I have just received notification from Contact that I am in last month of current plan.
They offer same plan on open terms (no contract) at .60 per day over .30 per day and increase in price of kwh.
My last bill of $129 would be $141. I have averaged over 30% saving on their current price plan over the last 11 mths.
Expect they may come out with something else in next couple of weeks.
Any thoughts?
I'd suggest getting quotes from as many providers as you can. The pricing varies by location, and it can make a difference juast one street over sometimes, so there is (almost) never one best deal out there.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Have been looking around and found that Frank would cost about the same as what Contact would under the new plan, without the need to shift usage to the free period. And that's about the best I've found so far. Hoping that some great offer comes up soon for credit on top, but we're already with Frank for gas so not sure it will apply anyway.
Same, the contract will be ending on 30 Nov.
New plan
* daily charge is doubled from 30c to 60c
* variable charge per kWh is going up from 24.8c to 30.8c
Including GST the impact will be higher.
When compare with Electric Kiwi, daily charge is 30c and variable charge is the same. and Stay ahead 200 plan will provide 10% discount.
It is sad to see such a price increase, but as I am using more than half of the power within that free hours, I am pretty much likely to be staying with Contact Energy.
Likewise my plan is also coming to an end. I did some comparisons to last month and previous power consumption against the majority of the big players (contact/genesis/mercury/flick/powershop etc), and contact still came out ahead when utilising the 9-12 free power. We put about 20-30% of our consumption through at this time, so it makes a big difference.
The only one close was powershop, but that whole buying units etc adds another layer of complexity that Im not sure I need lol
On the same boat. Thinking of disconnecting and reconnecting with my partners name with a referral to get $100.
Thanks to the government for the double daily charges… +30 cents again next year and the following year and the year after that until we hit $2 a day or what. 700 dollars a year to connect to the grid.
There are 3 main types of production costs for electricity: generation, transportation and network, and retail. The second component is the biggest, and it is fixed (sunk). It's only fair that retail prices are structured such that there's a high fixed charge and low variable component.
Previously, the previous Labour govt, forced the introduction of "low fixed charge high unit cost" option to "help" low users. To offer that option high users effectively subsidise low users. A review found that due to that policy, poorer, larger families effectively subsidise smaller, richer families. That review recommended phasing out the low fixed charge option. This will eventually lower the cost for high users, while low users will pay a fairer share than they did in the last decade.
For broadband, most of the cost is fixed, and the product is priced that way. Electricity is the same, and it should be priced that way to improve market efficiency.
Completely agree.
That cabinet / minister (can't recall who was the responsible idiot) screwed that market, and it was some of the very people who they claimed they wanted to help, that got screwed most royally.
If you want to help people, just be honest about it, and help them directly by giving them bigger handouts, rather than creating market inefficiency that just adds costs.
Fixed daily charge is just a pricing mechanism. It has absolutely nothing to do with paying for the lines.
Not at all - the fixed daily charge reflects the economic reality of the cost structures, some of which are fixed (provision of lines), and some is variable (provision of energy).
I am on this plan but have not been contacted. Not sure what that means. Annoying really as its a big jump. Im wondering thou, how much of this is Contacts fault and with the likes of EK with the lower daily amount whether this will also jump up now the Gov has removed the low user cap or are they just absorbing it.
Saying that, we plan to go overseas next year for an extended period so I have been looking at this OctopusEnergy offer which has no daily charge and higher kwh rates but not to much higher - as our daily usage will be almost nothing. This might be worth a look if you are a low user.
I ran the numbers with all of the providers based on our last twelve month's usage and it made sense to stay with Contact on the Good Nights plan even though they hiked the rates significantly. We were paying standard user rates but I asked them to put us on the low user rates which saved a bit based on our usage.
We were on a good thing with the Good Nights plan. Our highest winter bill was $148 and summer bills dropped to about $110. We're a family of four living in a four bedroom house in Auckland. I had one of the other electricity companies cold call me a few months ago to try and switch us over but when I told them what Contact was charging us they said that there was no way they could match it.
Was it genesis? They did the same to me and tried to suggest the lofty idea of an unspecified number of free days would make up for the $50-100 difference/month with power shop.
Contact is not made by Contact re new rates until you are in last month of Contacts contract.
Lots of Con's in that sentence !!
So it seems the good night plan no longer has a fixed term - https://contact.co.nz/residential/all-plans/goodnights. Is it possible to jump to z electric and get the 75l free fuel and then switch back to contact good night and get the $100 referral credit and rinse and repeat?
Give it a go, and let us know?
From what I read (on Facebook - obviously the best source of all quality accurate information). Some people have been told they cant swap to this plan or sign up for it - not sure why, but there is more than 1 - might be based on area or credit or something hard to say. So there is a chance they dont let you go back on it.
Pretty sure that not all retailers will supply in all areas.
It looks like they have the Good Nights Plan for a fixed term, presumably assuring your rates until expiry, or a Good Nights Open Plan. Given inflationary pressures I'm tempted by the former rather than risk being automatically moved to the open plan on expiry of the current Good Nights "deal"
Do power companies work like broadband provides, is it worth a call to Contact to see if they will negotiate on the new rates being offered or offer some other sweetener to sign up for another year?
I have had success wit that approach in the past with Stuff Fibre - I always figure no harm in trying, they can only say 'no'!
Yep, I've done it with Slingshot to keep our fibre rate low but never with a power company. Might try tomorrow.
Vodafone usually offers $200 credit if you renew a contract with them with Internet. Only if you ask of course.
I suggest you join z electric at least in the short term with their 75l free fuel in 2 weeks without a contract. Best short term deal in nz. https://www.cheapies.nz/node/31239
Minor difference in rates do not make much difference relative to the one off fuel savings in 2 weeks.