Help

On this help page you'll find FAQs on:

• Subscribing and your account
• Signing in and passwords
• Direct Debit
• Gift subscriptions
• Suggesting companies and brands to research
• Using our shopping guides
• About Ethical Consumer Research Association
• Weekly email newsletter

Click the links above to jump to what you want.

Need something else?

If you can't find what you're looking for then please get in touch by filing in the contact form on our Contact Us page.

Subscriptions

To find out about what you get as a subscriber and all the benefits available, check out the subscriptions page.
 

How do I subscribe to Ethical Consumer?

The easiest way to subscribe is via our subscription page. 

If you are having difficulty or would prefer to speak to us on the phone, our office number is  0161 226 2929, which is available 10am - 4.30pm every week day.

Print and digital subscriptions are available to those based in the UK. 

If you are based outside of the UK only digital subscriptions are available.
 

How does the 30 day trial work?

You buy a subscription, gain full access to the website and receive a print and/or digital copy of the magazine.

If you don't want to continue with it, you can cancel at any time within the first 30 days to receive a full refund. To cancel, email us on shop [at] ehicalconsumer.org with your name, address and username stating that you wish to cancel. 

We will honour this as long as you contact us within the 30 days, and we will send you an email confirmation once this has been processed.
 

Can I change my subscription from PDF (digital) to print magazine, or vice versa?

Yes, if you are based in the UK, you can do this at any time. 

You will need to contact our subscriptions team at shop [at] ethicalconsumer.org, and we will alter your order for you. There is no cost for a change in either direction.

If you are based outside of the UK, we offer digital subscriptions only.
 

How do I cancel my subscription?

If you pay by Direct Debit, you can cancel via your bank, and we will receive a notification via the Direct Debit system. 

You can do this at any time, and you do not need to contact us to let us know. We will send an email confirmation to confirm your intentions, but if you wish to cancel, you do not need to reply.

If you have paid by card or PayPal, you will need to email us via shop [at] ethicalconsumer.org to let us know. We will process this for you and send an email confirmation once that has been done.
 

How do I renew to Ethical Consumer?

There are three options for renewing your subscription: you can pay by card via Blink, by PayPal or by Direct Debit.

Subscribers can log in to their account and monitor how long they have left of their subscription on the 'My Account' page on our website, there should be an option there to renew your subscription. 

If your subscription has already ended and you cannot use the renew option, you will need to choose the new subscription option. As long as you renew within 1 year, we will process this as a renewal.

Print subscribers may receive renewal reminders up to 4 months before the end of their current subscription. This is because they may be on their penultimate print magazine at this point. Renewing early will not affect your renewal date and will stop any further renewal reminders from being sent to you.

If you renew by Direct Debit, this will automatically renew each year until you cancel. After the first payment has been taken, you will not be sent any reminders, and the payment will be taken on the same day each year.
 

My account says my subscription is not due to expire for another 2/4 months. Why are you contacting me to say it's expired?

As our print magazine comes out every 2 months, to ensure that you do not miss any issues we send out reminders when you receive your penultimate and your final magazine to remind you to renew. 

You can still access the website up to the end of the full expiry period. Renewing early will not affect your renewal date and will stop any further renewal reminders from being sent to you.
 

I’ve moved house /changed my email address. How do I update my details?

Log in to the website and click on ‘My account’. Once the new page has opened, click on the 'Account details' section, and your personal information will appear.

Once you have updated your details, click on ‘Save my details’ to update. You do not need to email us to confirm.

You cannot update your username on your account; to do this, you will need to contact the subscriptions team via the contact form.

Please note: If you are updating your email, you will also need to update your email for our weekly newsletter separately. You can do that by following the ‘update subscription preferences’ at the bottom of every newsletter email. Or you can email us and we can do that for you.

Is the subscription payment monthly or annually? 

Our subscription price is annual only; if you see anything that implies the payment is monthly, this is incorrect. 

The price of an annual subscription works out at £3.90 a month or 76p a week.

I am interested in an institutional subscription. Where can I find more information? 

