In short
Use a comparison that is paid by nobody but you, and that prices every plan on your own usage. The regulator's Energy Made Easy is free, impartial and covers every plan, on average usage or a figure you enter. A paid, independent check goes further by reading your bill and pricing every plan on it. A commission comparison site is paid by the retailers it ranks, and the ACCC's guidance is to ask any comparator who and what it compares and who pays it.
Three questions to ask any comparison
- Who pays you? A site paid a commission by retailers has a reason to rank the ones that pay. The ACCC's guide to comparator websites asks operators to disclose exactly this.
- Which plans do you compare? Every plan on the regulator's feed, or the plans of the retailers on your panel? The difference can be most of the market.
- Whose usage do you price on? A typical household, a figure you typed, or your actual bill? A ranking on typical usage is a ranking for somebody else.
The options that take no retailer money
| Energy Made Easy | The Australian Energy Regulator's free site. Every plan, impartial, on average usage or a figure you enter, and it can pull your usage history if you enter your NMI. It does not read your bill, forecast, or keep checking. energymadeeasy.gov.au. |
|---|---|
| The plan data itself | Every retailer must publish its plans to the regulator's public Energy Product Reference Data. It is what Energy Made Easy and we both read. Not something a household reads by hand, but the reason nobody can be left out. |
| A paid, independent check | Ours. You pay a small fee, we take nothing from retailers, and every plan on the feed is priced on your bill, with the three worth switching to explained. The price is the reason you can trust the answer, and why independent sets out the promise. |
What to compare on
- The unconditional annual cost on your usage, not the percentage off the reference price. The percentage is for a typical customer; the cost is for you.
- The rates and the supply charge together. A discount off a high rate is not a low rate.
- The controlled-load rate if you have one, and the feed-in tariff on your export if you have solar, as part of the total rather than on their own.
- The conditions, the benefit period and what the plan reverts to.
Whichever you use, compare after 1 July and whenever a price-change notice arrives, because that is when the answer changes. When prices change explains the calendar.
Quick answers
Is Energy Made Easy free and independent?
Yes. It is run by the Australian Energy Regulator, costs nothing, takes no commissions and lists every generally available plan. It compares on average usage or a figure you enter and can pull in your usage history with your NMI. It does not read your bill, forecast your next year or keep checking after you leave.
Are electricity comparison websites paid by retailers?
Most of the well-known ones are: retailers pay them a commission when a customer switches through them, and they typically rank only the retailers on their panel. The ACCC's guidance for comparator websites asks them to disclose who pays them and which retailers are compared. My Energy Agent is paid only by the household and compares every plan on the regulator's feed.
Sources
Official pages this answer relies on. If one of them changes, tell us and we will update the page.
- A guide to comparator websites for website operators and suppliers (2015) · Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- Energy Made Easy · Australian Energy Regulator
- Energy Product Reference Data · Australian Energy Regulator