Consumer NZ just sent out its winter reminder that many consumers would save money by comparison shopping for their electricity.

The headline on their release claimed: NZ households could save $388 on average by switching energy plans.

But the release noted, “Annually, only 20% of households switch. The majority of those are people moving homes, with only 6% of households switching for a more competitive rate.”

As a result, the official Electricity Price review estimates that electricity retailers – companies like Contact, Genesis, Meridian, Mercury etc – could be earning as much as $39 million in extra revenue because consumers aren’t on the best plan.

Curiosity peaked and electricity bill in hand, I decided to check out the Belford situation, using two free comparison services – Powerswitch (provided by Consumer NZ) and SwitchMe.

In the past 12 months, we paid about $3,200 for electricity, with two persons at home, solar-assisted hot water, a heat pump used sparing in winter for our kitchen/dining area, a couple of space heaters, and my wife’s hair dryer. Our stove uses bottled gas. A fairly moderate operation, all in all.

Both comparison services indicated significant savings were attainable over our current provider and offered multiple alternatives.

So, yes, I made the switch.

Smart move? If you can’t trust Consumer NZ …?!

Ask me in a year how this turned out! That’s when I’ll announce the winner and loser.

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2 Comments

  1. I hope you checked out the rates. I compared through Powerswitch recently and it told me I could save $600/year with PowerShop.

    When I called PowerShop to ask for their rates and compared it to my current consumption, PowerShop was actually $200 more expensive per year.

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