You can find out more about our institutional subscription offer on our separate web page about institutional subscriptions. 

I can’t afford a subscription at the moment, but I’m interested in your work. Are there any options available?

We run a pay-it-forward scheme for those who are not able to afford a subscription at the moment. You can find out more about that on our Pay-It-Forward page.

I would like a VAT invoice for my subscription. How can I get one?

If you have recently subscribed, our VAT number is included at the bottom of your email confirmation receipt for your subscription. This also applies if you renew by card or PayPal.

If you pay by Direct Debit or still need a copy of the receipt, please email the subscriptions team at shop [at] ethicalconsumer.org, and they will be able to produce one for you.

Signing in and passwords

Can I change my Password?

Yes. Log in to the website and click on ‘My account’. Once the new page has opened, click on the 'Account details' section, and your personal information will appear below.

Once you have updated your password, click on ‘Save my details’ to update. You do not need to email us to confirm.
 

I've lost or can't remember my Password, Username or email for my account.

Please use the ‘Reset Password’ link when you click the ‘Sign in’ button at the top of any page. You will be emailed a reset password link. 

If the email does not come through, you can email us via the contact form, and we will be able to reset your password for you.

To confirm the username or email on your account, please email our subscriptions team via the contact form, and we will be able to check our records for you. 

When signing in I get the message 'Already logged in.'

This is because your account is already signed in to the site on another browser, for example on your work computer or mobile phone. Or because you've given someone else your login details. 

In order to sign in you'll need to sign out from the other device, or wait for 60 minutes when it should log out automatically.

Please note: our standard subscription is intended to be for one household. Please do not share your login beyond that, as we are a not-for-profit organisation and subscriptions help to fund our research.

Direct Debits

I want to subscribe to Ethical Consumer by Direct Debit. How can I do this?

Please fill in your details online.

Or you can download a Direct Debit form and send it to Ethical Consumer, Freepost (NWW 978A), Manchester, M15 9EP, or you can call the office on 0161 226 2929.

If you already have a subscription with us, you can renew by Direct Debit as long as you are already signed into your account.

When will my Direct Debit be taken?

Direct Debit payments are taken annually. You will be notified by letter when your first Direct Debit is due to be taken.

No notification will be sent before the second or subsequent collections. This is in the nature of Direct Debit payments, which you can find out more about on the  Direct Debit website. If you are unclear when your Direct Debit date is due, you can check with your bank or contact our subscriptions team via our contact form.

If you would like a reminder when your subscription is due to end, you can pay by any other payment method, and we will send reminders.

I want to cancel my Direct Debit. What should I do?

If you pay by Direct Debit, you can cancel via your bank, and we will receive a notification via the Direct Debit system.

You can do this at any time, and you do not need to contact us to let us know. We will send an email confirmation to confirm your intentions, but if you wish to cancel, you do not need to reply.

I've renewed my subscription by Direct Debit, but why hasn't the renewal date on my account page changed?

We take all Direct Debit subscription payments on the 18th of the month. 

Depending on when in the month you have signed up, your collection date can be either in the following month or the one after. This means there will be a gap between the start/renewal date of your subscription and the date your payment is collected. 

Once the payment has been taken from your account, the renewal date on your account page will change to the correct date. In the meantime, you will still have full access to all our online content.

I would like to change my Direct Debit details. How can I let you know?

If you are using the Direct Debit switching service, you do not need to contact us as we will receive a notification from your bank with the new details.

If you would like to do this yourself, you can change the account the Direct Debit is to be taken from for your subscription. You may either complete and return the Direct Debit form using the Freepost address detailed above, or you can scan this form and return it to us by email (shop [at] ethicalconsumer.org). The form needs to have a clear pen to paper signature.

Alternatively, you can call the office on 0161 226 2929. We are able to take the account details over the telephone.

Gift Subscriptions

I want to buy a gift subscription for a specific date, and/or I don't want it to be sent right away. What can I do?

