Need to Find Electricity and Gas Company in Sydney, NSW

purplelady on 13/04/2015 - 10:32

Hi guys,

I'm moving into a new property and needs to connect my electricity and gas. I'm in Sydney. From my research, seems like AGL rate is the cheapest compared to other companies. They are offering discount of 16% for electricity and 12% off gas, same as Origin and Energy Australia.

The difference are:
Origin offer $50 off electricity and $50 off gas, the thing is, currently my electricity is with Origin, so I might only entitled to $50 off. Not $100.

AGL is linked to flybuys and gives 10k flybuys points, 500 points for direct debit and 500 points for monthly bills. And of course 1 point per $ spending. However, 10k pretty much = $50 gift card. So slightly better than Origin.

Energy Oz gives $50 off for each electricity and gas.

However, in terms of rate, AGL looks more competitive than the other 2. Energy Oz has the most exxy rate.

Any advice? Or if there is other better option?

Thank you very much :)

Home & Garden

Comments

  • pyramid on 13/04/2015 - 10:38
    +1

    I would look at actual peak,off-peak, connection charges etc before joining any utilities. The initial bonus and % discount might look tempting but real charges are the one i listed above. Hope this helps.

  • shaybisc on 13/04/2015 - 11:01

    Have you run your figures through this government comparison thingo?

    https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/

  • purplelady on 13/04/2015 - 11:11

    @shaybisc: yeah I did, origin comes on top. That's what makes me wonder, from memory people have been saying Origin is expensive :/ is that site up to date?

  • shaybisc on 13/04/2015 - 11:19
    +1

    I only know my experience. I ran it: Red came out on top: my bills have dropped heaps. AGL was my previous provider.

    But I don't live in Sydney.

    Actually now that I think about about, I did use it for a friend last time I was in Sydney, expecting to find a much better deal for her than AGL but for her AGL was nearly the best, so not worth switching.

    The details on the govt site matched the individual energy company sites when I checked so it was accurate and up to date as far as I could tell.

  • battler on 13/04/2015 - 11:56
    +2

    i was with AGL on an older plan and was being ripped off, called them and asked for better - they basically told me I had to transfer out to get a better rate.
    so I chose Energy Aust based on their February offer of 16-odd percent.
    then AGL get back in touch with me and offer 26% discount!
    i was anti-AGL by this stage, but the OzBargainer in me couldn't pass up the discount offered, so now I'm back with AGL, 30% better off than I previously was.

    • forumninja on 13/04/2015 - 20:01

      Nice. I am up for contract renewal, and they are trying to rip me off only offering at 20% discount for electricity. I called up and they can't offer me any better, so it seems like I will have to switch out for them to realise they can't rip me off.

    • Jase1 on 24/04/2015 - 23:01

      You did well! I am with them now, on 15% Elec and 12% Gas, rang up this week asked and told that's the best they can do at this stage, even letting them know that I want to cancel to someone else for a better deal for me.. Nothing they can do supposedly…

  • purplelady on 13/04/2015 - 12:05

    since we are moving to a new address, how do I know whether the new address uses peak/off peak or single rate?

    • pyramid on 13/04/2015 - 15:16
      +1

      You can call provider , tell them your address and they will tell you if they serve at your address and other on-off peak details.

      • purplelady on 13/04/2015 - 15:44

        oh I see. Thanks!

  • purplelady on 13/04/2015 - 12:06

    @battler are you in Sydney?

  • Holysmoke on 13/04/2015 - 21:58

    Check Powershop.

  • tebbybabes on 13/04/2015 - 22:21

    TL;DR - Red was cheapest for me, but Energy Australia went quite beyond their published discount offers to match it and I stayed with them.

    I'm with Shaybisc. I did the numbers and Red came out on top. I used the previous bills kwH and made sure I sorted out peak and off-peak and off-peak 2 and then computed them based on the rates they were willing to give me, factored in the discount to usage and/or total bill. Take note the generation charges can be up to half of your total and if the discount doesn't apply then the large discount to usage doesn't really amount to a lot.

    Anyway, like I said, Red came out on top. I called Red and asked if the rates that I got from their website were the right ones and if he could do any better and he confirmed that I did get the right rates. I then told him I'd think about it as I still needed to know what I needed to break off from my current provider.

    At that point, I called Energy Australia asking them the procedure for moving to a different provider. When asked why I was inquiring, I told them that Red was offering a much better rate. Anyway, I got the instructions for moving and I told them I'd call back then to finalise it when I had made my decision.

    Somehow I managed to put aside actually working on the power provider for a few days and I get contacted by Energy Australia retentions department. Apparently, Red had put in a provisional request to move me to their system. The retentions department was sorry to see me go and wanted to know if there was anything they could to keep me as a customer. I told them that I actually hadn't decided anything yet at that point and that I was surprised at Red going through on their end as I had never given my firm go ahead at that point. Anyway, after explaining the better value that Red was offering, EA counter-offered with 18% off usage! I ran the numbers again and EA and Red were close enough within cents that I ended up sticking with Energy Australia just so that my billing wouldn't get changed. I was quite happy with theirs and I had heard some stories of Red's billing getting out of whack and taking ages to fix. (Although when I was researching, I pretty much heard this complaint from every provider I was researching)

    So far, been with Energy Australia for going on 6 years now through various properties, been reasonably satisfied with them, but only did the discount shopping last year.

    • purplelady on 20/04/2015 - 10:30
      +1

      Oh cool. I ended up going with AGL, but I will do all those checks next time I'm thinking to move on. Thanks tebbybabes :)

      • tebbybabes on 23/04/2015 - 05:57

        No worries at all. :)

    • richlamb on 23/04/2015 - 10:19
      +1

      Watch out RED Energy are not as nice as they like to suggest. The problems will be when you decide to switch.

      First they will threaten you with removal of discounts from other supplies you may have with them; even so called pay-on-time discounts

      Then you will get an early termination fee - no matter how long you've been with them. Why? Because they claim to renew your contract every 2 years - it's apparently in the fine print somewhere.

  • esim on 23/04/2015 - 12:34

    Hi guys, I'm in the same boat - moving to a new property and in the mkt for a gas and electricity supplier (sydney)

    Can anyone be my referrer for Red Energy, as I have checked the offers and found them on top for electricity.

    Not decided yet on gas.

    Advice is most welcome.

  • draistlin on 12/05/2015 - 15:51

    Called AGL and found out that I'm on a peak plan. If I want to change to a off-peak/peak plan i'll have to change to time of day metering. Does anyone know if I am better off switching to time of day metering? Doesn't costs too much ($13) but can take up to 20 business days.

    • samehada on 23/07/2015 - 23:26

      You are in VIC and I don't understand these companies, why do you even have to pay $13, Powershop is the way to go, all free. PM me if you want to ask anything.

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