Pay on time discount with new plans

[Pam]

Are there pay on time discounts with the new plans e.g. Essentials Plus?  I cannot see anything about that.

regards

Pam

[frap]

Like everyone else, I'm here to express my utter disappointment with this change. I just got my email stating I'd be losing my pay on time discount, and it was instantly clear that I will be, again like everyone else, several hundred dollars worse off each year.

As someone else pointed out above, I was automatically set to be put on a plan at 1% below the reference rate, and while the email did contain a link to browse new plans, there was no pointed advice to do so. AGL's reply to this was something along the lines of 'T&Cs need to be approved before we can put you on a better plan.' Really? Then why not invite me to do that instead of automatically moving me to an awful plan? Not only that, AGL had no problem moving me from my 30% discount to a plan 1% below the reference rate, which makes this line about T&Cs all the more hard to swallow. It genuinely feels like AGL is treating their most loyal customers in the worst way possible.

Please do not insult me or the rest of your rightly outraged customers be replying yet again that this is in response to customer feedback and that we're welcome to browse your other plans. We've heard you. We still think this is rubbish.

You've literally shown me to your competitors' doors to browse for a better deal. Mission accomplished...?

[NeilC]

Frap,

I am a bit confused here.

We signed up for a 2 year contract with AGL. Have completed our first Year and have about 10 months before our contract expires.

Now, I know well that I can change contracts at any time as there no fees involved in doing so.

At the moment I am in a good position and have a high solar feedback, but know that the rate has changed.

I constantly check the prices on the web for all the Electricity retailers and know that I am on the best plan at the moment.

Gone are the days when companies look after you, from what I can gather at least AGL send you a message saying you are going out of PLAN.

If you don't look to see what the plan you are on is worth now, if you do not respond, they will put you on a comparable plan. Which may appear higher as they offer lower plans.

I suggest you look at plans regularly to see what is available.

Now there is some retailers (two for SA) that offer a discount for paying on time. When you look at them they give no discount of the REFERENCE price and only give a discount if you pay on time.

Others give you 3% to X% discount on the reference price but no CONDITIONAL discount.

IF you want to pay on time you should be making regular payments of your electricity bill.

Get your last bill, divide it by the number of days on the bill.

(Listed under supply period on AGL bill).

Divide the amount of the bill by the number of days, multiply that by your pay period (7 for weekly, 14 for fortnightly, 28 for monthly), then pay that amount on your payday.

This should get you close to having the bill paid and should not give you any bill shock.

Example:

Bill is $555.

Billing days 91

Paid fortnightly

555/91= $6.10 a day

$6.10 X 14 = $85.40 a fortnight

(there are 6.5 pays in the 91 days) 6*85.4= $512.40 ($43 less than the bill)

So you could end up still owing $85 to $45 on your bill if you use the same amount of electricity.

A better way is to add 10% to the payment ($85 * 1.1) = $93.50 and pay that.

6* $93.50 = $561

If your bill goes up slightly you are covered, if it goes down you have extra credit on the bill.

By the way doing this means that you have to pay your BILL and the next calculated amount at the same time.   $555 + $85. No different than before as you had already saved the $555!!!

Cheers

Neil

[frap]

NeilC,

You started your message by addressing me directly and stating 'I am a bit confused here.' But nowhere in your rambling post, which was a mix of unsolicited junior-level advice on both energy plans and bill shock avoidance, did you ever even address said confusion.

You strike me as some kind of troll trying to divert attention from the matter at hand - that AGL is significantly screwing over their loyal customers, in my case by several hundred dollars a year, and hiding behind the reference pricing model to act like it's not intentional or their fault. Or even more laughable, that it's because of customer feedback. I certainly never provided feedback that I wanted to lose my pay on time discount and fork over hundreds more per year to AGL, but that seems to be what they reckon!

Still confused?

[NeilC]

Frap,

This is the first time you have been on this site and its only to complain.

I was trying to give you responsible advice.

TV ads have been telling everyone to look at the market.

My advice to you was is, look at the market.

By the way I replied to your post, not the beginning of this post two years ago.

Do what you want, I don't care, not an AGL employee but someone that tries to help people that don't understand but just whinge.

I give you my name and don't hide behind anything.

Don't care if you leave AGL.

Don't care if you can't read.

I am a Community Member and am entitled to give my two bobs worth.

I was confused because you can't read.

On your bike mate I say.

Peter or any other name if you want

[frap]

NeilC,

Forgive me for only visiting the AGL community site when I have a reason to complain. Some of us have better things to do than write senseless replies and beg for likes on corporate community forums mate.

I'll say this again - your post, which addressed me directly, was completely off-topic. You did not make a helpful contribution to this conversation, however much you might want to pat yourself on the back.

Enjoy yourself!

