We are a Small family of 2 with a newborn and looking for a recommendations for.
1 - Power
2 - Broadband
3 - Home & content Insurance
I'm aware that the free appliance and bundler deals aren't always the best.
Anything you would recommend or anything specific to stay away from?
Congrats on the newborn, hope everyone is healthy and well.
First place to check for broadband would be this thread: https://www.cheapies.nz/node/50334
Good power and internet deals are few and far between these days, pricing for both has gone up quite a lot.
This deal might be a safe place to start, the provider that they resell is pretty bad (Devoli), but if you just want to watch some streams, etc. then it'll be fine. Since it's open term you can use it while keeping an eye out for a better deal too: https://www.cheapies.nz/node/51392
Would never recommend bundling anything unless the deal is too good to pass up and/or open term, having flexibility to jump from deal to deal is valuable and can save a lot of money year to year, hopefully more so if/when we get some competition for these services like we used to have.
Unsure on insurance, but we've been with TradeMe for a while and had no issues, just a rebadged Tower product.
I've signed up to the deal. The market is not great really . Nothing like the slingshot has come up for months. All suppliers are very similar pricing wise with a few offering a month of 2 free from what I've seen
Thanks Mate,
Skinny looks pretty straightforward for $80 and a month free.
Insurance might go to Tower and power to contact.
Out of interest, why Skinny for $80 pm rather than Sky for $55 pm (as suggested by nevergofullretail below) - what benefit you get for the additional $25 pm?
At $80 PM skinny gives you 320MBPS speed and one free month.
Sky at $55 is 50MBPS even if it gets upgraded in a few months it will still be 100 MBPS.
It's a difference of $220 per year but the speed difference would be night and day, 50 vs 320.
i signed my mum up to sky broadband starter, she isnt with sky but for $55 per month its pretty good, includes router. Its just 50/10 speed but free upgrade to 100/20 coming in June 2025
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/541580/chorus-doubles-sp…
Hi there, do you know if this is for every ISP that uses Chorus? I just phone One Nz to confirm and they said "Not that we know of, we have not received any updates from Chorus regarding this matter". I would have thought they would have known! Thanks
Yes it's everyone on Chorus' network. Of note in that RNZ article it mentions, "could in turn be passed on to consumers" which suggests it's not mandatory for ISPs to pass it on. I suspect it'll only take one or two to pass it on for free and most will follow suit to stay competitive.
Given that chorus will no longer be offering 50/10
Can isp cap speed limit of 100/20 connection to 50/10??
Can isp cap speed limit of 100/20 connection to 50/10??
I guess they could, but I can't see why they would, since that would just put them at a competitive disadvantage compared to other providers at the very bottom end where margins are thinnest, and the variation in offerings tends to be narrowest.
I'm in Hamilton and our LSP is Tuatahi Fiber.
Is this specifically for areas only covered by chorus or nationwide?
I'm in Hamilton and our LSP is Tuatahi Fiber.
Is this specifically for areas only covered by chorus or nationwide?
I took it as Chorus are upgrading all their connections nationwide from the article. Is there something there that I missed?
Chorus doesn't manages Fiber nationwide.
The only confusion I have is the other local service providers (Tuatahi for Waikato and Enable for CHCH) will follow this or not?
@NedFlanders: No idea - the article only stated that Chorus are upgrading their speeds.
I guess if Chorus don't own the infrastructure in those areas, then that will be a decision for those local providers to make.
I'm sure they'll do the right thing, and the locals will be looked after by their friendly neighbourhood provider ….
Perhaps check directly with whoever does own the fibre infrastructure in your area?
@Alan6984: Yeah I hope so too, I'm not a 100% sure if it's chorus owned and then leased or just owned by the small players.
I will check with Tuatahi tomorrow.
I made a basic excel spreadsheet for electricity comparison. I have a row for each or the last twelve months showing how many kilowatt hours of power I used each month, what the kWh charge was and how much I was charged in total. I can then easily compare new providers by going to their website, punching in my address and inserting their rates into the spreadsheet.
I'm now with Meridian on their four hours free plan and I can see that I saved about $50 last month compared to what I was paying on the Contact Good Nights plan.
If you only did monthly totals, I'm guessing you might have typed it in manually from your bills? If you ask your provider, they should be able to give you a download of your usage by half hour slots for 12 months - its less than 10,000 rows of data so fairly small as a data set. It might depend on your meter or provider, but pretty much everyone I've mentioned this to can get it.
Chuck it into a spreadsheet, and compare all the quotes you get - it only takes a few mins to do the first one, even when you factor in the plans that have free power for certain hours from this time to that time, then each new quote is a matter of seconds to compare.
This is only giving you historical usage comparisons though. If you move to a plan with free power between certain hours, there is a chance (no certainty though!) that your usage might alter accordingly - hard to know how you (and your household) will behave in advance of course :-)
Good to know, thanks!
Yeah I'm also doing the same, A very neat table sorted and calculating annual cost.
I'm probably going to signup with a no contract one and then switch in a month after monitoring my usage.
There is a spreadsheet on moneyhub which you can use as per your need. Has served me well couple of times.
Cheers, it's a bit outdated but very detailed.
Yes. But good to crunch numbers. It's a start
For power, you really need to contact as many providers as you can yourself. I'd suggest at least three, but more if you have the time. I usually just sit of an evening while my wife watches the latest repeat of Do Up A House 2025, and get quotes.
Your specific address can make a difference to what is quoted and, with the possible exception of your literal next door neighbour, anyone else's best deal won't necessarily be yours (even same street, opposite side of the road) if they are on a different electricity network 'segment' (not sure of the correct technical term!)
Same for insurance - your address, and even your house number can matter.
With broadband, most providers quote the same across the country (at least in urban / sub-urban areas I believe - no idea about rural), so deals that get mentioned here are probably available to you too.