Found this online today whilst comparing electricity plans. Called up Origin and they were able to change my existing plan to this one.
Ask for the Bill Saver Plus Plan which gives you 21% off both usage and supply.
Should make it cheaper than Alinta's 25% off usage.
9/1: You may need to use Edge browser if the form doesn't submit (thanks kamoi).
Referrer and referee get $10 of Spike Points
Does that mean after 12 months it goes back to normal?
It means you lose the 21% discount after 12 months. However, being the savvy consumer you are (you're on OzBargain, after all), you'd negotiate or move to a different energy retailer to secure a better deal in 12 months' time.
Was told over the phone I'd have to renew the offer after 12 months to get the same deal, assuming they are still offering the 21% off in 12 months time.
Goes to show you how much we are being ripped off for electricity in this country, when they can suddenly offer 20-25% off and probably still make a crapload of profit..
a recen Linus tech talk video shows in the USA they pay $0.10 per KW/h
I noticed that too….but Linus lives and works in Canada, not the US.
ok thanks for clarifying that.. but in that case it's even more important to note that it is $0.10 - which is about on parity with out $0.10 - and Canada has about double out population in a similar sized country - or at least as SPARSELY populated over area as our country. So now to look into Canada's main power production methods out of curiosity.
Lots of nuclear with a good chunk of hydroelectric. Hell Ontario shut down 100% of its coal generators. I wish Australia could get into the same action, or even skip the whole uranium fuel cycle and go right into MSR thorium reactors. If we changed the laws to allow a proof of concept reactor over here experts from around the world would fall over each other to come here.
Instead we keep spinning our wheels on this coal/renewables merry go round.
it's a failed democracy here
nothing works
same goes to the messed up nbn
we need direct democracy, so those pollies won't get the chance to shaft asses around
@phunkydude: Too right, the govmt is a sham.
If the people cared we'd have got together and used the Internet to form a proper guvnet.
Instead we pay for a circus that does nothing other than pass rules to benefit those with the deepest pockets and the most leverage over public sentiment.
All part of Zuck's plan, no doubt, to prevent this and control the Internets too, when everyone else's efforts to do this on the public purse fails.
@mitt: If it were scientists only, this would be ok. Nuclear is 100% safe now- excepting the waste.
The trouble with allowing people to use and handle the material is that we have a pretty bad and recent history of building stuff that blows up causing catastrophic damage.
Even though it can be done now, the waste is still a problem (as are Carbon gases) we really can't trust our guvment to get involved. And of course, if they do, it'll take 20 years of electioneering and then three versions to get right, as is the nbn. And the cost of that cannot be borne by the next generation who will be living under long dark clouds.
Tell that to the good folk of Fukushima and Chernobyl.
Unfortunately when humans are part of the process nothing is 100% safe….and that waste, glad you said "excepting".
……….and no, I'm not a no-nuclear-nut, no more comments as nuclear is not the subject here.
I am Canadian and I can answer that.
The First reason why power in Canada is generally cheaper KWh wise is:
The vast majority of Western Canada's electrical supply is renewable (Hydro electric)
Eastern Canada has Nuclear and Hydro.
Taking BC for example (where Linus Tech Tips operates out of) 95% of the power generated in BC is Hydro electric and the rest is through natural gas thermal power plants.
Second reason is:
Most of Canada has not privatised the electricity supply. All run and supplied by crown corporations.
But even with cheaper electricity, power bills tend to be even lower than the KWh suggests due to how energy efficient homes are built in Canada.
@Daemos: thanks to all for comments and especially I can relate to Daemos - I'm from Tasmania where power generation was ALL hydro based but then it was decided to partially privatise and surprise surprise, not enough was spent to maintain the dams and generators and they fell into disrepair - eventually a cable was laid to the mainland so Tassie could then purchase power from the coal fired generators in Victoria.
I don't think I have enough swear words to convey how I feel towards the so called government at the time who privatised the Hydro Electric Commission back in the 80s/90s (which is when I moved over to the mainland).
