There are 33+ energy providers retailers in the deregulated energy markets. What are your experiences with yours?
I’ve added a full list of energy retailers with contact details below. I’ve made this a Wiki post, so if you see something missing or in need of updating, please go ahead.
(rant) Would that more accurately be ‘There are 33+ energy billing companies selling the power generated by very few companies and transmitted by monopolies while adding multiple layers of profit atop each bill.’? Deregulation, what a joy. (/rant)
To answer, I have been a Red Energy electricity and gas customer for a decade with zero worries and they have been up front about their pricing. They have comparatively small discount percents but the final cost is on the lower side for me; they have not played insulting games with huge base prices to tout huge ‘discounts’ yielding comparatively high prices through obfuscation, As with any of them, Red sales has a database of their competition and tries to meet when they can and have been honest how close they could come. The few times I needed anything from Red they have been responsive.
Prior to Red I was with AGL and found them to be untrustworthy. They would not even honour their own written documents that they originated. As a result I would not sign with AGL again under any circumstances even though it has been a decade+.
Choice’s Transformer program is interesting but the disparity between the ‘I can save’ from Choice versus the Vic government comparator and my spreadsheet have not yielded the confidence I need that I can save more than a token amount, and the gas component remains outside Transformer. When that is added I might sign on.
We are with Origin. They don’t have the ‘log in to get the information off your smart meter’, and I don’t think they are generally up with there with other technological advances I read about, BUT we do get $0.51/Kwh for our solar feed in tariff. Not to be sneezed at!
As long as we get that, I have no incentive to move. Even if another business offered somewhat cheaper electricity, due to the lower feed in tariffs our bill would rise. So we are staying put for the time being.
If the Federal Government changes/drops all the feed in tariffs as I have heard mentioned, then it will be a different ball game. Hopefully by then there will be standardised contracts so it will be possible to make an easy comparison.
We were with AGL years ago, and had several issues with their billing, so I would be reluctant to use them again.
We’re very confident in the saving calculation that Transformer does. Our energy economist Dr. Bruce Mountain is the real deal, and our conversations with some of our most informed spreadsheet-wielding members has taught us a lot about how these things pan out in the real world.
Just one of the really tricky bits can sometimes be figuring out how the “discounts” apply. There are about a dozen different ways that energy retailers calculate the discount - on all of the bill or part of it, before or after solar feed-in or concessions, including or excluding controlled loads… sometimes they have multiple discounts calculated differently. Some are rebated, some applied to the bill, some applied in arrears over several bills; sometimes the first or the last bill with a retailer will not be discounted - etc. it’s astonishing. Our engine calculates all of this, and looks at your current bill (and deciphers which tariff you’re on - they’re often not written on the bill so we reverse-engineer it) as well as your usage to calculate the saving.
The savings can be massive - our average customer saves about $500/yr but some have saved thousands. But we do also find that something like 20% of people are already on a decent deal. If our free bill scan can’t find you a saving of well over $100/yr then I reckon it makes sense to leave well enough alone - not worth the risk or bother of trying to find the best alternative or to sign up to our $99/yr management service. We do find some people signing up anyway just for peace of mind, and I would heartily recommend that you keep sending in bills for the free savings check. The loyalty penalty is very real, and the good deal you’re on now will very likely turn into a pumpkin in 6 months to a year.
As to gas - the impost of gas bills isn’t nearly so high as electricity for most people. But it makes sense to add it in, so it’ll be next cab off the rank. We’ll keep you all posted
Can you confirm that is 51 cents /Kwh. If so then that is a fantastic rate and I don’t blame you for not switching. My daughters contract with Origin is up for renewal and they are only offering 8 cents /Kwh.
I am with Powershop and they give 10.5 cents /Kwh.
We have two properties, one is a get away - in the city! We live in a rural area.
AGL for our everyday property and Origin for the other.
The fixed daily charge is typically 30% of our bill for both. We recently managed to arrange with Origin to discount the usage charges which saves around $50 per quarter for the next year. It seems easy enough to do with an opt out window and confirmation in writing.
They were also offering a 16c feedin tarrif if we installed one of their PV systems. The purchase cost seemed a little high so it is on hold pending more research. They were easy enough to deal with by email and phone as the install would be non standard.
Our city property has reticulated gas for HW and cooking, also Origin. The daily service charge is more than the usage charge! The only gripe has been several years back a massive one off charge to upgrade the gas meter. We never asked for the change and after several calls there has never been a clear explanation. Our gas usage doubled there after?
AGL is next on the list to see what we can get. Will look at your tool.
