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Old 03-06-2018, 11:58 AM
 
948 posts, read 1,124,815 times
Reputation: 238

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Guys,
Heard lot of good reviews about Energy Ogre (EG) saving you money in your electricity bills. I used to switch plans every 6 months, but after reading lot of good reviews about them, chose to give them a shot.

They signed me up for a 1 year contract. They haven't done anything after the initial set up but kept charging me $10 monthly. So far from the past 5 months usage, the average kwh rate is 7.8c through EG vs 8.1c when I did it myself the previous year for the same time frame. Also, my consumption rate was slightly higher in 2016 as well and hence the higher price I think.

Now I wonder if it's really worth paying them $120 yearly for a 0.3 cent(or so) differential especially if they are opting for a 1 year contract sign up? I guess I could try the same for free. I was expecting they might actively monitor your usage and make recommendations on it. But that didn't happened so far. I switched to them last October.

Any thoughts?
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Old 03-06-2018, 12:51 PM
 
1,428 posts, read 1,740,977 times
Reputation: 2732
We use them and it saved us a lot, but then I really couldn’t be bothered to shop around every 6 or 12 months for a new plan, deal with the hassle of switching, etc.

I will say, they are technically working for you all the time. We have used them a few years now and at one point they had us break a contract to switch because their algorithm showed we would save money even after paying termination fee. So their formulas really are always searching for the next good deal.

But it’s not like they have proprietary access to better plans than anyone can find retail. So if you understand how to do it and like spending your time on this, it can be done on your own. For me it’s worth $120 a year by itself for them to handle the process of switching providers when a cheaper contract is found. At minimum that’s a couple hours of my time.
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Old 03-06-2018, 03:06 PM
 
Location: TEXAS
3,748 posts, read 1,327,763 times
Reputation: 1995
did myself for years and got 5c / kwh on average.
Takes less than 15min of my time every 3 months or so to switch.
$120 for 1 hour of work - no thank you, I'll keep that $ in my pocket!

People are funny -
they'll drive half-way cross town to save pennies on their gastank fillup,
but TOO LAZY to use brain for a few minutes to save HUNDRED$ on their power bills . . .
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Old 03-07-2018, 10:59 AM
 
573 posts, read 327,198 times
Reputation: 1004
Quote:
Originally Posted by nitynity View Post
Guys,
Heard lot of good reviews about Energy Ogre (EG) saving you money in your electricity bills. I used to switch plans every 6 months, but after reading lot of good reviews about them, chose to give them a shot.

They signed me up for a 1 year contract. They haven't done anything after the initial set up but kept charging me $10 monthly. So far from the past 5 months usage, the average kwh rate is 7.8c through EG vs 8.1c when I did it myself the previous year for the same time frame. Also, my consumption rate was slightly higher in 2016 as well and hence the higher price I think.

Now I wonder if it's really worth paying them $120 yearly for a 0.3 cent(or so) differential especially if they are opting for a 1 year contract sign up? I guess I could try the same for free. I was expecting they might actively monitor your usage and make recommendations on it. But that didn't happened so far. I switched to them last October.

Any thoughts?
I thought about using them, but didn't feel they would help more than what they charge. Instead of switching every 6 months or so, I'll do a search, see what's out there, then call whoever my current provider is. I just did this today not more than 2 hours ago and my current provider said they are going to match the lowest price I saw online for 2000 kwh usage (I'm sure they know what their competitors are charging). I'll be getting the contract tomorrow via email they said and I'll see if all is good with it, and decide to accept or not. The other provider with lower rates had very low ratings, while the one I use now has less complaints so I'd rather stick with them. It didn't take long on the phone to ask for a lower rate and customer service is great - less than 15 minutes.
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Old 03-07-2018, 11:33 AM
 
948 posts, read 1,124,815 times
Reputation: 238
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilsn3r View Post
I thought about using them, but didn't feel they would help more than what they charge. Instead of switching every 6 months or so, I'll do a search, see what's out there, then call whoever my current provider is. I just did this today not more than 2 hours ago and my current provider said they are going to match the lowest price I saw online for 2000 kwh usage (I'm sure they know what their competitors are charging). I'll be getting the contract tomorrow via email they said and I'll see if all is good with it, and decide to accept or not. The other provider with lower rates had very low ratings, while the one I use now has less complaints so I'd rather stick with them. It didn't take long on the phone to ask for a lower rate and customer service is great - less than 15 minutes.
It's true, you might get rates matched if you call, once I had the same experience like yours, but another provider told me it's only for new customers.

