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Speaker 1: There's an annual electricity and gas price survey and it's

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Speaker 1: organized by Saint Vincent de Paul. And if you're thinking

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Speaker 1: I need to switch and or at least compare the market,

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Speaker 1: as they say, and see what else is out there,

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Speaker 1: well this information may prove invaluable to you if you're

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Speaker 1: in that position. Gavin Dufty is from Saint Vinis and

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Speaker 1: he is on the line. Ohio, Gavin, good morning, Mattia,

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Speaker 1: and what have you found out?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, what we found out at a high level,

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Speaker 2: we've seen electricity prices come down one or two percent,

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Speaker 2: so not a lot, not down a little bit. Gas prices,

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Speaker 2: on the other hand, have gone up by about eight

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Speaker 2: to ten percent. What else we found is sort of dispersion,

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Speaker 2: what we call dispersion. So between the best and worst

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Speaker 2: market offer out there, there's a difference of about five

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars, which is quite a lot. And

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Speaker 2: if you've never switched, and there's probably about five percent

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Speaker 2: of households in South Australia that haven't, the difference between

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Speaker 2: the default the demo, the default market offer and the

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Speaker 2: best market offer is about six hundred and fifty dollars,

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Speaker 2: So there's a little bit of savings on the tables

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Speaker 2: out there for electricity if people haven't sort of freshened

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Speaker 2: up their bill and so gas. What you want to

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Speaker 2: do is want to make sure that you minimize how

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Speaker 2: much your gas costs have gone up.

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Speaker 3: So how can you best do that?

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Speaker 2: Look what we recommend as you go to the Australian

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Speaker 2: energy regulators energy made Easy. So whack that into a

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Speaker 2: search engine energy made Easy. Scroll down. It won't be

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Speaker 2: the paid advertising ones because government don't pay the advertise.

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Speaker 2: Jump onto that, bring your bill with you and grab

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Speaker 2: yourself a cup of tea, coffee, whatever, whatever you'd like.

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Speaker 2: It'll take you about ten to fifteen minutes center. It'll

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Speaker 2: sort of give you an idea about what's out there

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Speaker 2: in the market. It'll tell you how much savings there

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Speaker 2: is between the various contracts that are there. It'll talk about,

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Speaker 2: you know, are there conditional discounts you don't pay on time,

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Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff. Then if you can compare

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Speaker 2: that back to your bill, you're saying I'm not doing

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Speaker 2: too bad and say well two is I'm not on

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Speaker 2: a good deal here, and then call up the company

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Speaker 2: and go ahead and switch.

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Speaker 3: Okay, should you take the cheapest deal.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are there any pitfalls in that just going

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Speaker 1: You know, sometimes we hear you get the cheapest deal,

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Speaker 1: it may not necessarily be the best deal long term.

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Speaker 3: Does that apply in this case?

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Speaker 2: Look, there is a regulatory framework. All the retailers have

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Speaker 2: to provide certain things, you know, billing, tam and arrangements,

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Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff. What you find is some

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Speaker 2: of the cheaper ones are all online and all electronic.

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Speaker 2: So basically, if you're comfortable having a bill email to

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Speaker 2: you and everything electronic, they tend to be the cheaper

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Speaker 2: ones because they've got less customer interaction, less paper bills,

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Speaker 2: whereas the other ones, which are more analog, shall we say,

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Speaker 2: tend to be a little bit higher. Another thing to

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Speaker 2: note is you're probably the more known brands, the blue ones,

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Speaker 2: the green ones, the orange ones tend to have bigger

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Speaker 2: call centers, So if you do get industry and you're

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Speaker 2: making call, often they'll have people, whereas others might have chatbot.

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Speaker 2: So there's different customer service approaches. But I have to

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Speaker 2: stress that they all have to provide the what's in

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Speaker 2: the National Energy Consumer Framework, so that the outcome should

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Speaker 2: be the same. The delivery method might change, all.

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Speaker 3: Right, so things to look out for that, you know.

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Speaker 1: I've often had the view, Gavin, that if your energy

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Speaker 1: provider was good enough to say you're on the default

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Speaker 1: market offer, we can do better for you. Here's here's

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Speaker 1: a cheaper deal. No one would be switching because we'd

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Speaker 1: go that's great. No one would probably be comparing because

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Speaker 1: we know we're being looked after, at least, you know,

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Speaker 1: to a degree by our own retailer. But they don't.

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Speaker 1: And that amuses me, puzzles me. Why wouldn't they For goodness.

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Speaker 2: Well, I've got no idea, Matthew, because I agree with you.

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Speaker 2: I call it the two hundred thousand dollars question. If

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Speaker 2: you were to stay with one energy retailer from let's say,

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Speaker 2: for sixty years, just so you move out home at eighteen.

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Speaker 2: In sixty years, it's about two hundred thousand dollars one

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of electricity if you

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Speaker 2: didn't have solar. You'd think they'd want to keep you

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Speaker 2: to the long term and do exactly what you're saying.

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Speaker 2: But this industry doesn't work like that. If you're loyal,

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Speaker 2: if you snooze you lose, they gouge you, and you

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Speaker 2: start to see that in other and other places, like insurance.

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Speaker 2: Recently it's had the same problem. So you know, you've

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Speaker 2: got to look after yourself because they're not going to

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Speaker 2: look after you. Some sort of slowly boil you, others

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Speaker 2: boil you quick. So what we suggest to people is

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Speaker 2: it's sort of like you know, annually you're meant to

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Speaker 2: check your smoke alarms. We'd sort of encourage people to

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Speaker 2: annually grab your electricity and gaspell just freshened up and

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Speaker 2: make sure that you're not getting dutted.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, it's good advice.

