Power-prices going up - impossible to compare untransparent offers out there

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boingoboingo

20 posts

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#300584 20-Sep-2022 14:35

As the heading says:
Contact energy (we have fibre, gas and electricity through them) sent me an e-mail that I will be paying a "bit more".
Turns out it's a lot more.

Looked on powerswitch and broadbandcompare but... these deals are impossible to compare.
How is this still legal in NZ to offer deals that are so complicated and different that they make it impossible to compare them side-by-side at a glance.

My Q:
- Any better options than Powerswitch and Broadbandcompare? Seriously, this is a joke. Ain't nobody got time for this.
- Anybody recommend a provider that offers a good gas/power/fibre bundle?

Cheers,

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#2970507 20-Sep-2022 14:43

Maybe consider unbundling the ISP part? My observation is that the more is bundled, the more complicated the comparison becomes. Presumably, that's one reason providers do bundles.

With direct debit payment in place there's no real benefit to bundling other than any nominal discount you receive.

I recently used powerswitch to compare Contact with other electricity and gas providers and ended up changing to Mercury

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boingoboingo

20 posts

Geek

#2970509 20-Sep-2022 14:49

Thanks!

Yeah, the bundling did make sense with Contact - their broadband was the lowest price out there when bundled.
I'll look into Mercury and unbundling, thanks for the tip

wellygary

7375 posts

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#2970527 20-Sep-2022 15:26

shk292:

Maybe consider unbundling the ISP part? My observation is that the more is bundled, the more complicated the comparison becomes. Presumably, that's one reason providers do bundles.

It also slows down customers leaving

Its well observed that customers with bundled services are more "sticky" than others and have a lower churn rate...

It works in multiple dimensions as well, - Multiple product bundling (Data+power+gas etc) but also businesses are doing it across multiple customers, (Family Share plans )

Its all about slowing down churn.... ( new customers cost money to acquire, its cheaper to keep existing ones)

vexxxboy

4085 posts

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#2970529 20-Sep-2022 15:32

if you want someone to contact you and go over how much it will be, just start filling in the to join form at the main power companies , make sure you put your contact number in and quit . Within a day you should get a phone call from the company asking why you never finished and then you can ask them your questions .

Common sense is not as common as you think.

boingoboingo

20 posts

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#2970532 20-Sep-2022 15:40

Yeah, I just sent out Qs to the major ones and will let them fight over me.

I have no problem with bundling - if the deal is good (and it was, in the case of Contact Energy). I won't switch because of a small difference, but 400 $ is 400 $...

What I'm so surprised by is that the advertising of convoluted offers is still legal. In Europe they introduced legislation years ago to make it easy and transparent to compare prices.
That did away with all the "joining bonus" and "3 months for 1/3 price", all that nonsense - just straight-up price comparison.

Next Q: Who do I call to start the ball rolling on something similar in NZ? My MP? A specific working group?

timmmay

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#2970537 20-Sep-2022 15:50

If you use more power off peak than peak Octopus Energy is a good deal for power. Electric Kiwi MoveMaster is a good plan if you can get a lot of your usage in an hour - I have hot water, heating, clothes drier, and dishwasher all going in that time but it's more hassle - there's a big thread on MoveMaster around GZ somewhere. I can post a referral code for a $50 credit if you want one. I'm with EK but if I was choosing one now I might consider Octopus as it's less hassle. Pay attention to things like peak time periods (longer in octopus) and weekend power (off-peak all weekend for Octopus). No idea if either do bundles.

marmel

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#2970558 20-Sep-2022 16:38

We just moved from Powershop to Electric Kiwi and have made reasonable savings. You are correct though, it is very difficult to compare apples with apples when retailers offer 'specials'. Powershop for example would offer weekly or fortnightly specials plus you could purchase 'future packs' but trying to work that all out to a price per kilowatt to compare is extremely difficult. Electric Kiwi have their free hour of power so we tend to turn everything on at 9am and so far have managed to get about 12% of our power free.