Also, the 2000 kwh is a tricky one, if you read the facts sheet, you will see something like
2000kwh = 8.9c,
>=2001kwh = 13.9c.

I have attached a snapshot from one of the providers where the rate jumped from 7.9c to 10.9c once you hit 2001kwh.

So you can't just pick the one with lowest numbers in the 3 column table and call it good. That's what I was doing so far and turned out I was paying way more than what I thought I would be paying per kwh.

I was checking several providers from powertochoose.org the other day and most had this weird/tricky rate. Also I think if you sign up for a year long contract, most of the time savings will cancel out between summer and winter.

That's why I thought EG would provide a better job tracking all these factors. But so far I haven't seen much savings based on the kwh charged/month.
Attached Thumbnails
Energy Ogre worth the money?-powertochoose.jpg  
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Old 03-07-2018, 12:22 PM
 
Location: TEXAS
3,748 posts, read 1,327,763 times
Reputation: 1995
It costs about 3.1c / kwh to generate/deliver power in Texas - (do your research...)
Anything over that you're giving to the BILLING company for the privilege of them sending you the bill .
why pay 5c/kwh for billing you the 3.1c/kwh usage (total 8.1c/kwh)

Yes, you DO have to know your consumption (to PICK the correct plan that won't PENALIZE you ), and,
you are ALWAYS a 'new customer' when you LEAVE a current providers 3-month special and switch to another; you can switch BACK as a 'new customer' 3 or 6 months later ; NOBODY gives a 5c / kwh rate that lasts longer than 3 or 4 months!
It costs exactly -$0- to switch, so switch, and switch often (to ALWAYS be getting the NEW CUSTOMER specials!!!)
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Old 03-07-2018, 12:27 PM
 
Location: TX
11 posts, read 19,190 times
Reputation: 22
Quote:
Originally Posted by nitynity View Post
It's true, you might get rates matched if you call, once I had the same experience like yours, but another provider told me it's only for new customers.

Also, the 2000 kwh is a tricky one, if you read the facts sheet, you will see something like
2000kwh = 8.9c,
>=2001kwh = 13.9c.

I have attached a snapshot from one of the providers where the rate jumped from 7.9c to 10.9c once you hit 2001kwh.

So you can't just pick the one with lowest numbers in the 3 column table and call it good. That's what I was doing so far and turned out I was paying way more than what I thought I would be paying per kwh.

I was checking several providers from powertochoose.org the other day and most had this weird/tricky rate. Also I think if you sign up for a year long contract, most of the time savings will cancel out between summer and winter.

That's why I thought EG would provide a better job tracking all these factors. But so far I haven't seen much savings based on the kwh charged/month.
I too noticed that more and more of these "fixed rate" plans are getting very "creative" in their rate tier structure. What happened to the good ol "fixed" rate no much how much/little you use.
It sure wasn't like this a year or two ago when I was looking.
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Old 03-07-2018, 12:34 PM
 
948 posts, read 1,124,815 times
Reputation: 238
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCyou View Post
It costs about 3.1c / kwh to generate/deliver power in Texas - (do your research...)
Anything over that you're giving to the BILLING company for the privilege of them sending you the bill .
why pay 5c/kwh for billing you the 3.1c/kwh usage (total 8.1c/kwh)

Yes, you DO have to know your consumption (to PICK the correct plan that won't PENALIZE you ), and,
you are ALWAYS a 'new customer' when you LEAVE a current providers 3-month special and switch to another; you can switch BACK as a 'new customer' 3 or 6 months later ; NOBODY gives a 5c / kwh rate that lasts longer than 3 or 4 months!
It costs exactly -$0- to switch, so switch, and switch often (to ALWAYS be getting the NEW CUSTOMER specials!!!)
Correct, you get good rates if you switch frequently, but less than 6 months frequency, wouldn't it affect your credit scores?
Also your consumption varies depending on the weather. So no accurate way of predicting either.
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Old 03-07-2018, 01:02 PM
 
Location: TEXAS
3,748 posts, read 1,327,763 times
Reputation: 1995
Quote:
Originally Posted by nitynity View Post
Correct, you get good rates if you switch frequently, but less than 6 months frequency, wouldn't it affect your credit scores?
Also your consumption varies depending on the weather. So no accurate way of predicting either.
wont' affect credit scores at all
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Old 03-07-2018, 03:47 PM
 
Location: Coppell
2 posts, read 11,511 times
Reputation: 10
I tried their service recently. But they were not able to find any plan to save me money compared to my current plan. So I skipped their service and signed up directly with a provider.
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