For those of you that recall Transformer, we identified another similarly structured business called Bill Hero for CHOICE.
We liked the Transformer service and regret not being able to continue with it, but it did inspire Bill Hero to start up and start asking us questions.
Bill Hero for CHOICE was started out of Grouply, an energy affiliate site. We much prefer their Bill Hero for CHOICE function which has been spun into its own business.
It costs $99 upfront, they check your latest uploaded bill, and then switch you if they can get $100 or over in savings for you. It’s a subscription basis, so that’s $99 recurring each year.
They check each bill you receive to see if they can switch you again, based on a threshhold you choose.
The difference between Transformer and Bill Hero for CHOICE is there is much more automation, and they put a hold on your credit card upfront, and release it if they cannot find the $ required.
We’ve also developed the launch page from our site so that it essentially splits into two - pay someone to switch you, or DIY (with all the links therein). The CHOICE version launched in late January 2020. We do get money for people who convert off this service.
Feel free to comment back on what you think of it’s layout.
Does anyone use this electricity and gas price finding service recommended by Choice - what has been your experience .
Also - how do you send them bills to assess?
Thank you
I have moved your post into the existing topic on Bill Hero. I am not a user of the service so I can’t offer any answers to your questions I am however sure you will get some feedback on your questions from others here in the Community.
Again Welcome and I hope your membership here will be helpful to you.
I agree with your sentiment @Oldfield, I generally prefer to do things myself where possible and the Energy Made Easy site will allow you to perform a comparison. However, there is an advantage unique to Bill Hero and that is it will automatically review your bill and switch you to the best deal on an ongoing basis.
Also some updated pricing:
$49 annual subscription / Electricity AND Gas - $79 annual subscription
$100 savings guarantee for either electricity or gas / $150 for both combined
I joined Bill Hero last week. Paid $49. I forwarded my recent bill which clearly noted I have solar. I immediately received two switch options, estimated savings, a) $2364.62 and b) $293.83.
When I investigated option a) it was apparent that I needed a battery.
When I queried this with Bill Hero I received the following reply…
"We’re aware of an issue with … where they offer a high FiT which can make them appear at top of results, however their and are available only for households with batteries.
We know this can mean non-batyery homes hey a confusing results and we’re working to improve that "
Bill Hero? more like Bill Con. I am surprised Choice have partnered with them. I requested an immediate refund which was processed. I would never refer them or use them, safer and easier to do own research.
After joining up, it took two weeks to get a response telling me I was going to save $1200+. This was interesting as I only pay $200 per quarter and yes you had to have a battery. The next best offer was $1000+ saving apparently. My calculation was about $200 pa saving. I have actioned that.
I was tempted to cancel on the spot and request my money back but thought I should give them a chance to see what they can do during the next 11.5 months.
I have now found an even better plan myself and have asked Bill Hero for my money back about ten days ago. They have not been able to deliver on their promise. Nothing heard back yet!!
I would recommend people give Bill Con a big miss and spend five minutes on the federal government Energy Made Easy web site.
Choice is again touting its relationship with Bill Hero, and giving equally limited information on other comparison services in each state.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who wants to use only green electricity, but neither Choice nor the two comparison services I looked at (Bill Hero and the govt one) tell you up front anything about which suppliers give you the green option. I’m willing to bet that, at last, green electricity is now cheaper than electricity from coal, but in any case, I have been willing in the past to pay a bit more not to pollute the planet.
I’m very disappointed that Choice gives no advice whatsoever on how to choose the best/cheapest GREEN electricity supplier. So I’ll just stick with Diamond Energy.
Hi Matt, Yes after a follow up they did. There was a very long conversation (me listening mainly) but they never refused a refund.
Interestingly their model only considers your previous quarter’s billing and this obviously varies during the seasons. For example my PV average output can vary seasonally between say 40 and 20 kWH per day. Consumption patterns also obviously vary seasonally.
My advice to people is to use the Federal Energy Made Easy system every year to find the optimal retailer to churn to, and then wait for your old retailer’s retention team to ring you up with a better offer.
It is sad that loyal customers are the worst treated!!!
I followed the topic in ‘switch and save on energy bills’ in the Choice Insider 15 April 21 . It’s possible one of the recommended resources does not provide the best outcome.
The topic points for the eastern states to the Govt ‘Energy Made Easy’ web resource. Having renegotiated two contracts recently it made an interesting comparison.
I found talking to each retailer and manually calculating the estimated bill as the most reliable solution.
As a concise test I entered the meter number for the service I recently changed plans on to a slightly better plan. Using the last years meter data Energy Made Easy returned the following,
Best: Qld Simply Blue 20% off $ -60 total annual cost, in credit
AGL best: $ 80 total annual cost
Origin best: $ 160 total annual cost
People Energy best: $520 total annual cost!!!
Note: Our actual bills for the previous 12 months accumulated a credit of $126, with Origin the retailer. The new plan may accrue a credit of $ 30 pm or approx $360 for the year. It’s a significant difference.
Note:
There were several ToU plans returned by Energy Made Easy. There was no indication of if or how the usage required for the estimate was assigned to Peak/Shoulder/off-Peak rates. The metering data though exists in 30 minute increments.
I could not identify any plans which have an added Demand charge although they appear to exist with several retailers. One example has a base consumption tariff of just 12 c/kWh. The added peak demand charge was based on approx 27 c/kWh.
It reminded me of the old Philips CRT TV ad in which one person says that his new TV is so advanced, he gets next week’s Lotto resuts so he had been really cleaning up lately.
I did my own analysis to determine the best for me energy supplier (gas and electricity) in Canberra. I did it using a spreadsheet and with the electricity and gas usage from one account compared how much it would cost for a selection of providers. The results of my analysis was that my best choice was Origin, despite Energy Australia having lower rates for electricity and gas. Origin was chosen because the solar rebate was larger, so it was not a matter of cost, but rebate!
I did try to use the Government energy provider website to confirm my analysis, but the results did not look right. I believe it used total power useage for electricity with no consideration for time-of-use or Solar Rebates.
I have a background in the electricity industry, so I understand what all the parameters are, plus I have good skills in using spreadsheets. the majority of people trying to work out the best provider will not be able to do this, so it is unfortunate that the Government energy comparison website may not be giving good results because it does not fine tune the analysis.
I cannot comment on ‘Bill Hero’ as I did not use that service.
My husband and I were just discussing this issue. We are in Queensland. The energy lobbyists here have waged war on the solar industry, making pricing less dependable and less of an incentive to install solar panels. This is in contravention of Government subsidising solar panels.
Choice: I wanted to start a thread discussing what Origin is already doing to change the game and what pushback should be happening from consumers. I could not find anything so far. Please help. Thank you.
. It’s possible one of the recommended resources does not provide the best outcome.
