Hello, I'm currently paying 33cents a day line charge and 28cent a kwh.
I'm looking to move power companies and Frank Energy is offering $2.8 daily line charge and 15.6cents a kwh. I'm using roughly 1500 kwh a month. I did a quick sum up and I would benefit from high daily charge lower kwh rate.
I'm looking for reviews or other power company recommendations.
I'm also looking at this stage a refer link so that me and referring can get $50 credit.
Thank you ChoiceCheapies community.
I use them for electricity and bottled gas. They've generally been good, although some of their billing processes have been a pain (new credit cards apparently require a manual payment before automatic payments will then process normally). Their phone system has a callback system, which is handy, to resolve said process issues.
How much power do you normally use a month? Does this change over the course of the year (ie you have a heated pool or do a lot of heating in the summer)
Hey Callum,
Doesn't really change much over the year. 1200kwh on average
I have been with Frank (formerly EOL) for more than five years and as a low use user, have always found their pricing really competitive. Even having dropped their 20% prompt payment discount they are cheaper than the legacy account I have with Mercury Energy.
Customer Service is New Zealand based and direct with friendly staff that are empowered to fix problems and honour promises. That being said, I have not had reason to ring Frank for a while but the contrast with my experience with Mercury was dramatic.
The app is simple to use and helpful.
Happy to share my referral code but cannot find a way to do so in the list.
Kate
Can you not post the referral here as a comment?
No, use the referral system on the store page
Thank you I see it
Hi John
I managed to load the code on the list.
Hope you can use it.
Take care
Kate
I've been with Frank Energy/Energy Online for about 4ish years, and I have no complaints about their service. Throughout all this time, I've even been checking to see if I can take advantage of the 'free daily power' offers from the other companies, but as others have said in here, nothing seems to beat their current low user rates.
It'll remain to be seen how the phasing out of low user rates will impact their competitiveness, but I imagine it'll still be pretty good given their pricing history.
Been using them since two months. So far so good. No complaints!
I've been using them for over 6 years. 1 adult and 3 children and our bills very rarely go over $150 a month. Highly recommend them and would never change.
Interesting comments from others. I have below rates from Frank & Electric Kiwi for my address. I used 401kwh in last 26 days. Paid $98.19 to Electric Kiwi. If I use Frank Energy rates I get a total of $120.29 for same usage. So Frank energy is $20 higher for me. Not sure about others.
Both including GST
Frank
* Daily Charge - $0.3450 / day
* Uncontrolled - $0.2784 / kWh
Electric Kiwi
* Daily Charge - $0.3400 / day
* Peak - $0.3448 / kWh
* Off-peak shoulder - $0.3275 / kWh
* Off-peak night - $0.1724 / kWh
It must vary on where you live, I'm in Waiuku, Auckland as low user my charges are
Massive difference between daily fixed charges for the OP of $2.80 and you guys (maybe both Auckland - not sure where Ace310 is) of around $0.30 to $0.35 per day (which is similar to the OPs current daily fixed charge).
Is it possible that you are talking about different Frank Energy plans?
I am in west auckland. I think OP is referring to Standard user plan rather than low user.
@ace310: Could be - I am in South Auckland, and for me, Frank Energy's Standard User Plan has a daily fixed charge of $1.8975 (inc GST) so a lot more than the $0.3450 for the Low User Plan but a lot less than the $2.80 the OP was quoted.
Interesting how much it varies by location - not that we didn't already know that!
Alan.
EK is cheaper because most of your usage is off-peak night. All-Inclusive is cheaper for those who use mostly at peak. Your usage especially seems to be extremely shifted to the night as your average rate is only 22.3c.
If you know you are a mainly night user, you should not be considering all inclusive plans as they cannot compete. Octopus energy would be a more suitable comparison for you.
We are both in Auckland but my rate is 0.2599 at the same daily rate for Frank.
