The Write Direction: comparison time of the year

THE way the weather is at the present time, we have the opportunity to remain inside and see what new changes have been made to contracts for our largest expenditures.

Our Council rates are a good starting point and despite the barrier to cost increases, (IPART etc.) they only seem to climb each year, usually well above those safety limits.

Then there are home and contents insurance premiums with the most aggressive increases, but it can be said that they are more obviously justified with property values at all time highs plus dramatic price rises for both building materials and construction wages.

The hidden devil in the detail is your postcode, some of which are declared to be areas of probable flood inundation, but no authority wants to be named for making that call.

Once you declare the 2324 postcode, the response usually is that we are unable to offer you a quote as none of our companies wish to insure property in that area.

Reliable insurance companies can still be found but there are few of them that need to be active in order to secure your business.

Electricity is the one most people mention when the monthly or quarterly bill arrives.

A new feature in these accounts is that the supplier must state if you are at the lowest cost rate and how you could save money if you move to a different plan.

Even though I have 10 KW of roof top solar, solar hot water plus a 10 KW solar battery, my costs are miniscule, but I thought I would go through the process with my supplier in order to see if there is a beneficial surprise waiting for me. They thought I could save money by switching to a different plan but said that if I was not happy with the results achieved by the new plan, I could not change back to the plan I now have.

A red flag for me.

The new plan offered was 2 cents per KWH higher for peak, 3 cents higher for shoulder and half a cent higher for off-peak.

The only difference in order to make my bill cost less was that greatly irritating “daily availability fee” which was 18 cents less per day.

The miniscule 4 cents per KWH for my solar feed-in credit remained the same for both options.

I obviously remained with the deal I have now, but the fact remains that you can be led to believe anything you are told when they do the arithmetic in this fashion.

Comparing deals regularly is the only way we can survive price increases on these necessities we can’t live without.

By John BLACKBOURN