FWIW the rates where I am from back home are as follows:
Supply charge (monthly) $8.08/month if under 200 Amps or $16.16 over 200 Amps
Usage charge: 8.196 cents/kWh
+Taxes
@gizmomelb: ok to clarify for the -ve voter - yes I was wrong, the HEC (Hydro Electric Commission) was not privatized - I was wrong on that detail (wasn't living in Tassie at the time so ignored a lot of the local politics at the time and was 'filled in' on events by mates in Tassie) - the HEC was instead split up into three publically owned entities - full details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_Tasmania - and joined the NEM. Demand exceeds supply due to water storage shortages.
Are there any ways we can make electricity more efficient?
Magnets.
More Magnets
@ajs900: Solar magnets!
(The expense isn't in the generation, it's in the overheads (i.e. government again). I QLD the government keeps demanding a higher dividend as power distribution up here is a 'state owned corporation'. I suspect it is the same in other states that have sold it all off to foreigners only the private owners are reaping the profit. And then the energy regulator that seems to have an agenda all of it's own. But look up how the Paris climate accords and U.N. agenda 21 are affecting power prices.)
@EightImmortals: Its more than that, much of our high prices are due to our population living in a long thin strip along the coast. We simply have more power line length per person to service, so our base distribution costs are high.
Thank your federal governments - Labor and Coalition. A 20-25% discount still puts Qld above the EU average and almost double the US price.
http://www.afr.com/news/australian-households-pay-highest-po…
OzViper - while I do't disagree that we are probably being 'ripped off' I don't know that you have any data that connects a marketing/pricing offer (i.e the discount) against the corporate profit.
Since you used the word probably above - how about i suggest they probably make the profit on a bunch of other products and not this particular one.
In any case we aren't going to know without being able to dig into examining costs and products… so my point is that it is just wild speculation as to where the ripping off is happening and probably not as much at the retailer side as in other parts of the energy market/model..
It'd be more useful to comment directly on how we are being ripped off by not having a consistent model for energy over the next 25-50 years (the real lifespan of large energy production investments) that is ripping us (the consumers) off
Plus the constant back and forth on why we should build more coal fired energy plants (oh come on..) also does more to ripping us off than simply getting on with a long term plan for dealing with emissions..
Thanks for the well thought out reply.
You are right, I don't have hard facts about profit levels.
I guess my main frustration is that an essential utility like electricity shouldn't have ANY profit margin. The whole thing should have never been privatized in the first place.
And yes I agree my other frustration is the lack of future planning by our government in regards to securing supply in the future.. Be that renewables or even nuclear..
I agree that electricity is an essential utility but i disagree that there should be no profit margin.
My understanding of why there is a push to privatise these utilities is that:
1) Governments want these at arms length so they can't be blamed for costs, when things go wrong etc. There are no votes in owning and operating utilities.
2) Governments do a historically poor job in owning and operating certain assets and people tend to romanticise how good a job they actually do (Telecom Australia + OTC + Aussat - great companies if you wanted to employ 300,000 Australians but not so much if you wanted to bring down real pricing for consumers)
3) Governments should be looking towards long term views of building assets over 10s or 100s of years and recycling them at certain points in their lifecycle while using the funds to build the next set of assets that are needed.
If the government was to segment and privatise a utility then it needs to properly take some of the funding it gets from the proceeds to pay for proper monitoring and regulation of the utility - and this they simply don't seem to want to do.
A profit on a utility - that for example may be owned by a super fund - is part of the long term resourcing/growth. Ripping people off with a huge profit doesn't seem appropriate - for something we agree is a utility for the entire community.
I don't want to see the government owning every utility - it does a poor enough job at the moment in running the ones it does own..
Years of rip off rates from Origin, FLICK 'EM
To be fair, it's not the retailers fault that prices are so high.
Looks like it's only available to those supplied by Energex.
Will use this to neg. a better offer here in SA. Thanks op.
how'd you go? i need a better rate in SA
Ill phone them tomorrow or Friday.