Thank you so much for the responses, amazing feedback. I'm doing the switch as well
if you are not on a contract, then you are better off to take the z electric one off deal of 75L of fuel (if you need to use free fuel) (more than $230 worth of fuel as sign up credit at today's prices, and of course you can switch after you have joined Frank energy and used up the $50 credit.
Anytime
Inclusive: 23.50 c/kWh
Daily charges
231.18 c/day
GST inclusive
Pretty high for my area, Frank would be my final stop if I wanted to take advantage of the 75litres for a month? As you said 200$ of fuel is very enticing..
As frank is 16 or so cents for my area slightly higher daily charge at $2.8?
You can maximize you savings if you are not on contract for broadband. EK is giving 2 free months of broadband with free router. that's almost $80+/month saving for 2 months
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/34185
Also, use z electric above for added fuel benefits. Even though rates are bit higher, but if you are a very low user this benefits will out weigh your savings.
the z electric also gives you 5L per $100 spent (prorata) so effectively around 15% discount in additional to the sign up bonus, so definitely a short term deal, as the sign up fuel bonus usually arrives within 2 weeks of connected with Z electric.. but over long term depends on your use (and patrol prices going forward) etc..
I would have thought you can also get $100 sign up from Contact on a non-contract deal (for a month or two) via referral, before you join Frank..
Powershop could be you final spot as they have price match against the best price over a year, and sign up bonus of $150 but again a real hassle to get their calculations right, and also they don't give refund but just credit so you are effectively commit to them for a year and several months (and their higher prices for the last few months offset by $150.
There may still be sign up bonus on electric kiwi still, but I am not 100% sure.
$50 sign up bonus with EK
I use them for Gas and Electricity. Had some dramas with the previous gas company taking my new gas bottles, leaving me without gas. Frank were quick to remedy this, and the customer service seems pretty good. A few billing teething issues also, but these things happen.
I'm with Contact for the last 6+ years.
Daily Charge - 30cents
Anytime (Low User) - 27.30cents
Gas Rate
Daily Charge - $1.009
Unit rate - 7.6cents
Daily Charge - 30cents
Uncontrolled - 26.65cents
Gas Rate
Daily Charge - $1.256
Unit rate - 7.6cents
So Contact is still the cheapest to me.
Wouldn't that depend on how many electricity units you use? Apart from the daily gas charge,Franks looks cheaper for everything else? Guessing your prices also exclude GST . People can also split the electricity and gas between two different comapnies, although they may offer better prices by bundling.
I did the math and you're right.
Break even point is at 1140 kwh.
Last month electricity usage is 382kwh.
Contact - $100.11
Frank -$101.80
Gas - 331kwh
Contact daily charge - $30.27
Frank daily charge - $37.68
Having both with same provider is cheaper.
I don't see how it is possible that your calculations show frank as being more expensive for electricity.
Should be roughly $2.30 cheaper since 1/3 of break even
@Bill: Gas daily charge also should be - $29.05.
Not really, they have currently a plan with 2% discount. When I renew my plans last time they gave me extra 2% discount.
@eranda: looks like without sign up deal this is a cheaper option for a low user
note rates quoted included GST.
@gooddeals: Heavily depends on how you use throughout the day.
I think frank is consistently cheapest for all-inclusive.
Electric kiwi is brilliant. Don't forget the free hour of power every day. Chose 9am to 10am heat the water run 4 heaters do the laundry vacuuming etc.
If you max this it's fantastic
Contact energy offers 3 hrs of free electricity from 9pm - 12am
I'm savings about 60% on contact 3 hours free, it's great
I would avoid Frank Energy like the plague. My bill sky rocketed, not just the price but the usage. It was if it was not even my property. I ended up with over 100kw more a month. Bill payment on the site failed and I had to spend a week trying to prove I had paid my bill. Virtually non existent customer with no replies. Absolutely appalling and I would not recommend to my worst enemy
Been with electric kiwi 4 yrs. Average power use in the hour of power is 33.1% but it's 40% to 50% in winter (when you need it most) because of heaters.
