Electricity Prices Melbourne

GOFYS on 14/01/2018 - 09:19

I moved house over xmas, and got up to 60% increase on previous electricity prices. So i went looking at alternatives, and found they are all in lock step.
They want to know if you have anyone on life support in the house. So they can turn off your electricity in a heartbeat?
They offer early payment discounts,up to 18%. This is a blatant, and possibly unlawful, ripoff, if legal history about settlement discount applies.
They want $1.50 a day, even if your only use is an electric toothbrush.

Big Switch is a pig in a tutu.

So I came to Ozbargain for deals…..chirp….chirp.

Forum topics get little response. But I can't believe the body of Ozbargainers can't offer something substantial.

Please help

Home & Garden

Comments

  • poboy on 14/01/2018 - 09:31
    +2

    This is the Gov comparison website:
    https://compare.switchon.vic.gov.au

    Find the best deal, see if your retailer can beat it.

  • Dave Id on 14/01/2018 - 09:37
    +1

    Been very happy with PacificHydro since switching from PowerShop.

    • DirtyMunchy on 14/01/2018 - 11:07

      I’m considering the same thing. Have your bills lowered? By how much? Is the app as good? thanks.

      • cloudy on 14/01/2018 - 12:02
        +1

        There is no app from what I can tell. But the prices I signed up for are cheap

        • stratbargain on 14/01/2018 - 12:28
          +1

          Yep I've been very happy with Pacific Hydro too. No bulls*it "discounts" just a great rate. No CC fees etc.

          No App, but I believe most (if not all) electric distributors have an option on their website to view usage and download usage reports.

        • cloudy on 14/01/2018 - 13:18

          @stratbargain:

          Yea, think ur right. My distributor website one sucks bad though. But agree on everything u said about PH.

      • Dave Id on 14/01/2018 - 20:43

        No app that I'm aware of.No mobile 'phone.
        Simply read my own meter,if required.

        My prices,excluding GST ……

        peak 16.5c

        off peak 9.9c

        service 85c per day

        Bit of paperwork to join up,however worth it :)

        Might be a smidge above PowerShop. Negligible.

        No fuss bills sent monthly in my case,usual is prolly 3 monthly. About three weeks before payment is due.

        No increase until next year. None last year :)

        PS. Was being ripped off by PowerShop and they knew it.
        Contacted Ombudsperson after transferring. Got a few hundred back :)

        • cloudy on 15/01/2018 - 12:35

          What are off peak hours.

        • Dave Id on 15/01/2018 - 13:43

          @cloudy:

          Hot Water Service mainly.Late at night and during the morning.
          Also other appliances like some heat banks.

  • Diji1 on 14/01/2018 - 10:15

    And if you vote Liberal or Labour they'll continue to (profanity) you to make billionaires richer because the billionaires pay them to.

    Are you going to act like your brain dead and vote for Liberal or Labour still?

    Most of Australia acts brain dead when it comes to vote - are you?

    The brain dead Australian population voted a party back into power after they committed war crimes by invading Iraq though so I'm expecting you to vote the people that created the situation where you get raped for electricity so rich people get richer at your expense.

    But who knows, maybe you aren't braindead or maybe you'll wake the f p.

    • Baysew on 14/01/2018 - 10:47

      Seeing you are not brain dead like the rest of Australia, tell us oh wise one, who should we vote for?

      • Third_Gear on 14/01/2018 - 17:06
        +1

        Vote Diji1? I would love to hear a campaign speech referring to the Australian population as brain dead. Got my vote!!!

    • dasher86 on 14/01/2018 - 10:50
      +1

      So we vote for the independents and the minors so they can use sell our votes to the two big ones (whom we cannot choose at this stage) for favours.

    • GOFYS on 21/01/2018 - 06:48

      Are you talkin' to me? Braindead is believing you can turn respectable political views into tinfoil hat theories, and expect support.
      For the record, I live in a safe seat and devote my vote to the opposition party until it counts.
      Also for the record,the clowns that win these safe seats are parachuted into them by faceless people. They have no debt to the voters, only to their sponsors. but the voters are believers.
      Finally, lots of voters believe that paying lots of money to governments so they can give it to lots of other people, will reduce the temperature.

      Understand this, when you have converted your first Moslem into a Christian, or the opposite, depending on your own persuasion, only then try oonverting anyone's political/climate persuasion.

      By the way, the use of the term "rich people" is very politically indicative.

