The Victorian Government has announced today that from July 1, 2022, if you use the Victorian Energy Compare website to see if there are better energy deals available for you, the Government will give you $250, even if you don’t end up switching to a new provider. It’s essentially a $250 payment to every household in Victoria (with a limit of 1 payment per household) by filling out a form which takes a few minutes. (Which is why I have not marked it as a freebie).
My ReAmped usage rates are going up 81% and my supply rates up 43% so I’m switching to Lumo as it was suggested to be the best one for my needs. Compared to my current ReAmped rates I’ll only be paying an extra $140 per year and can hopefully also get $100 of gift cards if the referral stuff works. Not ideal but making the best of a bad situation. Plus the $250 from the government ain’t bad.
I'm from VIC, LUMO is showing crazy cheap prices: Peak 22.418 and off-peak: 14.465.
What's the catch? Simply Energy sucks in comparison. Gonna call Lumo on Monday to see if there is any catch.
Actually been with them for years, pricing generally quite good, others complain about their support, never been an issue to me. Never moved since prices competitive and easy to deal with…. So stuck with them over the years
Thank you, going to switch to them now.
Hey mate if you have a Lumo referral code happy to use yours - message me
I was with Lumo since 2003 and as you said, never had any issues. When I installed my Powerapl a whole ago the electrician had a look at my bill and told me I got a pretty good price. Not sure now but yes I will stick with them for sure.
Simply Energy is Engie - French company. Got a cold call couple of years ago and had terrible sales experience. I'm currently with globird which were the best couple of years ago but seems there is a push from Lumo. Keen for feedback about them.
Lumo are 100% Australian owned as well. Maybe l’ll move away from Energy Locals…
I just moved online, it was also over $0.20 cents cheaper for daily service charges as well. Simply Energy can get screwed.
Customer service from Lumo is possibly the worst I have seen.
Most companies with high call volumes offer you the option to register a callback, but not this mob. You are forced to listen to their atrocious on hold ad/music/jingle, which will get stuck in your head afterwards.
BTW - Lumo prices have gone up, not even on the first page of comparisons anymore.. :(
Service to Property (c/day) - 129.940
Anytime Step 1 (c/kWh) - 28.930
Anytime Step 2 (c/kWh) - 30.700
Grats to anyone who managed to lock it in for 12 months
WOW WHAT THE HELL, I got in before this change, but not sure if that means I secured the cheaper price or not. We'll see.
Can anyone confirm if this is limited to just one claim per physical household? That is can you claim it for a primary residence and a holiday home? I know it says per household but just wanted to clarify the above.
From when it was announced I believe if you own multiple properties you can claim once per property, assuming you pay the energy bill.
Noice. Thanks for the reply.
How long did they say it would take to process the $250 after lodgment? I clicked through way too fast!
If you are eligible for the $250 Power Saving Bonus, you will receive an additional email approving your application in 2-10 business days. If we require more information in order to approve your application, or you do not meet the eligibility requirements for the program, we will contact you by email and provide you with further information.
Thanking you!
Thank you for submitting an application for the $250 Power Saving Bonus for Victorian households.
Your application has been approved and your Bonus will be paid via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
You will receive an email once the Bonus has been paid into your nominated bank account. This email may take up to five business days from the date of payment.
Please note, the payment will show on your bank records as a deposit from DELWP ENERGY.
Did you apply 1 minute past midnight?
1 July 1:41am
Got approval email today for the 250
No approval email yet but got the amount credited to my account!!! 😊
Just checked bank account.. got mine too :)
When did you guys apply? I applied on the 2/7 and still no payment.
Applied on the 1st, still don’t have payment. Can’t remember how long they said it could take.
I’ve applied on the 2nd. Just got the email confirmation that it’s approved. Waiting for payment to come in.
It did say allow up to 10 business for payment.
Is this payment intended per household or per address? I moved in early July and still have the old place till the end of July. The main account holders are different at the two addresses as well.
My instinct tells me that this might be fine within the rules as written but possibly against the intended spirit.
Today is the 10th business day since the offer opened.
Hoping to get an email and payment soon as I submitted the claim on 1 July.
15 days and waiting…anyone else?
