Older Aussies not getting the Energy Discounts we Deserve
With heatwave conditions across the Eastern seaboard recently, energy prices again became the water-cooler topic-of-the-week.
But according to our current Fair Go survey, 1 in 3 over-50s are not receiving energy discounts despite more than half of us rating energy bills as our most stressful household bill.
Only 2 in 5 of us get over 10% discount, even though these discounts are easy to find!
We are now almost halfway through the Fair Go For 50Ups campaign, which is all about sourcing better offers on electricity, mobile and insurance - and already we are just 5000 people away from our target of 250,000 total members.
According to a respected survey many Australians have never switched their power supplier and even those who intended to change didn’t always get around to doing it.
The number who had never changed their providers, widely held as the simplest way to reduce your power bill, varied from 85% in Tasmania to 36% in Victoria.
In the most deregulated states some 55-60% intended to switch in the past three years but only 27% in Victoria, 21% in NSW and just 16% in SA actually managed it.
And interestingly the Energy Consumers of Australia (ECA) survey on the attitudes and activity of ‘small’, ie household and small business, consumers did find there was more satisfaction with energy services in those states which had been deregulated and open for competition longest.
So what is going on? When the survey asked how they ranked electricity in terms of value for money it came last behind gas and other utilities, banking, mobiles and even broadband.
One reason for this may be that electricity has been going up again in price, and gas is set to do the same, while those other services seem to have stayed fairly stable.
Another finding was that those who switched didn't seem to have any higher satisfaction in terms of value than those who had not changed.
It’s ironic because they had undoubtedly saved money on their bills perhaps it wasn’t much, perhaps they hadn’t noticed or perhaps as ECA suggest there are issues around the services on offer and levels of innovation
Our Fair Go campaign takes away most of the effort. You don't have to compare different tariffs we find one at a better price than you might as an individual and you compare with your current offer.
We can’t promise life-long satisfaction but many who’ve done it attest to the savings which are possible and there are many more satisfying things to spend your money on that over-priced electricity.
So it pays to be a little switched on to what electricity markets are about as a little effort and knowledge will save you.