That is not a problem. When you are purchasing a gift subscription, on the order page there is a blank box titled “Additional notes that may be of use to this order” for you to add any notes or offer codes. You can include an instruction for which date you would like the gift subscription to be sent and we will send as instructed. If you miss this box, you are welcome to contact us via this contact form.

Please avoid filling in the gift form by repeating your own contact details as this can confuse our system and will mean that the giftee won’t be able to create their own account correctly.

I have a problem activating my gift subscription. Who can I contact?

The person who purchased your subscription will have been sent an activation email with instructions on how to create your account.

If you have this email and are still having issues, you can email the subscriptions team using the contact form, and they can look into this for you. 

I've been given a gift subscription but when I created my account the website says I don't have a subscription. What has happened?

Check the email or letter that has been forwarded with your account. If the email address is different, then your gift subscription won’t link up with your account. To correct this, you can contact our subscriptions team via this contact form with the correct email address.

Please note: If you have an email address with Google, our system treats emails ending in @googlemail.com and @gmail.com as different email addresses.

I want to give someone a gift subscription but I don't have an email address. What can I do?

That is not a problem. You will need to call the office on 0161 226 2929 and we will process the payment over the phone and create a gift subscription with the relevant information. 

We will send a letter instructing them to contact us to set up their online account. Please do not put in your own email if you do not have the giftee’s email address, as it will not create the account correctly.

If I purchase a gift subscription what does the giftee get?

The giftee gets all the same benefits as a normal subscription, plus sponsorship of an organic olive sapling in Palestine, through the Palestinian Fair Trade Association. Your gift recipient will receive a certificate of sponsorship.

How can I renew a gift subscription online?

In order to renew a gift subscription you will need to log into your own account and go to purchase a new gift subscription. 

As long as you use the same email address we hold for the giftee, we will process this as a renewal at our end. 

If the giftee has changed their email address, they can log in to their account and update this in their account.
When do gift subscriptions for Christmas get sent?

We aim to send all gift subscriptions a couple of days before the final posting day before Christmas for second-class post. This is with the hope that your gift will arrive in time for Christmas.

Please note: over the Christmas period, particularly in recent years, there have been significant delays with the UK postal service and whilst we would hope that gift subscriptions arrive before Christmas, this is not always possible.

I would like to pay for a gift subscription by Direct Debit. How can I do this?

If you would like to set up a Direct Debit to pay for a gift subscription each year, please call the office on 0161 226 2929 and we can set this up for you.

Suggesting companies and brands to research

There is a brand or company I would like you to rate. Will you rate it?

If you would like us to research a specific brand or company that we have not already rated, let us know by using our contact form. That way, if we are updating a guide (for example, shoes) in future, the author of that guide will take a look at the list of suggested brands and decide whether or not to include the one you have suggested. 

Unfortunately, we often do not have research time to rate brands or companies if they are not part of a guide we are working on.

If you sign up to our email newsletter we do occasionally invite readers to vote for a brand or company they would like us to research.

Will you add my company/brand to one of your guides?

Unfortunately we are not currently accepting unsolicited additions to any of our online shopping guides. If you would like your company's policies and practices to be assessed by one of our trained researchers that is something we could do.

We would ask your company to complete a questionnaire and then assess your company's policies and practices against our ethical rating system. Your company would get a bespoke report in return which will detail all of our research, it will highlight areas where you are doing well and any areas where you are not meeting our best practice standards. This report will help guide your company towards creating better policies and practices, but would not result in your products appearing on our website.

Email screenings [at] ethicalconsumer.org for more information about this option.

We also have our Best Buy Label accreditation available for any brands that have great ethical policies. You can find out more about the scheme on our Best Buy page.

Using our shopping guides

See our quick guide for tips on how to get the most out of our shopping guides.
 

Understanding our rating system

See our rating system pages for detailed information on how our rating system works and how our research is done.
 

The score and rating looks different to the one in the printed magazine? Is there a reason for this?

Ratings can sometimes be updated in between full guide updates. Please check the website for the latest information.

Why is the product score in a guide different to the company score?

We score each company out of 100 under our new ratings system.

