Hey Ozbargain; I'm moving into a modest house soon and would like to know which utility companies provide excellent value and dont have hidden/ extra fees.
I'm going to be a first time renter and would like to get off to a safe start.
Gas, water, internet and electrical are all required.
So who do you use or recommend?
Thanks!
Energy Australia saved me $100 a quarter just by switching and give a sizable discount for paying on time. Origin gave me nothing but trouble and I had to get my meter read to prove they were overcharging me. If you have gas too - AGL offers discounts for combining electricity and gas on one account. TPG gives he best deal on internet, but if it is not in your area, Optus should give you a good deal. Water bills get included in rent a lot - however the water bill turns up, you just pay it, whatever they say, it is super dodgy.
however the water bill turns up, you just pay it, whatever they say, it is super dodgy.
How so? Aren't water meters mechanical devices? By comparing the meter readings on your bill to your actual meter you could easily fix up issues related to overcharging if they arise. Water bills are indeed expensive but how are they super dodgy?
the dodgy part is they charge what they want, no competition, no choice. Also I live in an apartment, I dont have a seperate water meter so I pay a split, but I am frugal and environmentally conscious, so i pay well more than my share.
which utility companies provide excellent value and dont have hidden/ extra fees.
Such things do not exist. Since privatisation every utility (that I'm aware of) is looking to extract as much of your money as they possibly can and they do this by legal deception and manipulation. Also the price you receive depends on area and is not consistent across providers so the question isn't valid in any case.
Unfortunately it is a fools errand trying to find a "nice" provider because every one of them is only interested in taking as much of your money as possible and (make no mistake) deceiving you into paying more than you believe you will.
Unfortunately the only way "around" this is to calculate what things will actually cost you by reading the bill and working it out on paper, a process that retailers try to make as difficult as possible naturally, but it can be done.
The process takes so much time that various price comparison sites have sprung up that purport to deliver you the cheapest price in order to save you time. Do you actually think a service that gets paid to deliver customer leads is going to give you the best deal when another provider pays more commission - millions of Australians do so obviously we are a nation of bubble heads. Don't be a fool, work out the cost yourself.
Now that you have the best price you start playing hardball: call up the second cheapest retailer and ask for a quote to beat the first supplier's price. Treat the sales person for what they are, the enemy. Go to the third supplier if they refuse, repeat at least once if possible.
All utilities continually attempt to charge existing customers more money via additional fees and charges: every time they send a letter informing you of any diminished value like fees for paper bills or pprocessing fee for turning on a light either change or call them and threaten to leave if they don't exempt you.
Every year round June the retailers increase prices: the time to change is March: DON'T make the mistake of leaving it because you will regret it. Big time.
Unfortunately all of his has to be done on the phone and no company wants you on them phone because then you can like (gasp) negotiate so be prepared to wait hours as you do this and you will be repeatedly lied to and headed off: its important to be firm and keep insisting on what you wantmeven in the face of outright refusals.
You see you are in theory allowed to play off each retailer against all the others (privatisation was meant to deliver low prices to competition) but they will do everything legally possible to prevent you doing it: be firm and just keep repeating yourself.
Thanks to our elected leaders this is the situation in Australia: retailers are allowed to deceive and manipulate customers meaning customers made forced into either spending hours chasing and calculating scenarios or being swindled by the retailer and various parasite services that claim to have done all the calculations for you while being biased because of commissions.
Australian's pay more for electricity than any other country and it is our leaders fault. I am old enough to remember when duh gummints owned the electricity grid and generation and retailer - it was a profitable concern in SA and prices were much lower.
Powershop
Water:
Well, chances are you wouldn't have much of a say in that, because Melbourne is divided up into numerous water supply areas, with only one water business servicing one water supply area. You won't be able to change that, and that wholly depends on the suburb of your residence.
Gas and electricity:
There are plenty of retailers vying for your business, but once again the retailers you may select will depend on the distributor of electricity and gas at your premises.
To clarify, the distributor is the party responsible for the tangible infrastructure in your area, such as meters, pipes, poles and wires. The retailer is the party that issues you bills, and purchases the energy that you consume and provides this to you using the distributor's infrastructure. You will only be paying and dealing with the retailer and hardly (if ever) with the distributor.
So, you might think that one retailer is cheap in one part of Melbourne, but don't be surprised if you see the same retailer offering different rates in another part of Melbourne.
In short, don't be fooled by xx% off and pay on time discount gimmicks. The same goes with complimentary gift cards, freebies, etc. Always compare gas and electricity providers by their daily service charges and their per kWh/MJ rates. My personal tip would be Momentum Energy for both.
Internet:
Here, you might not be paying different amounts across Melbourne, but the deciding factors would be 1) how far you will be living from your nearest exchanges, 2) how congested your local network is, 3) the type of connection that your premises is fitted with, and 4) your personal budget and requirements.
Despite the recent outages on Failstra's network, it is generally seen that out of the two possible Internet options available (Optus and Telstra exchanges) that Internet services operating on the Telstra fixed line network are faster than services on the Optus network. However, services utilising Telstra infrastructure will cost more than services using Optus infrastructure.