They debit the exact amount of the bill every week on payday, no extra fee. So never have to worry about paying the bill or having enough money, no worries about running out of power either. Globug sucked! Always working out if I had enough.
The app is brilliant can track your power use hourly.
Don't know about the customer service because in all this time there have been no problems to solve!
Big fan of electric kiwi and sure you will be too
Oh one last thing. Always use the power switch website. It calculates the lowest cost power company for your individual place from all available companies, it's why I joined electric kiwi in the first place
Many companies are no longer on powerswitch, and some that are have complicated plans that the powerswitch recommendations struggle to take into account.
Unrelated to prices but Frank energy? So they're honest about thier charges is thier gimmick? They all are of course.
Seems like a very not clever marketing scheme to put it politely
I’d argue that it’s probably quite clever, albeit targeted.
The fact that you’ve said this means your not their target audience
LOL - Nobody who visits CC is likely to be Frank Energy's target market.
Their marketing is attractive to older consumers / people who are confused by having multiple options, not people 'switched on' enough to go to market whenever they are out of contract, and are chasing signing on credits as well as the best rates.
Doesn't mean Frank Energy won't occasionally be the best offer though (depending on your location of course) so always worth looking at them along with all the other providers.
They still have low daily user rates, and at least in my area the rates are someof the cheapest I have found.They don't have a free houretc. The new octopus energy may appeal to some, but in my area their peak rates are expensive unless you want to timeshift your life into offpeak hours.
@nzmax: Yes - Like I said, just because they are targeting older people (say), does not mean they will always be more expensive. For some locations (yours in this case) they will still be cheapest regardless.
All excellent points. Doesn't seem clever marketing to me but it's likely effective at targeting other groups and the adds are almost funny.
Highly reccomend the power switch website whether you need a new power company or not to all the CC legends out there. Hard to beat a passive saving
Considering moving from Contact to Frank. Any recent feedback? Also, it says they accept all major credit cards for payment. Does that include AMEX and any surcharge?
@LordSnow You need to use the official referral link option which you can do from this page https://www.cheapies.nz/deals/flickelectric.co.nz
Hi Frank have quietly dropped their $50.00 referral code and increased their daily charges.
Was thinking of signing up. How much did your daily charge go up? For me it’s quoting 1.03 for low user and 1.73 for standard user (including GST). Just wondering if those are the bait prices and if they’ll raise it on me soon after
In Christchurch as a low user my daily charge went from 60c to 90c, which felt like a big step up, with uncontrolled rate of 20.7c/kWh and night rate of 14c/kWh.
I believe the change from 60c to 90c is related to the phasing out of the low use plans. Being rolled out in 5 years, starting 2022.
@CrashAndBurn: It seems to be a bit of a con, because power companies are supposed to decrease their unit rates to compensate. But from my experience they have also increased the unit rate as well. They will probably use the argument that they haven't increased the unit rate by as much as they would have. But that is impossible to know and this does allow them to increase their margins. They should never have removed the low user rate, as that encourages people to use less power.
@nzmax: Agree as that is what Contact notified me (increase in both daily rate and unit rate) hence looking elsewhere.
@CrashAndBurn: Frank did this to me recently too, but there weren't really any cheaper options I could find. So not much competition in the market. But I get free LPG bottle rental with Frank if I have my power with them.
I did a big shop around a month ago in Auckland and found Frank to be the cheapest - No complaints from my end so far. App is useful and setting up the account was easy enough!
Prices vary from region to region, in Otago, I found Flick to be cheapest @ 24 cents per kwh including gst for off peak. I was with frank briefly (1 month) before I changed over because I realised they were more expensive than flick and contact.
I'm about to as well after I go through the joining bonus ones. I find their prices to be the lowest since I'm looking for a fixed rate. Plus, I am very favoring with their business model.