We at Energy Choice Experts see all kinds of tricks played by the electric providers. That is one of the primary reasons we started our company, because you, the customer, are getting tricked into paying more for electricity than you should. Let's look at how this happens.

Here is a snapshot of a featured "Exclusive 12 Mo Plan" from one of the many sites on the web where you can shop for electric plans:

Wow, 5.9 cents including delivery charges looks pretty good, right? Well, let's look a little deeper. Here is the Electric Facts Label that goes along with this plan.

The plan states you will be charged $59 dollars for anything between 0-1000 kWh, and another $59 for anything from 1001-2000 kWh. This allows them to show a 5.9 cent rate on the facts label above because you pay $59 if you use exactly 1000 kWh and $118 ($59+$59) if you use exactly 2000 kWh. However, if you use 1001 kWh you're going to pay the same $118 for an effective rate of 11.8 cents per kWh ($118 / 1001). So, if you're going to use exactly 1000 kWh per month or exactly 2000 kWh per month, then this is the plan for you. In reality, this is not going to happen and you'll end up paying too much. Additionally, they charged a rate of 8.9 cents/kWh for usage above 2000 kWh. This is more than 2 cents/kWh higher than the best plans and will hit customers the hardest in the summer months when they use their A/C.

We compared two of our customers to this plan from February. One customer had higher usage ranging between 1600-3450 kWh per month with an annual average of 2270 kWh, and the other customer had lower usage ranging between 1100-2900 per month with an annual average of 1830 kWh per month. Note that both customers are close to a 2000 kWh/month average usage, so they may have thought the above rate was a great deal at 5.9 cents/kWh. However, this trick would have cost our higher use customer $81 and our lower use customer $231 if they would have chose this tricky plan over the ECE recommended plan.

Energy Choice Experts is here to cut through all the tricks the electric companies play. We're here to make sure you pay the absolute Lowest Annual Cost. When you're within 14 days of your contract renewal, sign up with ECE and we'll send your Lowest Annual Cost analysis within 24 hours.