Energy retailers love to keep their customers confused. There are many ways they do this, and one of the most common and the most frustrating is that they promote their plans using brand names, which have absolutely no relationship to the underlying prices.
The prices and rates can change at any time, so its very common that pricing offered to new customers for a particular plan name will be different to what an existing customer for that plan is paying.
This is the classic example of a loyalty tax, a familiar dynamic that plays out across many product and service categories.
💡 We think the term Loyalty Tax is such a powerful idea, we registered it as a domain name — see https://loyaltytax.com.au.
Retailers rely on the loyalty tax, safe in the knowledge that most of their existing customers will not notice that there are better deals available to them.
Bill Hero subscribers will definitely notice because our service analyses every bill and highlights the savings available.
This can mean that Bill Hero subscribers might see a plan from the same retailer at the top of their ranked results, with the same name as the plan they already have. This can occur even if it's a plan they've only recently switched to.
There are two main reasons why this might happen for you as a Bill Hero subscriber:
Price changes
Firstly, because prices can and do change independently of the plan name, Bill Hero does not actually consider the plan name at all when comparing your bill against all the other plans in the market.
When we compare your bill against all the other plans in the market, we're actually comparing the effective rates as documented in your bill vs the rates currently offered to new customers.
If the retailer now offers a plan of the same name at better rates than what you are being charged, this may result in that plan landing at the top of your comparison result.
If you find that your plan is now offered at a better price, you can ask your retailer to honour that price for you. The retailer is not obliged to change your pricing to match the current offer – sometimes, they insist that the new pricing is available only to new customers, not existing ones. If that happens for you, you can always switch to a different plan from the Bill Hero ranked results.
Bait-and-switch
It's not unheard of that a retailer will promote a plan with competitive pricing, but will then highlight a less competitive plan in their own sign-up process.
If you're not paying close attention, you might find that the seemingly great plan you thought you were signing up for is not what you get.
If Bill Hero displays savings are available for a plan for you that you think you've just switched to, check the plan name and ID carefully. You'll usually find your actual plan name on your bill, and Bill Hero displays those plan names on the cards we use to display each plan. If the names don't match, then you're not actually on that plan and may have fallen for a retailer bait-and-switch.