - help consumers to better protect themselves and to get advice after a scam. But we're also driving systemic change, working with and challenging policy makers, banks, telecommunications service providers and online platforms to reduce the prevalence and impact of scams on consumers.
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Digital life – Our work in Digital Life currently focuses on three areas: we want to ensure all UK consumers have access to the internet at home and via mobile; consumers’ devices should be safe and secure and long lasting; and once online, consumers and their data should be protected, whatever services they use.
Our history
We’ve come a long way since 1957, working out of a garage in Bethnal Green. We started by testing a kettle and grew from there.
Which? was set up because our founders asked if things could be better for consumers. They started testing goods and services, and publishing their results in a magazine. Later, they started campaigning too, encouraging companies to improve and regulators to act.
Within the first month, 10,000 people had joined. Within a decade, Which? had 500,000 members. Today, we have more than 1.2 million members and supporters, making us the largest independent consumer body in the UK.