IChoosr is a European electricity aggregator that recently entered the Texas Retail Electricity market and is making some big savings claims. We decided to review their offering and put their savings claims to the test. (Spoiler alert: They might save you money, but they seldom get you the best deal.)
The objective of an electricity aggregator is to get as many people signed up to its group as possible and to then use the large size of the load to negotiate the best deal with the electricity companies. Professional buyers typically use large volume as leverage to push down a supplier’s price. But does this strategy work for the Texas residential consumer? Let’s take a look.
We put IChoosr to the test to see if its aggregation method beat our apples-to-apples lowest annual cost method. IChoosr’s pilot program in Fate, Texas (Fate Power Switch) was effective 5/15/17 – 6/6/17, and its negotiated rate was 6.881 cents/kWh plus $5.25/month (this includes Oncor fees). Energy Choice Experts compared this offer to all of our clients’ plans during the same time period. Including our $35 fee, here’s what our customers saved versus using IChoosr:
- Overall, our customers saved an average of $80/year.
- 30% of our customers saved at least $100/year.
- 9% of our customers saved at least $200/year.
To be fair, we did find 9% of our customers would have saved money with iChoosr, but only an average of $10/year. For clarification, we found plans that were lower cost than iChoosr for 100% of our customers, but occasionally, the savings was less than our $35 fee, so our total cost was slightly higher.
Additionally, we found lower use customers (<10,000 kWh/year) and higher use customers (>30,000 kWh/year) were hurt the most by using IChoosr, paying on average $200/year and $125/year more respectively.
These results show that one size doesn't fit all. ECE dominates the savings for both the high users and the low users. IChoosr has only one plan to offer and it targets the "average" user, so users outside this average end up subsidizing the group. ECE beats IChoosr 91% of the time, but really spanks them for the high user and low users because we review over a hundred plans to find the one with the Lowest Annual Cost.
IChoosr’s next target is the city of Waco (Waco Power Switch). On 10/9/17, IChoosr will announce the deal, which will probably be available for a few short weeks like it was in Fate. Note that if you are in a contract with another provider and you use iChoosr, you may have to pay a cancellation fee of $100 to $200. ECE works year round so you can wait until your contract is up to avoid a big cancellation fee and get a better deal than iChoosr.
In summary, don’t get caught subsidizing other people’s electricity loads by choosing an aggregator rate. Sign up with Energy Choice Experts, and you will achieve the Lowest Annual Cost Electric Plan – guaranteed!