014: Selecting energy plans

This episode is all about finding the best offer for your electricity and gas in those states of Australia where you choose your energy retailer.

There are more than 37 energy retailers vying for our business yet many of us never switch, even though prices have risen quite significantly in recent years.

The key considerations for comparing energy providers are:

• Dual Fuel – do you want to consolidate your electricity and gas? Even add your solar? This little convenience as you still receive separate bills and may only get an initial discount, rather than an ongoing one.
• Tariff choice – Single tariff, Block tariff, time of use/flexible tariff
• Daily Supply Charge
• Discount – is it applied on total bill or only on useage?
• Contract Length – up to five years
• Connection and Disconnection fees
• Green Energy
• Administration – Billing and online tools

The recommended steps are:

• Review your recent bills to confirm your current costs, plan details and energy usage
• Visit the relevant energy comparison siteVictoria : Energy Compare
  NSW: Energyswitch
  SA: Energy Made Easy
  National: Powering Forward
  
• Download your usage data
• Compare the providers
• Phone your current provider to ask if they can match the best deal
• Assess if you should switch
• Phone your preferred provider to confirm the plan details and then switch.

LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK

• Mia talks about outsourcing the preparation of her CV to a professional resume writing service and how much more time efficient it was

LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK

• Dinah talks about the time involved in manually moving all the direct debits to her new banking arrangement.
• Mia talks about how she had planned to start working on her digital photos but her pairing plan was foiled, once again.

POWER TOOL

• Outlook Email App – better app to manage email and calendar sharing

RESOURCES

• Government energy comparison sites:Victoria : Energy Compare
  NSW: Energyswitch
  SA: Energy Made Easy
  National: Powering Forward
  

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