Our rural property uses bottled gas for HW and cooking. We use a local reseller. As a comparison this is much less expensive than reticulated for our usage. So if you are going to look at gas it may be worthwhile including the relative cost of bottled gas options. Yes, they have different energy content per kg and need different nozzles in the burners. Some suppliers charge rental of $30 or more per bottle per year. Others build it into the gas price?
Unless you have a night rate electric/solar HW or solar PV system or one of those expensive and unreliable heat pump HW systems, a combination of electricity and bottled gas would appear to be the best value in our instance. It would be great if we could get a combined bill and fixed charges discount for a single bill! No luck with Origin.
p.s. the cheapest gas may be swap and go at Woolies if you don’t mind the exercise every 4-5 weeks.
Hi. Your feed-in rate is dominated by a regulated element (44 cents per kWh) that you will get even if you switched to any other retailer. Origin is offering 7 cents on top, which is not a generous rate.
Energy retailers will soon be required to give customers five days advance notice of price changes in their energy contract – which highlights just how unfair the existing contract terms in energy deals are. But will this shake up the energy retail market?
Not confident it will change the market, but it will probably change their marketing and advertising spin. Like the NBN MTM, when a bad policy is adopted it remains a bad policy and tweeking it around the edges will never fix it. The underlying problems are absolute faith in ‘the market’ and ‘all the way following the USA’ where one needs to live there for a while to understand how complicated arranging the basics can be, and once arranged managing the competition and faux competition for whatever.
It seems more often than not that governments see their citizens as nothing but profit centres for their businesses, and thus the business owners (eg ‘the money’). Usually the money is at least domestic rather than overweighted to off shore. The latter makes it ever more curious who our government really works for, and why they never see a problem with foreign political donations.
No. People will be more informed, but remain. Explanation in one word: torpor.
Just like the banks; why is it so hard to move? Because the billing structures are so complex, most people would have no idea if they would be better off somewhere else. Not many people are willing or able to come to a well considered decision about whether or not they will be better off changing. So it’s too daunting to move.
It should be easy to churn to a new bank or energy supplier. But it’s not.
is all that gets in the way yielding a roo in the headlights stance.
Once one makes the decision to change and who to it is quite simple. There are a few real comparators such as the Vic government site and similar, but iselect and comparethemarket are marketing tools not true comparison sites.
Choice Transformer subscription service is offered for those willing to put their plan in someone else’s hands. Transformer has its own category for those who may not have noticed.
@Fred123, I found the whole news release around this added no more clarity to an already confusopoly?
I don’t think it changes anything for NQ?
And with ten million plus families in the country, making just 5% of them better off looks like a token action. Great that some may be better off, but is this all about NSW and Vic and politics.
Separate to making use of the Choice Energy Transformer service, the ACCC has also made some very direct observations and recommendations on what is required to bring electricity prices down, genuinely, long term and across all national grid customers. These appear to be missing in action?
Aye you just need to look at the SUMO Power topic raised by@BrendanMays to see the trend of what seems to me to be avarice of some retailers and their “resellers”.
This should be a strong warning to all consumers to check their deals and make sure they always get the best they can. The Choice Transformer system seems a great place (https://transformer.choice.com.au/) for those who have difficulty cutting through the various offers by retailers or for those whose time is already tight and therefore miss opportunities.
EDIT The CHOICE Transformer scheme referred to above ended and they have now partnered with Bill Hero.
I have my actual electricity and gas use in spreadsheets so can accurately replicate my billing. I do not trust any comparator at face value but use the Victoria government comparison site as a guide. My spreadsheet will always be a few dollars off because of billing cycles being a day short or long from cycle to cycle and I arbitrarily split bills including peak and off-peak months by attributing the bill 50:50 to each.
This year I reconfirmed my electricity plan with Tango is still as good as it gets within $10, within my margin of error and regardless not worth any agro, but I could save a few $100s by switching from Red to Momentum Energy for gas. I’ll note I have a gas fired hydronic heating system, gas storage hot water, and a gas cooktop, so am likely a high use consumer in winter.
I got my first bill from Momentum today. Noting the plan was already 2nd lowest from the comparator, and confirmed by my spreadsheet (AGL was lowest but I WILL NOT do business with them), under the amount due was
Based on your past usage, … may cost you up to $ 334.10 (GST incl) less per year than your current plan
My spreadsheet confirmed a $200+ savings using my 12 months trailing data. I do not remember ever receiving an unsolicited cost saving offer from a previous supplier. To change I just needed to click acceptance on their website myaccount portal. Big tick to Momentum