  • jsb on 14/01/2018 - 10:23
    +1

    When I was comparing, I found simply energy to be cheapest after their pay on time discount if you want both electricity and gas. For only electricity, consider pacific hydro

  • MathNerd on 14/01/2018 - 11:41
    +8

    OP, I understand your plight.
    Over the last 3 or 4 months, I've changed:
    Red Energy -> Powershop -> Pacific Hydro -> GloBird

    The thing is, your question has a lot of variables. What I'm saying, is that the best power plan for you depends on the following non-exhaustive list:

    • Your suburb (which determines your distributor [there are 5])

    • Your typical average daily usage (0-5kWh, 5-10kWh, 10-15kWh, 15+kWh)

    • Your type of meter (Peak/Off-Peak, Single Rate, Peak with Controlled Load, etc)

    • Whether your average bill is mostly comprised of usage charges or supply charges (if you use very little electricity at home due to being at work the whole day, chances are your electricity bill is comprised of more supply charges than usage charges)

    For these reasons above, I'd recommend you check out https://compare.switchon.vic.gov.au/ as Dozingquinn mentioned above.

    Of course there are other considerations, such as pay-on-time discounts etc.

    Personally, I love using my AmEx so I look for billers that bill via PostBillPay (so I can use PayPal with my linked AmEx). Of course some billers even put a charge on PostBillPay. Furthermore, there are some retailers that accept AmEx directly, fee-free. I only know two so far, GloBird and Powershop. After some careful mathematical analysis, GloBird came out in front of Powershop slightly. They also happened to have the cheapest rates, for me, the last I checked. I even have them as Local Champion, so I get 3 AmEx Membership Rewards Ascent points per dollar paid on my electricity bill.

    Red Energy, well that was just a sham, way too high rates. Pacific Hydro, while cheap, only accepted Visa/MasterCard. I tried circumventing this by going to the Post Office with my bill, but they had some code there where they told the Post Office terminal to not accept AmEx. Yes they were cheap but this was an important consideration. Fortunately, in the end, GloBird came out cheapest, accepted my AmEx fee-free and also got me the opportunity to earn more points!

    You may have a lot of requirements too, so go to SwitchOn, compare and good luck!

    • [Deactivated] on 14/01/2018 - 11:48
      +3

      +100

    • cloudy on 14/01/2018 - 13:27
      +1

      Wow, I’m surprised globird gives you a better outcome than PH.
      PH gives my daily charges around 15% less and usage prices 25% less than globird, assuming I remember to access all glos discounts. So no CC points can beat that for me.

      • MathNerd on 14/01/2018 - 13:34

        Which distributor are you with? That makes a big difference and globird came out cheaper due to that

        • cloudy on 14/01/2018 - 15:21

          Citi power. 15c per kw. GLO gave me 22.9. Incredible value.

        • MathNerd on 14/01/2018 - 16:02

          @cloudy: There you go. Citipower does bulk supply so PH can pass on their lower costs. I'm with Ausnet who are a shocker for high supply (and usage) charges. Globird managed to give the best rate given my situation.
          For Citipower, Pacific Hydro is unbeatable. Well done.

  • Baghern on 14/01/2018 - 12:06

    Have you been living under a rock… this has been the case since deregulation

    This is just following Australian business Modus Operandi of oligopoly behaviour

    If you can solve this problem you can solve every other industry… ie banks

  • chickenchipsgravy on 14/01/2018 - 12:08
    +1

    i use some mob called Globird - never had any issues and shit loads cheaper than the previous thieves, Origin.

    • MathNerd on 14/01/2018 - 13:01

      How good is Globird? Awesome mob.

      • chickenchipsgravy on 14/01/2018 - 13:09
        +1

        the bird hasn't stopped glowing, yet - i found them on the vic gov compare site… 35% direct debit discount and whatnot

        • MathNerd on 14/01/2018 - 13:18
          +1

          Spot on :) How do you pay them? Direct debit bank transfer or CC?

  • Birchy on 15/01/2018 - 11:01

    Your lucky you don't live in S.A. We have to ring Vic to get a jump start on our battery. So we pay for the first charge and then the second charge. So when the last person leaves S.A. some-one will have to blow the light out because there is not enough power to run a light bulb.

  • soan papdi on 15/01/2018 - 14:02

    When I upload the csv at switchon.vic, does it apply each retailer's rates at the right times (peak and off-peak pricing) or just calculate the average per day and estimate using that?

  • Ms Bargainer on 21/01/2018 - 07:52

    "They want to know if you have anyone on life support in the house. So they can turn off your electricity in a heartbeat?"

    This question is asked, so you can receive a discount on power, if on life support.

  • Ms Bargainer on 21/01/2018 - 07:54

    You are lucky you have a choice. Tasmania only has one electricity company.

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