Still on Your First Electricity Plan? Here's What That's Likely Costing You

Moving into a new home in Australia almost always means getting electricity connected through whoever the previous occupant used, or defaulting to the area's incumbent retailer because the connection paperwork makes it the easiest option.

That decision, made in the chaos of a move when energy plans are the last thing on your mind, becomes the energy plan you're still on years later.

If you've never actively switched electricity providers, you are almost certainly on a suboptimal plan. This isn't an assumption. It's a documented market dynamic. The AER and ACCC have confirmed repeatedly that default and standing offers consistently sit above competitive market pricing. The households on these offers are, in aggregate, paying hundreds of millions of dollars more per year than they need to.

You're probably one of them. Here's how to know for certain, and what it's actually costing you.

Why the First Plan Is Almost Always the Wrong Plan

When a new energy connection is established, whether for a new home, a rental or a move, the default connection plan is set by the retailer. This is called a standing offer or default market offer. It's not designed to be competitive. It's designed to be compliant with the minimum regulatory requirements.

The retailer's competitive offers, the plans they advertise to attract new sign-ups, are almost always cheaper than their standing offer. But those plans are offered through the sales and marketing process. If you never went through that process, you never got those rates.

Scenario one: You connected to the default and never moved. You've been on the standing or default offer for however long you've been at your property.

Scenario two: You were moved to a market offer at some point, either because you called or because your retailer ran a retention campaign, but that offer has since lapsed back to something less competitive.

Either way, the market has continued to evolve, and your plan hasn't moved with it.

What It's Likely Costing You Annually

The ACCC's most recent retail electricity market monitoring report quantified the gap: customers on standing or default offers paid an average of $221 more per year than customers on competitive market offers.

That's the average. The actual figure for your household depends on:

Your usage volume. Higher-consumption households face proportionally larger penalties because the rate gap multiplies across more kilowatt-hours. A household using 7,000 kWh per year at a rate 6 cents above the market best pays $420 per year more than they need to. A household using 3,000 kWh at the same rate gap pays $180.

Your tariff structure. If you're on a flat rate but a time-of-use plan would suit your usage pattern, the gap may be larger than the headline rate difference suggests. Conversely, if you're on time-of-use and you run heavily during peak hours, switching to a better flat rate may save more than a straight rate comparison implies.

Your state. The competitive landscape varies significantly by state. NSW and Victoria have the most active competition. SA has higher baseline prices but also significant spread between competitive and default offers. QLD regional customers outside the competitive market have limited switching options.

How long it's been. Plans that were competitive two or three years ago are less likely to be competitive today. Market pricing moves. Introductory rates expire. A plan that was a genuine market leader in 2022 may now be significantly above current competitive offers.

The "I Called and Got a Better Rate" Problem

Many households have, at some point, called their retailer and negotiated a discount. The retailer offered something (10% off, a usage credit, a marginally lower rate) and you accepted.

This is a retention offer. It's designed to be just enough to stop you leaving. It is almost never the retailer's most competitive offer. Their most competitive offers are reserved for new customer acquisition, not existing customer retention.

If you've been through this process and accepted a retention rate, you may be on something slightly better than the standing offer, but likely still materially above what a competing retailer would offer you as a new customer.

The retention offer is not the answer to the loyalty penalty. The competitive market is.

The One Thing That Tells You Where You Stand

Your electricity bill has your current usage rate, the cents-per-kWh figure that determines how much you pay for every unit of electricity you consume. This single number, compared to live market offers for your area, tells you definitively whether you're overpaying and by how much.

Upload your bill. We extract your rate, your usage volume, your billing period, and your supply charge. We run these against the full CDR feed for your area. We show you the best available alternatives and the annual saving each one represents for your specific household.

If you're on a first-or-default plan that's never been actively reviewed, the comparison is very likely to show a meaningful saving. The average is over $200. For higher-usage households the figure is often double that.

The switch takes ten minutes. The saving runs for every year you stay on the new plan.

One More Thing

Switching doesn't lock you in. Australian energy customers are protected from exit fees on market offer plans. If you switch to a better plan today and find a better one again in 12 months, you can switch again at no cost.

The loyalty penalty only persists because switching feels complicated. It isn't. Upload your bill, see what you'd save, decide whether to switch. That's the whole process.

Fix Your Bill uses OCR to read your bill and CDR data to compare. No manual data entry. No postcode-based usage assumptions. Your bill, your rates, your result.