MyTrueCost.com - An easy way to find your best electricity rate (how much)

[houstonfan]

There are always questions on this forum about which company has the lowest rates for electricity or is this a good rate? The information out there is also confusing to the average consumer because there are a lot of fine prints. There is the base cost of electricity, plus delivery charges, under consumption surcharges, % renewable energy, etc. In the end, your bill is a component of all of those things.

There is a new site which I find much better than powertochoose.org. It's Home - TrueCost Electric Portal . You create an account, and input your meter #. Based on your previous consumption pattern, they give you a side-by-side comparison of all the plans out there, including all the surcharges and hidden charges so you can see about how much your bills would be each month. It was finally time for me to renew my plan and so I gave it a try. It's been 2 months now since I switched to a new company and so far, no surprises yet. My bills are lower than previous year and about as much as they predicted.

Several caveats I've noticed so far: If you are a new home/apt owner, they don't have a record of your typical monthly consumption. They don't have rates for reliant and perhaps a few other companies.

Hope that helps.

[Schumacher713]

Thank you! I will use this next time my contract is up.

[piyf]

If this is legit please sticky this thread and delete/move all other threads that pop up asking this question all the time.

[houstonfan]

Originally Posted by piyf

If this is legit please sticky this thread and delete/move all other threads that pop up asking this question all the time.

It is legit. You can log in and try for yourself. You don't have to buy anything, you can look even if your contract is not up. What's cool is they use your actual past consumption data. I've been eyeing it for several months until my contract finished. It's been 2 full months of payments for me now and so far no surprise fees. This site also shows recent trends in electricity rates:
http://www.mytruecost.com/ElectricPriceTrendsSummary

[kreeyax]

I used that site about 8 months ago and it found me a better rate than Powertochoose.org. But a couple of months ago when it was time for me to renew all the rates on Mytruecost.com were higher. So it's a good idea to check both sites when renewing.

[Vic From COH]

Thanks


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[houstonfan]

Originally Posted by kreeyax

I used that site about 8 months ago and it found me a better rate than Powertochoose.org. But a couple of months ago when it was time for me to renew all the rates on Mytruecost.com were higher. So it's a good idea to check both sites when renewing.

Interesting. Thanks, I'll check that out next time. Did you add in all the costs? Ie, since I usually use less than 1000kwh/mth, most companies charge me an extra $7-10 per month. What I do like about that mytruecost is it makes comparing quick bc all the costs have been added in, whereas with powertochoose, I need to calculate in everything and since my consumption changes with the season, the amount of extra fees also changes.

Anyone else found any other quirks/problems with that website?

[astrohip]

Thank you, my contract is up next month, and I had just started to search.

I'm off to compare...