Let us know how you go - I just re-contracted with them online for 16% off with Origin Maximiser. I think I got the same deal last year online with 18% off.
Good luck but from our own experience and that of our members, each state is a completely different market with completely different market dynamics.
It is highly unlikely you will be able to secure pricing offered in one state, in another state, even if it's the same retailer.
Will be very happy to be proven wrong though 🙂
Alinta's daily rate charge is $1.089 inc gst, however Origin is $1.256 inc gst
keep that in mind when you're comparing
Yes, I know.. but 1.256 x 0.79 = $0.9922.
As far as I know, Alinta doesn't discount the supply charge.
It's actually a 21% discount on the supply charge before GST.
So it would make it $1.017 inc gst after the discount.
FYI, from the PDS https://www.originenergy.com.au/content/dam/origin/residenti…
Guaranteed Discount
A 21% discount on the GST exclusive usage and supply charges listed above will apply for the benefit period.
Also this appears to be the same as the standing offer (which is what you get if you've never changed) with a flat 21% off the pre-gst amount.
There is no difference whether the discount is applied before or after GST.
I just did some calculations, and my last bill from Alinta (for 64 days) was $7 more expensive than what it would have been under this offer from Origin. So let's say a saving of $3.50 a month. (I use about 5KWh a day.)
If you use more power than me, you're likely to see a smaller improvement under this Origin offer compared to the Alinta offer. At a point, Alinta will become outright cheaper. I intend to stay with Alinta because I may use more power in the future (i.e. bring in a housemate) and I like the idea of the 24 month defined benefit period rather than 12 months.
Things to remember: the 21% is off the charges excluding GST and, as leeroys_dad points out, the service charge is higher under Origin (and in fact the usage charge is higher too).
5kwh ???? we are using 14kw per day, house with led bulbs, 1 fridge
We use under 5kwh per day. We have a fridge and a chest freezer too
Are you saying your elect bill is <$70 a month? That's amazing
Under 5kw per day, very low. Cool )
Gas cooking? What type of hot water system.
How much do u pay per quarter.
Your daily supply charge would be 30-45% of total bill.
Usage depends on temperature for us; anywhere from 3kWh on a low day, to 40kWh when the AC cranks all day long (e.g. Tuesday, Melbourne).
But we pay about 50c/day supply and 13.3c/kWh (+GST) so bills are not too bad. Unsure about how widespread the plans are, but the provider is Pacific Hydro.
@smpantsonfire:
My Father's house is electricity only on Origin Standing Rate. Consumption is 5kWh/d including cooking & hot water.
Latest 92day bill was $158 after concession discount.
Finally convinced him to change to this plan.
Doesn’t matter if it’s before or after GST, because GST is a flat 10% over the lot.
E.g. if it’s $100+gst and the discount is applied exc. GST, then: $100-21% = $79. Add 10% GST onto that = 86.90
Using the same $100, but adding GST to it (aka $110) $110-21% = $86.90
Correct me if I’m wrong though?
That's correct. The multiplication is commutative. Someone messed up their numbers because Origin is cheaper.
Be warned: If you have solar, you probably want Origin's Solar Boost instead. The high discount plans give only 7c FiT.
So which is better value?
Solar feed in tariff 14% + 5% off bill
or
21% off?
It doesn't seem like that extra 7% you get for solar is really going to save you much, if anything compared to the 21% off.
@bonjovi: If your solar is anything decent (like 3-5kW), the extra 7c (cents, not percent!) for solar is worth WAY more than any percentage off.
I push up to 40kWh in these summer months off a 5kW inverter. An extra 7 cents provides an extra $2.80/day.
That's more than all of my usage and supply costs in total!
In fact, you'd be able to use an extra 14kWh/day in electricity off the grid each day to match that.
In comparison, the extra 16% off usage and supply gives about 45 cents off usage (extremely high example of 14kWh/day) and 20 cents off supply. A total of 65 cents.