Deamo

159 posts

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#2970561 20-Sep-2022 16:42

boingoboingo:

What I'm so surprised by is that the advertising of convoluted offers is still legal. In Europe they introduced legislation years ago to make it easy and transparent to compare prices.
That did away with all the "joining bonus" and "3 months for 1/3 price", all that nonsense - just straight-up price comparison.

IIRC, years ago the EA proposed a standardised format for making pricing available through the electricity registry. I think all the retailers fought it, so the EA gave up.

quickymart

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#2970592 20-Sep-2022 18:06

https://www.powerswitch.org.nz/ ?

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2970596 20-Sep-2022 18:14

boingoboingo:
I'll look into Mercury and unbundling, thanks for the tip

I'd be very wary of Mercury. They have recently changed their T&C to avoid giving users explicit notice of price rises greater than 5%. Now they can simply stick it on their Website and claim you've been informed.

I have also filed a complaint with the Commerce Commission relating to another recent change, but that's not relevant here.

Pricing needs to be simple... x per kWh. No 'free' hours, days, prompt payment discounts, high/low user rates, bundled services etc. Until that happens, it's impossible to get a fair comparison between providers.

Lias

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#2970675 20-Sep-2022 20:53

Just moved from Genesis to Octopus.. bills are now approximately two thirds of what they were prior to the move. If you have a lot of 24x7 usage (e.g. a rack of servers in the garage) the savings are pretty astronomical.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

stick

353 posts

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#2970678 20-Sep-2022 20:59

quickymart:
https://www.powerswitch.org.nz/ ?

boingoboingo:
My Q:
- Any better options than Powerswitch and Broadbandcompare? Seriously, this is a joke. Ain't nobody got time for this.

Geektastic

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#2970679 20-Sep-2022 21:04

I have always found Powerswitch useless for the simple reason that there is no requirement for powercos to update their prices on the same date each year.

Ergo, your cheapest offer might be the cheapest now, but they update in 3 months whereas the second cheapest just updated so is good for 12 months etc.

Geektastic

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#2970680 20-Sep-2022 21:05

Deamo:

boingoboingo:

What I'm so surprised by is that the advertising of convoluted offers is still legal. In Europe they introduced legislation years ago to make it easy and transparent to compare prices.
That did away with all the "joining bonus" and "3 months for 1/3 price", all that nonsense - just straight-up price comparison.

IIRC, years ago the EA proposed a standardised format for making pricing available through the electricity registry. I think all the retailers fought it, so the EA gave up.

Tail wags dog again....

Hammerer

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#2970705 20-Sep-2022 23:00

boingoboingo:

Looked on powerswitch and broadbandcompare but... these deals are impossible to compare.
How is this still legal in NZ to offer deals that are so complicated and different that they make it impossible to compare them side-by-side at a glance.

My Q:
- Any better options than Powerswitch and Broadbandcompare? Seriously, this is a joke. Ain't nobody got time for this.
- Anybody recommend a provider that offers a good gas/power/fibre bundle?

I hope that you get a good deal. I use and recommend Octopus.

I’m surprised that you think that there should be better options for comparing bundled plans for energy and broadband. They are reticulated to your address but there is little in common for their pricing regimes so it is no surprise that they are complicated to compare.

Powerswitch does a good job at helping to reduce household energy costs. But I doubt that you read their helpful advice such as the six common mistakes they have identified. Mistake number two is bundling. They also mention that enticing Internet connection rates can be a trap.

https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/six-common-mistakes-to-avoid-when-choosing-a-power-plan#article-convenience-costs

Convenience costs

…

The appeal of bundling is the ‘one-stop shop’ convenience of paying only one bill which covers all your household needs. However, bundled plans can cost households more overall. That cheap internet rate that enticed you in can be more than offset by higher rates for gas and electricity.

…

Instead of clumping them all together, if you split providers and picked the lowest-cost provider for each service, you should save money.

I use Powerswitch to identify the most likely plans and providers. It is great for exposing me to many plans without having to visit all the supplier websites. But if your usage profile differs too much from the average then its estimate can be more than 10% out. So I always double-check any offers by calculating annual cost myself. That is good for picking up on potential terms and conditions that I didn’t understand.

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