How much do you really pay?

It’s easy to offer enormous % discounts when the price is inflated.
For many years energy retailers have promoted ever increasing discounts to attract customers.  Discounts are now as high as 43%.  But retailers never promote the rates those discounts apply to, meaning that you might pay more than an offer with a lower discount.

From 1 July 2018 energy retailers are prohibited from discounting if the starting rates are higher than the retailer’s standing offer. But this won’t help you entirely.

The best way to know what deal you are getting is to go the retailer’s website and look up their pricing fact sheets for your postcode, which must disclose the rates, inclusive and exclusive of GST, percentage discount and how it is applied.

It is important to remember that most retailers apply the discount only to the energy rate, not the daily service charge.  Only a few retailers apply the discount to the entire bill; these retailers usually advertise lower discounts but you may actually be better off.