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News$700k worth of savings tips from the government
$700k worth of savings tips from the government

$700k worth of savings tips from the government

Tags: Energy Information
Last updated by Someone on

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you would have noticed all the talk about energy prices. If you have been off the grid (pun intended), there’s no hiding from your energy bill, which will find you eventually. 

And so will the Federal Government’s latest $700,000 ad campaign!

Launched this month, the Powering Forward Campaign reportedly cost tax-payers $300,000 for 60 seconds of airtime during the AFL & NRL Grand Finals, and as much as $700,000 in fees to a Melbourne ad agency.

There's some useful information buried in there, but it's hidden behind propaganda pushing the government's energy policy credentials.

What do you think of the campaign?

Our take? The website contains some useful info for people wanting to save on power bills, for example it links to the Energy Made Easy comparison site and the Victorian Switchon site to compare offers.

It also contains energy efficiency tips for households, which can be handy.

But all that useful stuff is buried behind the silly “powering forward” slogan and some bumph about the Government’s Snowy Hydro 2.0 and gas reservation policies.

They’re important, but we’d like to see the moneysaving info up front and centre!

Here’s something else you can do to save.

A couple of months back, the Fiftyup Club started our Power-Up Campaign,  which now boasts a staggering 50,000 registrations nationally That tells us that you do want to do something about energy prices even if it’s just to send a message to power companies that enough is enough.

While Australia may rank second in the world for quality-of-life, we rate first in the world for the highest energy prices. Data from the Carbon + Energy Markets' MarkIntell service says we’re ahead of Germany, Denmark and Italy with 4 Australian states in the top ten (click here to see the list).

This despite Australia having every energy resource available in the world including coal, wind, solar, nuclear and sea-water hydro power.

What can you do? It’s as easy as picking up the phone, calling your energy retailer and asking for a better deal. Don’t take no for an answer. The energy market has never been so competitive and you can get results, with many members reporting savings in the hundreds of dollars.

Click here to see the latest Fiftyup Club energy offers, extended for a limited time only


 

 

Originally posted on .

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Christine
Christine from NSW commented:

I already get 17% discount on Electricity and 15% discount on gas which includes the Direct Debit option so can't see a reason to change. 

Dave
Dave from NSW commented:

I had a call from Coles Insurance tonight. Could'nt answer phone because I was working. However , they did leave a message. Seems everybody has just signed up for a Telemarketing database. 

Joel - FiftyUp Club
Joel - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Dave:

Hi Dave, If you've entered your mobile number when you joined the Club, we allow service providers who are making a special offer to our members to contact you once about it. We only provide numbers to particular providers that are offering the relevant current FiftyUp Club offer. We do this because there are always members who miss our alerts about a new offer, despite our best efforts, and the offers are often open for a limited time. All of the above is in the policies and terms that members agree to when they join. The feedback so far has been that members are happy to be contacted. But if you don't want to be contacted about special offers on your mobile, simply remove the number from your profile at FiftyUpClub.com and you'll only get emails 

Rodney
Rodney from NSW commented:

Rod from Penrith nsw Anyone with solar panels beware you could possibly get nothing out of this offer. Your 7% is calculated on your net AFTER the your feed in bonus has been deducted, so if you are in my position your solar bonus scheme TOTALLY pays your electricity account and I would not get any of the 7%. Just a reminder as 7% on nothing still adds up to zilch. RodF. 

shirlee
shirlee from NSW replied to Rodney:

Definitely check the feed in tariff - we receive 60c per k/wh, so need to stick with our current provider until the end date of the scheme, no other deal has sufficient rebate/discount to make switching worthwhile. 

Rodney
Rodney from NSW replied to shirlee:

Rodney from Penrith. Shirlee I also get the 60c BUT I also get 7% off the ALL usage BEFORE the solar rebate is applied. This is with AGL. After compairing the extra 10c on the solar and NO 7% it is not worth the trouble of switching from my supplier. 

Joel - FiftyUp Club
Joel - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Rodney:

Hi everyone, bear in mind that the 10c bonus feed-in tariff is on top of government feed-in tariffs, not instead of them, in most cases. Call Click to check what you would get altogether, if you are unsure - 1300 085 785. 

Jeannette
Jeannette from NSW commented:

I've also just compared the new Electricity Deal with my supplier (Origin). They give me 1% if I pay by direct debit (wooo hooo / not). ClickEnergy is 17%. They give me 7% discount if I pay on time, ClickEnergy does the same. If ever I put on solar, then ClickEnergy will give me 10cents per k/wh on buyback (assuming that is, if I generate more than I use /sigh) whereas Origin does 6cents per k/wh. Origin will charge me $31.20 to read my meter, ClickEnergy will charge me slightly less. Also Origin has a contract and will charge me $70 to break it (no contract with ClickEnergy, no leaving costs either) ... and I've only been with Origin for 5 weeks /sigh. So, yes! I'm looking forward to saving over $300 per year with ClickEnergy - I've just signed up. 

Jeannette
Jeannette from NSW commented:

I've just re-insured my two cars with Coles Insurance - THANKS FiftyUp ... Saved just over $263 for the two. Almost the same benefits. The ones that counted were all good with coles. There were some that I had with the other insurer that weren't available. You've got to read the PDS - I had them email them to me before I signed. 

Peter
Peter from NSW commented:

I just compared the electricity deal with my current provider - Dodo (yes, I was also skeptical at first after a bad experience with their phone/internet people) - and its almost identical - actually slightly higher on service charge. So the only benefit is an extra 2% if I direct debit. Part of this benefit would be lost through interest as I currently pay by credit card to get my 15% pay on time discount, so the real benefit would be closer to 1% which equates to about $15pa on current usage. I must say I'm under-whelmed by this Fiftyup so-called deal! 

john
john from NSW commented:

just to make sure you know you are being treated like fools,dodo,which have no qualifications nor expertise,are now an electricity supplier.so the first hing they do is ,not to get customers, no the start with 15% discount.they can not run an internet company from the philippines so why do they think that we should sign up for electricity supply ?? 

alan
alan from NSW commented:

What I do not understand is all these people that tow caravans or buy small campers and tow a car or trailer behind, Think about it 35 ft of caravan & 16 ft of vehicle heading up the highway, Just a disaster waiting to happen If the same person wanted to drive a semi trailer they would be REQUIRED to do quite a few courses to achieve this licence so what is the difference, When is the Gov going to get real and enforce a mandatory licence to tow trailers over "X" weight and size 

Leah
Leah from NSW commented:

loyalty acknowledgement and possible discounts considered for local residents who regularly purchase services 

Tess
Tess from WA commented:

better choices to save money 

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