[Woody]

1. Yes, G''day there, i have been with AGL for around 7yrs and living in a large 4 bedroom house in Gippsland and working away most of the time as a Truckie, my quarterly bills are always ballparking somewhere around 550-650 dollars which is equivelent according to the little houses on the bill to a household supporting 4-5 people which is itself is driving me crazy, with my pay on time discount i am bringing the bills down around 170 dollars and quite frankly i dont think i will be able to pay the next bill without out it (pay on time)
2. How and why has this happened? what happened to loyalty rewards and common sense, this is a crazy move.
3. I i tried all day to talk to an operator without any luck so when i finally finished for the week i called again (around 3am) i got straight through to some guy from Istanbul or something who

[NeilC]

Hi Woody,

Please remember that this is a forum and that I am not an AGL employee and do not even reside in Victoria.

Just having a quick look on the AGL website and can see two possible plans available from AGL for the East Gippsland area. (Both have the same Rates)

You must also note that the Web states that rates for plans are changing 1st July 2020.

Currents rates state that you should be paying around 28.26 Cents per Kw for the first 1020 Kw per quarter and 30.10 cents per kw remaining usage.

Your supply charge is 104.95 cents a day.

According to you, your average bill is $600 a quarter.

Now 90*$1.05 is $94.45 cents (supply charge)

Remove this from your $600 and we have $505.

You stated that you get a discount of about $170 on average.

This equates to around 34% discount ?????

I left my previous Retailer (that I got 18% from) to come to AGL as we were paying about $50 a quarter to getting a credit on our bill.

If you have read the above threads, any such discounts have stopped (for new account holders or those out of contract) as from the First July 2019.

If I was you I would be looking at your current contract (available on your MyUsage page) and working out what your future steps will be or even if you can switch now.

We added solar to the house ($3,300) got a free hot-water heater installed and moved to AGL and the highest bill we have paid since moving to AGL is going to be $5.54 (and the first time we have had to pay) on my projected bill due on the 27th July 20. (We have had 14 days out of 55 days where we have produced less than 10kw a day.. the lowest being only .983 kw)

If I use current prices for Origin Energy in SA my projected bill would be $50.40 (to pay) as they only give top rate for the first 8kw you export and then half of it for any remaining feed-in.

I suggest you look at the sites that give comparison prices for the many Retailers that are out there.

https://wattever.com.au/compare-best-electricity-rates/

Is one that I use ( I do volunteer work assisting Seniors with IT) and use that as a guide to assist them in making a change.

Having a Smart Meter makes migration to other plans or Retailers easy as it does not have to wait for the end of the billing cycle.

Hope this helps (in the meantime you should be paying $42 a week off your bill each week) to avoid bill shock.

I would suggest that you look at your electricity usage to see what you are using and why. For instance if you have automatic exterior lights (sensor type or timed switch) switching those to 10 or 20 watt led flood lights is a good investment.

A pair of incandescent 150 watt flood lights draws 300 watt hours. If they are on for 6 hours then that is 1.8Kw a night or 162kw per quarter.

Swap them to 10 Watt LED and that becomes 20 watt hours 3.6Kw per quarter or the same as running the 150W lights for 2 nights

Cheers

Neil

[Seriously1]

I received the same crap 7% discount contract yesterday.They are doing this to anyone they can. Unfortunately if you have any discrepancies regarding your credit score, you have no choice to go with any other provider because they run credit checks and will refuse you as a customer. AGL will take anybodys money and has to. They are screwing those that can least afford it the most. It is about time the Ombudsman had a good look at how they operate.

[-Jenna-]

Hi Seriously1, 

Thank you for being part of the AGL Community.

We can certainly appreciate that you want to make sure you are getting the best value. Please feel free to contact us here and we'd be happy to check if there is a better offer available for you. Our new rate based plans do generally work out to be more beneficial. You can also contact us via AGL Messenger through the APP or your online account.

Regards,

Jenna

[Woody]

G'day there Neil

cheers for your informative reply ol mate

regardless of how many times i rang some third world country coming off shift at 3 or 4am or how many emails i sent to AGL i was still in the dark as to whether or not my latest bill (9 Aug) would be a pleasant downshift or a trigger to move to another provider

It was a fairly nice change then, when it arrived to see that yes, i did still get a pay on time discount......somewhat reduced overall but there nonetheless, my eyes then drifted to the breakdown to see that the parasites had actually charged me TWO supply charges for the quarter (one for old and one for new plan which i started midway thru the billing cycle) So much for my discount 🤔

Question-is the discount a certain percentage of the total bill or a percentage of your balance?

i had the bulk of my bill in their account this time around which left a minimal balance and although the total usage was around ball park for this quarter my discount had been slashed by two thirds (bill with both supply charges was around 600 to which i generally receive about 150-185 discount however this discount was 50bux!)

reference your query as to my discount percentage Neil i can email the printout of all bills since 2014 if you like?