Although you can use the search function to find a company on our website, we recommend viewing brands within our shopping guides. We aim to fully update all companies in our guides on a 1-3 year cycle, and you can see how the company compares to others in that product sector.

How can I check if you have rated a company or not?

At the top of every web page is a search bar. If you search for the company you are looking for it will bring up all the guides, company profiles and news pages with that company mentioned. 

If there are no results, that means we haven't investigated that company recently. 

You are welcome to make suggestions for companies to include in our guides. 

How often do you update your guides?

We aim to update our guides every 2-3 years, but if there are any major updates before the guide is due to be worked on, then we do smaller updates and clearly signpost to it in the text on the guide. 

About Ethical Consumer Research Association

How are you funded?

We are funded through a variety of sources: subscriptions, ethical consultancy services, ethical advertising, screenings research, grant fundraising and donations.

How can I support Ethical Consumer?

You can help Ethical Consumer in a number of ways:

• Subscribe

By subscribing you'll be helping to fund all our research and you will also get access to all our online information.

• Become an investor member

Through their investments our members help to fund significant projects such as the development of this website, and they also receive 3% interest on any money invested. Go to the members' area for more information.

• Paying-It-Forward

You can donate to our pay-it-forward scheme, which goes towards covering the price of subscriptions for those who can’t afford it, no questions asked. We welcome any amount you can afford. Find out more about the Pay-it-Forward scheme.

• Come to our annual conference

Every year, we run a conference which is a mix of online sessions and an in-person event in London. Here we bring together ethical companies, subscribers and passionate individuals to discuss a range of topics which helps to bring some of our work into focus for the following year. Find out more about the conference.

• Sign up for our weekly newsletter

In our weekly newsletter, we run regular surveys on which companies you would like us to research, which guides we should update next, and each year, we have a readers' survey where we look for feedback from paid subscribers and non-subscribers on how we can improve. 

We also highlight the latest feature articles on our website, campaigns we are involved with, and tips on being an ethical consumer.

If you are not a magazine subscriber yet but want to receive our information, sign up to the newsletter and receive a free digital copy of the magazine. 

• Follow us on social media

You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and BlueSky. We also have a YouTube channel with videos on the latest guides, boycott news, and tips on being an ethical consumer. Sharing our posts and videos helps to spread ethical information and is an easy way to support us.
 

Do you provide speakers for events and conferences?

We are able to visit events, but we do ask for travel expenses and a fee for the organisation (to be negotiated). 

Please make any requests via our web contact form.

Can you help me with my school, college or undergraduate project?

Ethical Consumer receives many requests from students of all ages. Many of the questions can be answered by searching the site and directly quoting (and acknowledging) what we have written. Please do this before sending any questions. 

Due to the volume of requests and the size of our team, we cannot respond to all requests.

Can you help with postgraduate or academic research?

If you would like to survey our readership then we recommend the best course of action is to buy ad space on the site or in the magazine.

If you would like to question a member of the team we recommend that you fully search the site first and if you cannot find what you are looking for please get in touch via our contact form.

Who built this website?

Digital strategy, content development and marketing is by Orange Tree Digital

Visual design is by Raging Trifle.

Web hosting is from Bandicoot - business and internet solutions.

Web site build and development by Agile Collective

Weekly email newsletter

Visit the email sign up page to subscribe to our weekly email. Keep up to date with the latest articles, updated guides, campaigns, and be in with a chance to win an ethical giveaway! New email subscribers will receive a free digital issue of our magazine.

Sign up to our weekly newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time, using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every newsletter.

I’ve updated my email address on your system, but the weekly newsletter is still going to my old email.

If you have updated your email in your account, you will need to update your email for our weekly newsletter separately, because these are separate systems. 

You can do that by following the ‘update subscription preferences’ at the bottom of every newsletter email. Or you can email us and we can do that for you.

I would like to resubscribe to the weekly newsletter. How can I do this? AND I’ve resubscribed the weekly newsletter, but I’m still not getting the email.

If you would like to resubscribe to our newsletter, please use the form on our weekly newsletter page to sign up again.