I am getting 11c FIT on this offer from Origin. They offered it to me to beat Alinta.
@kipps: The 14c may still be better for you, depending on your usage.
For me the 14c would still be better except for maybe 1 month of the year (middle of Winter).
I did a comparison with my previous electricity bill (solar boost) and this deal came out $386 to $401 in favour of his deal. However, now we are in Summer it might be negligible. Over the year it probably balances out.
what a disgrace. Been with Origin for over 8years never had more then 10% off.
Even now they will give me 10 but not the 21 advertised on their website. Have ditched them now.
Expect nothing in return for your loyalty from Power retailers, banking/financial institutions and telecom/mobile operators… They make their profits from old loyal customers/cash cows. Better to keep a lookout and keep on your toes when it's time to jump.
insurance as well. Normally do hop around every year - pain to do but Mr Harvey has noted we are professionals…
I dunno about you guys but I actually enjoy comparing insurance and squeezing every single dollar I can lol
New offers are always for new customers. Nothing gain to be a loyal customer.
People stay loyal to power companies? :0
Any chance to match the discount for Origin hot water bill? Hot water is really so expensive!
?? Hot water is electricity?
Or gas
or urine?
In some apartments it is added as a separate bill. I think it is called bulk hot water. Basically measures how much you use and then calculates the cost to heat it.
I signed up to Alinta a few weeks ago. Had a call from Origin offering this, but over 24 months. I agreed to switch back only when they said they would back date the rate to my last bill.
can anyone get pass the "Let's get started" asking for details page? Nothing happens after I filled out the form and click Next. Tried on Firefox and Chrome.
I tried refreshing after disabling adblock and I got through. Dunno if that was the fix, though. :/
Thank you, that did the trick. Signed up, but may have to call them up to confirm solar feed in rate.
So for someone like me currently on just the 10% 'Origin Saver', is this deal a no-brainer and just sign up?
Is this better compared to Amaysim? Considering Amaysim solar feed in tariff is higher.
WA Origin you can get up to 37% discount to usage charges.
Don't know how good this comment is because I have nothing to show for it. A friend of mine recently moved to a new place and got a new connection. He called Alinta to negotiate a discount and got a 33% and 18% on usage rates on his electric and gas bills respectively.
When the original Alinta offer had come out as part of onebigswitch I had called Energy Australia if they could do anything for me threatening to switch. They couldn't do much on the tariff but they did increase my usage discounts to 30% and 20% respectively for electric and gas. They call it a retention discount. I am still probably paying more because there tariff is higher than Alinta. Will probably switch in the next couple of months.
I think people of Australia have had enough of this… Somethings going to go down pretty soon to completely shake up this industry. All I prefer is a simple model.. normal straight forward competitive tariff already reduced to show the true rate and no discount on top.
EDIT: above is in NSW though.
I've done this 'rentention' thing twice now over the last 4 years. Currently have a negotiated 26% off on usage. This was before everyone started offering 20% or so discounts. Prior to that, I think I was getting 17% when the going rate of discount was 12%.
These greater than advertised discounts were always negotiated after I told them I found a better rate and that I was prepared to switch. And they were only offered by a level 2 customer service agent - they called them the retentions department. Both times I shopped around, I could never get a level 1 agent to offer more than what was being advertised.
I'm going to keep doing this but I must admit, in contrast to @montorola, while I enjoy squeezing ever dollar out of em, I find that it's an awful lot of work comparing.
Exactly.
This is because their EBITDA strategy is not to improve supply or efficiency, it is to increase prices year on year, and give greater discounts only as loyalty discounts, in order to claim, when someone finally outs their game publicly, that some customers are not paying any more than they were*, a few years ago. When in reality the shareholders (and Executive Management) are collecting because the majority of customers are paying more and more.
All the while spending as much as possible (eg what's left over from running a very tight operational budget, ie letting the infrastructure fall to bits) as they can on sales and marketing.
