The regulated offer (the VDO in Victoria and the DMO in other East Coast States) is no longer the ‘ceiling price’ for energy – in some places it’s now better than some market offers. A recent media release by the ACCC has revealed that many Australians are paying more for household electricity than they need, because their recently increased rates are now higher than the standing offer (regulated) price. According to the ACCC, about 10% of customers are finding themselves on market offers that are more expensive than the regulated price.
As we have been saying for a while, loyalty to your retailer does not always pay. Many of the best deals currently available are only open for new customers, meaning that if you are prepared to switch, you can do better than if you stayed with your current retailer. In some cases, this can amount to savings of hundreds of dollars a year.
Some simple steps to take …
The simplest action to take is to contact your current energy retailer and ask if they have a better deal for you – including comparing your current plan to the regulated standing offer as well as other market offers. Everyone has the right to ask for the standing offer or regulated price.
Failing that, jump onto a comparison site to do the hard yards for you – make sure it’s one that compares ALL energy retailers for you, like Joulius.
Using Joulius, you can get a ranking of all market offers and standing offers in your area with just your postcode, and if you have a copy of your bill (e-bill) then Joulius can do a personalised analysis of your current rates and usage against all other publicly available plans of the same tariff type, usually in under a minute. Apples for apples. For free.
Good practices to avoid overpaying …
Doing a quick check by calling your current retailer – or better still by using Joulius to do the heavy lifting to compare plans for you is a good practice to adopt. You may just get the peace of mind from knowing you are not over-paying. Or you may benefit from being able to save money on your electricity usage by asking for a better deal from your current retailer or from switching to take advantage of a more competitive deal from another energy retailer.
You never need to overpay for the energy you use again with Joulius. Get started here – it will take you less than 5 minutes and it’s completely free to use.
