[VIC] Electricity & Gas Retailer Recommendations

Dear fellow Ozbargainers,
I would really appreciate your suggestion for a good electricity retailer and a good gas retailer.
I already checked Victoria Energy Compare, and Alinta seems to stand out as the most affordable option.

I check this post: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/621830.
Many recommended Globird and ReAmped but they didn't pop up when I compared the rates.
And I'd probably stay away from Powerclub. Their pricing model seems overly convoluted.

I'm a heavy user. I have two young kids so the electric heater has to be on throughout the night.
I've been with Red Energy for 3 years. Rates were good at first but they've been untenably expensive the past few months.
It's about time for me to jump ship, I reckon.

I may try my luck with Alinta but I'm not sure about their customer service and user friendliness.
Also, I hope they won't sneakily raise the rates after the first few months of good rates.

Thank you very much, my dear fellow Ozbargainers.
Any advice from you guys means a lot to me!

Regards,
Ted

Comments

  • +1

    canstar and finder are great sites which will tell you the cheapest. Type in cheapest electricity vic or similar. Doesnt your govt give you a voucher to do a comparison?

  • +1

    I have recently moved and got QEnergy for electricity and Globird for Gas. Not a heavy user so aimed to minimise the daily charge and ease of leaving and any ancillary charges. As you are in Victoria, you may use https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/ to check different packages.

    • +1

      I'm in the same boat as you, and using the compare energy vic is useless as it didn't give me the results of Qenergy or globird from memory.

      • +1

        What I liked about QEnergy is no connection or disconnection charges. Daily supply charges which are around 50c/day and less than 20c/kwh. Other providers have daily supply charges close to 1 dollar per day and consumption charge of around 18-19 per kwh so to break even I need to use at least 50-100 kwh for other providers to become cheaper. For Gas, Globird EasySave has a similar competitive pricing structure as the price of gas per MJ is cheaper and supply charges are not too high. What I like about these two providers is that there are no conditional discounts which can be removed at any time or hidden charge which can be kicked in whenever the provider wants to.

  • Similar situation to you. Had been with Red for a long time but rates just kept going up. Switched to Alinta a week or two ago - much lower rates in comparison. Also in VIC.

    We'll see once the first bill for Gas & Elec comes through I guess!

  • I was literally searching OzB and whirlpool for exactly the same thing.

    Tango looked promising but using an Australian provider is important to me.

  • I'm with Tango for both electricity and gas (they only started offering gas earlier this year) and found their rates very competitive. I recently looked into Globird but was still slightly ahead staying with Tango.

  • Just moved to Melbourne and we went with Globird based on the rates - we were looking for something cheap and cheerful. They seem to be fine.

    Our biggest cost is for gas heating - not much we can do as renting but we got the lights and showerheads replaced for free. If we were owners, we'd look at putting in solar, heat pump hot water and modern air con units. Also, we now wear thermals all the time, its a lot more comfortable!

  • I did a recent search when we moved in our new house and if you are looking for a new one have a look at GloBird - it depends on your overall usage if this is the cheaper option but have a suss anyway.

  • +2

    Alinta is Chinese owned so I left them.

    Am now with Discover and they seem very competitively priced.

    • +1

      Alinta is Chinese owned so I left them.

      Do you boycott everything that has to do with China? Just curious to know.

      • +2

        Wherever it's not too difficult I do try. The fact that it is so difficult to do this sort of justifies the reason for doing it.

  • I found this hack when I was comparing for the house I've moved into (NSW).

    Alinta Priority Plus was the cheapest provider under the EnergyMadeEasy options but was a promotional offering only. Its supposed to be a Cricket Australia sponsor link but I was able to find it with a google search. Called them up and asked about the plan and they said it was an online only offering and that all verification would take place online.
    I've since moved over to them and have successfully connected without ever having any affiliation to Cricket Australia.

    They are on par with the smaller energy providers (e.g. reamped) for electricity and absolutely smashed everyone for gas in my case (bar some unknown ones). I could've saved myself $25 a year if I went with another company for electricity, but wanted both under the same retailer. Their supply charges are a little high whilst usage is competitive, so being a high usage household you might even come out on top. Of course the rates we're super competitive for me, but you'll need to check for your location, its like step 3 in the forms that a rates table appears.

    This does beat Alinta's regular rate by a fair margin so it should make this option even better.

    The google link was for State=SA and I changed it for myself (NSW) and have checked that VIC works as well. Make sure to change the link for your postcode and if you want just gas/electricity then change fueltype=gas/fueltype=elec respectively.

    https://www.alintaenergy.com.au/sales?plancode=M5TS-00-D00-2…

    • Wow. Thank you for the instruction! I found the same SA link and had no clue what to do.

      • +1

        No worries glad it helped someone. Since got my parents on the plan too and no questions whatsoever

  • Medium user of power and gas. Was with Globird for power but they recently bumped their rates up, moving to ReAmped. Moving gas to Globird, their Easysave plan is good for medium user.

  • Sumo has $50/$50 gas/electricity sign up bonus at the moment. Came out cheapest for me based on high use family. Also Aussie owned.

  • +5

    the whole system is a joke.
    No matter who you pay you get the same supply.
    There is generally only 1 supplier of gas and 1 of electricity to your house.
    Most are not energy companies. they are basically agents. All charging various cost to confuse the public on the same supply

    • I wonder why we didn't nationalise energy

  • similar situation, pretty high elec usage due to heating and gas during winter due to hot water. (maybe time for a service? 8 years now)
    checkout Tango for elec, was with them previously but now with Amber (wholesale pricing) and gas with SimplyEnergy

  • I'm a heavy user. I have two young kids so the electric heater has to be on throughout the night.

    Do you have gas heating? Otherwise, reverse pump. I seriously hope you're not using a 2000W resistive heater…

  • +1

    wattever.com.au

  • Important to note, you can switch every few months. So just pick someone cheapish now and move. Do your research every 6 months. Tango is worth a check, I'm with them.

  • Does anyone have a spare Alinta Energy invite for Alinta’s Priority Plus Gas plan that they could possibly throw my way?

    Thanks :)

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