Just like Telstra and all the other leeches gorging on our lazy, corrupt legislature.
pm me if you want me to refer you guys. I can ask for best rates :)
You would have to quantify better.. after all this is OZB.. :)
Yes please - I've sent you a pm.
sorry all - 21% is the best they can do - they won't budge.
Any solar buy back. I dont see info. Should be 7c to 14c on their other plans
There is a PDF on the Origin site at the bottom. Says 7c for solar.
I am getting 11c feed in on this deal with Origin in Qld. Was offered it after I nearly switched to Alinta, and made sure that they matched Alinta's 11c.
I use dodo energy with no contract. They do 15% off and their rates are very low. I did a comparison recently to alinta after seeing their 25% offering and found that their per KW rates were exactly 25% more expensive than dodos, which essentially means dodo is 15% cheaper than alinta. I do recall dodo’s daily charge being slightly higher but that is generally the smaller part of the bill.
Either way, just ensure you utilise the price fact sheets when doing your comparisons because the discounts can be very deceptive. Every provider has them available on the site, some not so obvious, google will be your friend.
Don't know how you have come to this conclusion.
I obtained Dodo's current prices using their website today.
Dodo's current daily charge (incl GST, no discount): 127.710c/day
Dodo's current T11 rate (incl GST, before discount): 28.875c/kWh
Dodo's T11 rate after discount: 24.54375c/kWh.
There is no discount on daily charge (ie, usage only).
Dodo's feed in tariff is only 8.50c.
Whereas this Origin deal is:
Origin T11 rate before discount: 26.9610c/kWh
Origin T11 rate after 21% discount: 21.29c/kWh
Origin daily rate after 21% discount: 104.81c/day
Feed in tariff is 11c/kWh (or at least they will offer this if you hit them up to beat Alinta).
Ie, the Origin deal is superior to Dodo's 15% discount on usage across board for T11.
I did not compare off-peak rates.
Has anyone found a detailed comparison site/ calculator that can help with all of the different usage and time based charges from different providers?
I am moving back to Aus after a few years overseas, and have a bill from the place we are about to move into as comparison. there are so many line items for difference usage and time based charges, as well as lower rate for the solar hot water and then feed in from the roof solar.
All really confusing and I can't seem to find anything that can give detailed comparisons.
Any help would be great. Thanks
still no easy way to compare apples to apples though in regards to electricity or gas providers.
I want a simple list of what their daily service charges AND per KW/h charges are.
I don't give a toss about percentage discounts.. let me compare actual charges to charges between providers - THEN if they offer a discount for pay on time etc. I'll decide who to switch to - instead the process is intentionally made difficult and I have spent time on the phone to an energy comparison specialist where they guaranteed they could do better than my existing power bill. .but when I told them the service charges and per KW/h charge I was currently paying - they admitted they couldn't even match it, let alone better it.. however I don't feel Dodo is the cheapest anymore with their recent 20% price increase for power - so I'm going to be looking around for a better deal.
So far this year Dodo have lost me for car and house insurance.. they almost lost me for internet.. so they better do better for energy if they want my money.
It is very difficult to find that information online, I looked recently and couldn't find the info on any comparison sites. In the end I went to the websites of several electricity providers, and got the details for each of the providers.
I was motivated by some recent liberal party political advertising that was dropped into my letterbox. I still have it, it says 'Labor's "Power" Couple Signed you up to the 6th most expensive power plan in the world'. As expected, it's misleading - the five places where power is more expensive are the other states of Australia, so in fact QLD appears to have the cheapest power in Australia.
I'm happy to tell you what I pay, here in Brisbane.These prices came into effect on 1 July 2017, and I'm currently with Origin Energy, and haven't asked for any discounts. All prices except the solar FIT are without GST added.
Electricity supply charge (Normal supply): 114.19c/day
Usage (Normal supply): 24.51c/kWh
Electricity supply charge (Tariff 33): 2.76c/day
Usage (Tariff 33): 20.48c/kWh
Solar Meter Charge: 6.43c/day
Solar feed-in tariff: 51.00c/kWh including GST for this figure only.