Just got my $250 deposited
Same
Applied 1/07, still waiting as well.
Guys I waited so long and just got approval email today. Yours should be coming soon 🙏
When did you apply?
19 days ago! Did you get approval email yet?
No email yet. I applied on the 1st too.
Edit-
Email just came through!
Thank you for submitting an application for the $250 Power Saving Bonus for Victorian households. We have identified that your application requires further review before we can confirm your eligibility.
Due to the high volume of applications we have received, please allow up to 20 business days for this review to be completed.
The next communication you receive from us will be one of the following:
If you do not receive another email from us in 20 business days, you can contact [email protected] and quote your customer reference number. Please be assured your application for the $250 Power Saving Bonus is not subject to any date restrictions and all eligible applications will be paid.
Regards,
Victorian Energy Compare
Applied on 3rd July, received above email earlier today.
Any idea what went wrong?
I live in a townhouse and live in the 'a' property, so suspect there might be an issue there.
Just imagine if they just used computers for their internet and processing. These should be approved in less than a minute.
Not 20+ days plus another possible 30 days (20 business days) for review.
They should have also paid direct to the electricity account and not to a bank account. Then very little checking required.
I lodged 1 July. Still no updates.
Email them.
I did last Friday. Still no response.
I think I emailed them 3 times cuz I waited so long.
I submitted my application on 27 July and received an email to confirm.
My application was approved on 1 Aug, again via email.
Money appeared in my bank account on 5 Aug.
Thanks. Mine is being "investigated" why it's taking this long. I'm just going to reapply today instead of waiting however much longer.
WTH. Approved after three weeks, but they are sending a cheque, in 2022, that can take up to four weeks to arrive.
I provided correct bank details, why the cheque? I know it's free taxpayer money and I will get if eventually. Bureaucracy in action.
It's been almost 2 months since I applied and all they do is email me saying they need more time to review my application.
Finally got the cheque in the snail mail. At least it arrived.
I was approved on July 14th and still no cheque, I followed up two weeks ago too as it had been over 4 weeks (also no response).
Changed from Globird to Powershop because it said I'd save $300 per year. Yesterday I get an email from Powershop saying their prices are going up and my usage will cost an extra $350/year. fml
Go with a more reputable and established retailer.
Need to look for fixed rates for the next 12 months
I applied on 1st of July and still haven't been paid. Joke of a deal.
Has anyone been able to apply for this rebate using a PDF Lumo bill ? The https://powersavingbonus3.energy.vic.gov.au/ will accept a PDF from Reamped Energy but rejects a PDF bill from Lumo.Very strange.
NVM, there is a second opportunity later in the application process where you can attach the pdf bill as supporting documentation, it looks like the first upload tries to parse the fields it requires from the bill and this is failing on the Lumo bill for some reason.
I moved from AGL to Lumo for my electricity only as it seems a bit cheaper. I selected to pay monthly. About a day or so later I got an email stating I got declined and I'm like WTF… I wanted to phone them to find out what is going on and then later in the day I got an email stating they are busy moving me from AGL lol. AGL has closed my account and it has been over a month with Lumo but I haven't gotten anything. Hoping they kind of didn't list me on their accounts and I'm on free power hahaha.. Anyone else having issues getting billing details from them?
Looks like DELWP(Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) is in charge of processing this application and they are doing such a terrible job, it's just mind boggling.. so many people still waiting for this super simple straight forward application to be processed despite waiting well over 2 months..
DELWP's excuse = doh, we thought only 2-3 people would apply.. so wait another 20 days.. when it was suppose to get processed within 10 days. The worst part is that they'll just keep telling you to wait another 20 days over and over even tho we've been waiting for nearly 3 months now.
I finally got a cheque in the mail on September 15. I lodged 1 July. Hope everyone mostly fared better than me.
![[VIC] Get $250 Payment When You Compare Energy Provider Offers @ Victorian Energy Compare (1 Per Household)](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/58/697758.jpg?h=ec12462e)
@melbourne guy: Just got my cheque a couple of days ago. It's been a while since I've received a cheque, I am not even sure if I go to my own bank (NAB) or the bank of the cheque (Westpac) to clear it.