I currently have a deal where I get 10 cents per KWH for my solar feed in, 33c per KWH of power I use, 17% discount for paying on time and a pension discount. My discount is applied after all other discounts etc have been applied. If you can get better I would most definitely be interested.
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This article could be of interest:
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Through the Fiftyup Club with Click Energy. Just got my bill the rate per kwh $0.27, so this is better
I think that with a service like that, the pricing should be 100% performance based whereby people get charged based on the actual savings generated.
This is what we do with our Concierge Service.
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@mmelnika - there are lots of factors to consider when comparing deals and these change from day to day. Typically the business model of retailers is to snare customers with a good deal then erode that over time. It is generally in a consumer’s interest to change plans fairly regularly and this is the model for Powerup - to act as a concierge service for consumers that continually monitors the market and automatically switch people to a new plan when there are substantial savings.
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Thanks @blowfly6953 – these are very interesting points. And no-one in here should be worried about the feelings of the Powerup team here at CHOICE – on the contrary we find all of this feedback immensely valuable.
The service is very much in an experimental mode at the moment – everything is still up for evaluation. Your responses here, and the experiences of those in the trial, will help us design the next stage.
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From the AGL Thread -
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I have just signed up with ClickEnergy for both gas and electricity via the OneBigSwitch initiative. Origin Energy, my current provider (pun intended) of both services phoned me up to day offering 25% discount on electricity usage and 20% on gas. It works out cheaper than Click, but I’m not inclined to go back to a supplier that treats ints customers with such contempt.
The moral of this - before you do switch providers, call your existing supplier and see what’s the best deal they can offer.
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That is always a good place to start, and could be a good place to end for simplicity. Last time I rang my supplier they were up front they could not match a competitor’s particular program but could come close. Since I never had a billing or customer service issue with them and their plans are straight forward and simple with no tricky useage maths, that comfort is worth the relatively small difference per annum (as computed by my spreadsheet based on my actual use) of moving on.
Companies working on “price matching”, whether by guarantee or by customer retention policies do not impress me. “We” often do a lot of footwork to find the best deals so going back for a match is a disservice to those companies trying to get our business by sharp pricing, and the lazy company continues to profit.
Since changing suppliers is a phone call or internet form why not reward the company that seeks business? When the high priced company gets enough churn they may be back with a better cost profile next year or the year after, when it suits their business needs.
The Choice concierge service appears to take our emotions and inertia out of the equation and replace them with hard business. It might not be something everyone is comfortable with, but I applaud it and await reports in how it works in practice.
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That may be the case, but if you find me a better deal for electricity, then I will have to change my gas as well, as it is combined ATM, so unless I can find another firm that will match my current gas charges, it may end up not being a good deal after all.
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That may be, but I happen to like to cook with gas. 
Well, I would love to cook with induction, but that is waay out of my budget (especially as I would have to replace most of my saucepans as well)
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You can buy induction hobs that come with a free induction compatible saucepan for about $100 these days 
I’ve seen plates that go in between your non-induction saucepans and the cooktop listed for sale in the US, which saves having to replace your cookware, but have not seen them for sale here yet.
Also, dont believe everything you read about what will and wont work- I’ve been successfully using my old curved steel wok on induction hobs several times per week for quite a few years now.
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I can believe that a wok would work, being steel. (although not sure if you’d get enough heat into it, as it would only heat its bottom) I have a small, single induction hob, and I know that a lot of my pans will not. The cost of changing to induction is not just the pans - I looked at it a few years back, when I remodelled my kitchen. The cost of an induction cooktop is more than double of a gas one, plus you need an electrician, as you need to a separate circuit (Phase3) so, I concluded that I simply couldn’t afford it, hence stuck with good old, reliable, gas:smile:
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Well this is timely for those of us looking to find a better deal. The ACCC’s report is expected September this year.
An inquiry into retail electricity pricing will “immediately commence” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) at the direction of the federal government.
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The fun continues. I received an offer via Velocity for a plan having 30% discount on electricity (forgetting gas for the moment) against my present plan with only 12% discount.
Both are “anytime” with direct debit post paid and are directly comparable. I keep a spreadsheet of actual monthly usage.
My current plan with the miserly 12% discount comes in at a whopping $2,262 (computed for 6 billing cycles) I am struggling to stick with that 12% when I can get that huge 30% discount! But wait there is more. It comes with Velocity points! That 30% discount plan computes to $3,094 (for the same 6 billing cycles) at my actual usage. <-previous typo corrected
I struggle to understand how some consumers can be so gullible as to buy discount levels rather than net costs, but apparently they are since so many companies are into that.
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What exactly is discounted… to end up with a 63% increase in costs?!
Is the rate per kWh 30% lower, but there are huge fixed costs, or fees for the points, or something else?
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The 12% is on use and service; the 30% is only on use. The base and service costs from the 30% are nominally higher and the usage split between first and second tier puts more of the use into their higher charging tier.
Pardon my typo. My old eyes missed it. I corrected it. It is only a 37% premium.
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Powerup calculates the whole shebang - exit fees, bundle discounts, solar tariffs. We’ve found that surprisingly often the bundle discount is outweighed by overcharging.
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