Gas supply charge: 108.33c/day
Gas usage up to 2220MJ: 3.079c/MJ
Gas usage over 2220MJ: 2.841c/MJ
I have looked at Alinta's recent 20% offer. Their supply charge is higher, but the usage is lower with the discount. I'm still getting a very good solar feed-in tariff, if I change providers I'll lose that, so I'm not changing.
Maybe Ozbargain could do a better job than the comparison websites - we could create a power prices page in the wiki, and submit the prices for each state/provider/plan.
I called up Origin and they said you will still get the 51.00c/kwh solar feed in tariff. No changes on government end of things. You will just get the discount applied.
Also, govt concession discounts won't be affected either.
Here is a radical proposal: instead of baffling the public with bullshit about 21% off this and 15% off that, why not just state the price people actually pay? Power companies couch these weasel words as a bonus 'for paying on time'. Which other business gives you a 20% discount for paying on time? Name one. Go on.
Alinta energy in my state offers a 32% discount, but once the discount is applied the power price is higher than 'only' a 10% discount from an Origin energy plan.
The federal government eliminated airlines playing the ridiculous game of advertising $9 airfares (plus $50 in taxes, fuel surcharges, etc). It's time we had a bit of sanity return to the energy market too.
Imagine if any other product was sold the same way as electricity:
20% off Televisions at Harvey Norman! To see the actual price, read our product disclosure statement. The price you pay depends on how much you actually use the television. The 20% off price only applies if you pay on time. Defer payment by even one day and we retract the 'bonus'.
Wasn't this sort of basic behaviour like "$1" vs "$2 with huge 50% off" ruled dodgy years ago anyway?
The other annoying thing is a bit like property prices, any big discount like this now hardly makes it "cheap" - probably doesn't even cover this year's raises alone.
Blame previous regulators and the like for removing regulated pricing, which allowed this to happen.
Also, many serious retention offers won't be present on any of the comparison websites as well.
Even if there was a standard rate, half the retailers do wacky things like discounting usage… or usage plus rates.. or even usage plus rates plus pass-through charges, very hard to calculate or compare.
You'd probably enjoy reading the Thwaites Review.
I am continually writing my own comparator spreadsheets when speaking to sales channels, however most of them can't even answer my questions or know the products they're selling.
Have a better idea - get rid of all these rent-seeking energy 'retailers'.
Spent at least three hours in the most recent instance going through the motions of getting the best deal. Most of that was just doing my due diligence, and dealing with inaccurate information at energymadeeasy.gov.au - in the first case the cheapest offer shown there simply didn't exist at the retailer's end, in the second case the combined gas and electricity calculation for a different retailer was way below the actual rates. An hour was being on the phone with AGL and QEnergy trying to extract a better deal with the former, getting signed up with the latter, finding out what happened to the documentation they were supposed to send, and finding out why the former blocked the transfer.
Offers are changing so frequently that you need to be researching it multiple times a year to get the best deal, and if you're doing what you're supposed to, it takes some time. "A few minutes at Energy Made Easy once a year", my arse.
Another thing that occurred to me during my latest switch is how this jumping between providers spreads around personal info and increases exposure to identity fraud. Energy retailers require more details than most companies - full name, address, date of birth, driver's licence/Medicare number, Centrelink number if claiming a concession, signature in some cases, plus the bills they issue serve as identity documents - quite a goldmine, and no doubt many are doing their data-handling on the cheap.
There's a large number of compliance obligations that energy companies need to meet, not just your standard PCI-DSS compliance etc. Many of the off-shore contact centres also have your 'hand in the phone at the door, no recording material allowed, no internet access' type rules as well.
That being said, your privacy concerns are justified (personal experience).
500% agree with the 'a few minutes at EME once a year' statement as well.
It's called pacifichydro.
Google them. Flat, standard rate, no nonsense.
Ongoing contract with 12 months benefit period.