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Speaker 1: And I suppose because your insurance bill comes once a year,

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Speaker 1: you're more likely to check that the energy bill just

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Speaker 1: rolls through and so so you're not you're just okay,

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Speaker 1: here it is, I'm paying it. And the way we

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Speaker 1: got to know is that what it is with just

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Speaker 1: accustomed to that, maybe it is.

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Speaker 2: Like I think it's just a custom that electricity is

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Speaker 2: arcane language as well. It doesn't come out with a

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Speaker 2: flat annual price. You get killer wats and mega jewels. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: nobody knows what they exactly, and you know, and it's

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Speaker 2: easy to forget as you said, you sort of like

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Speaker 2: they take little little lumps out of you monthly rather

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Speaker 2: than one big lump annually. And the big lump comes

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Speaker 2: up and you go, jeez, that's not I don't want that.

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Speaker 2: Whereas if it's a little bit slightly you'd sort of

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Speaker 2: slightly boil the frog. And they say, that's why we

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Speaker 2: do this annually, you know, just to sort of refresh

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Speaker 2: and give people their heads up that say, hey, don't

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Speaker 2: forget check your bills.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay.

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Speaker 1: So Origin Energy this year with electricity came in just

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Speaker 1: a little bit cheaper than AGL. They were fourth and fifth.

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Speaker 1: Top of the shop was or the list was power

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Speaker 1: Shop never heard of them, Cogan Energy, Sumo, Power Energy, Locals, Nectar,

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Speaker 1: then Origin and AGL.

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Speaker 3: Yep.

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Speaker 2: Now that's all at a particular conces level. The rankings

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Speaker 2: change based on consumption and all that sort of stuff.

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Speaker 2: So that's just for our you know, that's what the

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Speaker 2: number we put in there. But what it does so

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Speaker 2: show to you that some of the smaller ones they

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Speaker 2: do offer keener But as I said before, a lot

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Speaker 2: of those are sort of online type approaches and platforms.

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Speaker 2: But what we've also found over the years is they

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Speaker 2: tend to bounce around a lot more as well, so

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Speaker 2: you've got to be on your toes more. You've got

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Speaker 2: to be more on your toes with the smaller ones.

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Speaker 2: The other thing i'd say. The other thing i'd say

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Speaker 2: is all of them have to provide providentials, you know,

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Speaker 2: security deposits for one of the better word to the

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Speaker 2: energy market. So they are all safe. Unless there's something

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Speaker 2: chaotic happens in the energy market. They are all safe,

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Speaker 2: so you're not going to get hung out to dry.

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Speaker 2: And as I said before, they're all required to deliver

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Speaker 2: the National Energy Consumer Framework, so there are obligations on

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Speaker 2: service delivery on them.

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Speaker 1: All right, Given what you've said about some of the

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Speaker 1: smaller ones fluctuating, are you then better off long term

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Speaker 1: over that six here period sticking to an AGL or

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Speaker 1: an origin and just ringing them up and hassling them

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Speaker 1: for the best price every year.

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Speaker 2: Again, I won't give any particular advice to anybody, but

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Speaker 2: I know some people will do that. It's certainty about

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Speaker 2: It's simple, it's easy. Some people see that the personal

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Speaker 2: cost of going on and looking and churning all the time,

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Speaker 2: as they call it, it's just a headache, they'd rather

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Speaker 2: sit pretty Also, as I said before, that the bigger

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Speaker 2: ones tend to have more robust call centers, so and

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Speaker 2: that might be important for people that might be seeking

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Speaker 2: more assistance or whatever. They tend to have a little

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Speaker 2: bit more robust call center.

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Speaker 1: Interesting with the gas bills, where LUMO energy is the cheapest,

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Speaker 1: as you've worked out and you look at A we're

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Speaker 1: aging well, agl are roughly in about the same spot,

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Speaker 1: give or take. But Origin a down the list a

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Speaker 1: fair bit for gas. That's interesting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what happens there is it's not a big spread

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Speaker 2: in the gas market, about one hundred and fifteen dollars

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Speaker 2: between best and worse. You've got two types of contracting

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Speaker 2: in the gas market, long term firm or short term nonfirm.

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Speaker 2: So what you find is the little ones come in

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Speaker 2: and they go short term, short term nonfirm contract so

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Speaker 2: they get what's left over, the crumbs off the plate,

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Speaker 2: if you like, and then they package that up and

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Speaker 2: that makes them cheaper. But the crumbs off the plate

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Speaker 2: each year, the price is a lot more volatile. Whereas

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Speaker 2: the origins and the bigger ones have got long term

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Speaker 2: firm contracts, so they will be that price, but there's

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Speaker 2: some certainty in there. And again, as I just mentioned before, Matthew,

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Speaker 2: the difference between best and worse is not a lot

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Speaker 2: relative to electricity.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Interesting, Gavin. It's a great list and for people if

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Speaker 1: they want to find it. I suppose your website a

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Speaker 1: good place to start.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. If you go to put in Vinnie's Tariff tracker

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Speaker 2: and that should get it up to you and then

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Speaker 2: go to South Australia and the reports up online and

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Speaker 2: knock yourself out again. It just to have to stress

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Speaker 2: it is guidanced. It is not saying that that's the

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Speaker 2: one for you. I encourage people to go to the

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Speaker 2: Australian Energy regulators Energy made.

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Speaker 1: Easy, Yeah, and put in your meet and number and

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Speaker 1: everything else and check it out yourself.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you got it. That good on you, Gavin,

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Speaker 3: appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Gavin Dufty, Saint Vincent de Paul and their

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Speaker 1: energy tracker. So just google that Vinie's Energy tracker and

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Speaker 1: you'll find it and go to essays.

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Speaker 3: Gavin said,