AMAZING $60 free giveaway!!

[Lenny]

Ok, so the thread title is a bit of a teaser (). But I want as many people to read this as possible.

What would you do for a free $60? Or even more? Would you make one simple phone call?

We have our electricity and gas with the same supplier - one of the big companies. We have since we moved to Aus over 6 years ago.
With all the talk of higher prices and changing suppliers, we decided to call them. They gave us a 20% discount on our electricity and 14% on our gas. And we didn't even threaten to leave!

Our most recent electricity bill was $304.76. Take 20% off that and you get $61! That's just for this quarter. And our gas bill was $101.92 for a 2 month period. We could have saved $14.

$60 saving per bill x 4 bills per year is $240
$14 saving per bill x 6 bills per year is $85.

So, in the next 12 months we are almost $330 better off.

You should try and see what you can get . What's the worst that can happen?

{What shall we do with our $330?}

[RhiChiChi]

:-) Good on you! Been meaning to contact ours for a while but just haven't been in the right mood to bother! Will get on that now! Thanks for sharing

P.S. Shout yourself out for a nice night out

[Beatrix]

Just rang mine!!!

they offered a further 12% on elect and 5% on gas so pretty happy with that.. our elect bill is only $230 a quater so that saves $30 so thats better then nothing.

(we get concession rates as well so that's why the lesser discount)

[onthefly]

no competition over here

[aussienic]

Shame we don't get a choice up here.. Only one company ah well one day CQ will have a competitor

[HotI]

I would like tips to reduce my electricity use. We are with the lowest priced company but our bills still average $1,000 a quarter. We don't have gas here, so everything is electric. WE have a reverse cycle air con for heating (most efficient after natural gas), some fancy efficient hot water system (new so it might change next bills), turn lights off when not in use but i wonder if i am i missing basic things that will add up if we do them all.

[Babyluv]

Thanks Lenny

[Lenny]

Downlights Hoti? They are energy suckers. Take a sneaky peak into your ceiling when the lights are on and see how much energy is wasted lighting 'up' instead of 'down'. Still, the alternatives are very expensive to outlay. I'm sure you are very conscientious Hoti - sometimes there is not much more you can do. Have you tried using one of those meter thingos which measure how much each appliance is using? Our freezer is not very efficient, but it would be more of an environmental disaster and more costly too if we threw it away for a more efficient one.

I can't believe there is no competition in some areas? What's not fair!

[Liviam]

Great reminder Lenny thamks. I'll def have to look into this

[Gigi]

do you know how much you are using the R/C a/c heater per day? I was told to have the a/c at 24 degrees in summer, to save electricity. I use a tower heater (like a tall blow heater) for winter, my only option, and have been told to have that at no warmer than 21 degrees (to save electricity), i usually have it at 19 degrees. It has a timer on it, which i turn on EVERY time, e.g for one hour, i'm so scared i might leave heater on one day by mistake.

i'm using - wearing ALOT of clothing, including outside parka, - blanket on me when sitting down e.g watching tv - having hot quick shower at night - to reduce the amount of time i have a heater on. My place has zero wall insulation, it's really cold. Very small rooms, have to keep doors closed always so i'm just heating ONE space at a time.

So many draughts and cracks (in a rental), and no wall insulation, there's not much i can do to improve the electricity efficiency. I've wasted money on adhesive anti draught stuff that just fell off. Door snakes. I put roof insulation in, but still it's so cold, even in the day, cold enough to want to wear gloves just to type on computer.

[LimeSlice]

I can't believe there is no competition in some areas? What's not fair!

Utilities haven't been deregulated in WA.

The AGL man came to my door the other day and I switched. I get a concession rate for my HCC anyway, but they are giving me an extra 20% off on top of that concession for both gas and electricity. Very happy with that!


HotI - check your fridge/freezer seals; do you have hardwired smoke detectors? We discovered on holiday a few years ago that they go through quite a bit of power when they and our freezer were the only things left on for 3 weeks. :/
Do you have a new hot water system with a tempering valve on it? It will limit your hot water temp from the tap to 50 degrees - hence no reason heating your water much hotter than that. Min storage temp in Vic is 60 degrees, so keep it turned down to that so you aren't wasting money heating water to a temp you aren't getting out of your tap, itms.
You can turn all your things off at the wall - microwaves, toasters, kettles, etc, anything with a standby mode, switch it off at the wall, that is about 10% of your bill there.

[BrightSparkles]

Ok, so the thread title is a bit of a teaser (). But I want as many people to read this as possible.

What would you do for a free $60? Or even more? Would you make one simple phone call?

We have our electricity and gas with the same supplier - one of the big companies. We have since we moved to Aus over 6 years ago.
With all the talk of higher prices and changing suppliers, we decided to call them. They gave us a 20% discount on our electricity and 14% on our gas. And we didn't even threaten to leave!

Our most recent electricity bill was $304.76. Take 20% off that and you get $61! That's just for this quarter. And our gas bill was $101.92 for a 2 month period. We could have saved $14.

$60 saving per bill x 4 bills per year is $240
$14 saving per bill x 6 bills per year is $85.

So, in the next 12 months we are almost $330 better off.

You should try and see what you can get . What's the worst that can happen?

{What shall we do with our $330?}

Silly question, but what do you say to them to get the reduction? I've always thought about it but never know what to say. I knwo that we are with one of the cheaper places and dont' want to change, but i feel silly ringing up and saying, i've heard xyz.

[Lenny]

Just that **Sunshine**. We just said, hey, we hear everyone's getting cheaper power than us. We've been with you for years, what's the best discount you can give me. We didn't have to beg, or produce evidence that we knoew what other people were getting - we just asked! It was a bit weird, but it's over the phone, so you can act all confident. And if they say no, then you can always try one of those switch companies.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

HotI, I'm pretty sure there's a government program thingy where they go through your house and tell you where you could save power - much better than the generic 'turn your lights off' spiel. Does anyone else know what I'm on about?

Even over here, you can save on your phone bills at least. I ring up every few months to review the plans Professor and I are on, to see if we can go cheaper. I did that after finding out on a call for something else that they actually had a newer plan with more stuff for $20pm less than I was paying. ChaCHING!

[chody47]

Sunshine - I did this recently too. I actually rang about a few of our bills. I just rang my current providers and said I'm looking around at my options but wanted to ring you first and see if you could give me a better deal.