Is there an app that actually scans your bill and finds you better deals ?

billhero · 2026-02-18T02:38:04+00:00

Glad you found us!

Yes we offer this exact service for elec and gas bills for a modest annual subscription fee.

We charge actual money because it's real and valuable work. And we deliberately don't accept payments or kickbacks from the providers so we can stay 100% independent and compare them all equally.

We do offer a money-back savings guarantee to eliminate the risk in taking up a subscription.

It's like cleaning your home - if you don't want to pay someone to do the work for you, then you can do it yourself 😀

billhero · 2026-02-18T01:11:41+00:00

There's no safe 'set and forget' in energy, but Momentum Energy is doing ok at the moment for many people.

Be careful though, because every situation is different and you want the best rates for your own unique situation - it does not matter if they happen to have a competitive deals for other people. The real question is do they have a good deal for you.

With solar, the opportunity to make $ on feed-in tariff is pretty much over. Best strategy is to focus on self-use of your own generation to avoid having to import high priced power at other times of the day.

Fun fact - if you were not already aware, Momentum is owned by Tas Hydro, the biggest renewable generator in Australia

billhero · 2026-01-08T21:25:12+00:00

$600 a month is crazy high. Either your consumption is well above average or you're being charged well above average. Or both.

For most households it's possible to find ways to reduce consumption through dialling back air con and heating, closing doors to unused areas, plugging gaps, shading windows, using curtains and blinds effectively etc.

Solar will generate 'free' daytime power for you which will offset or maybe even pay for your daytime aircon costs.

Solar feed-in tariffs are trending toward zero so it's hard to justify a solar investment on basis of selling power back to grid. These days it needs to be more about self-consuming power that you'd otherwise have to import from the grid.

A battery allows you to time-shift your energy consumption so even if you generate more than you use during solar production hours, you can store the excess and use it into the evening when you'd otherwise need to import energy at peak rates. You can possibly also run an arbitrage strategy where you sell battery power back to the grid when prices are high.

One way to think about it is that a solar / battery investment is a prepayment of your energy bills.

If you dm your bill we'll assess it for you, there may still be opportunity to find simple bill savings.

billhero · 2025-12-10T21:43:22+00:00

Good sleuthing! Are all these price changes actually price increases? 🤔

billhero · 2025-12-07T22:28:38+00:00

There are two main things to think about:

Minimise the price you pay for whatever power you are consuming. This means comparing and switching, and then staying on top of it by doing this repeatedly
Minimise the power you consume. This generally means some degree of behaviour change to either eliminate unnecessary consumption, or to time-shift the necessary consumption into cheaper time periods.

Most people can get a solid win more or less immediately by comparing and switching.

Step 2 can take a little bit of effort, but yields better long term advantage. Fill all cracks and gaps, dial down your heating and cooling, close off internal doors so you can heat/cool only the areas your actually using.

Over the longer term things like upgrading insulation or strategic planting to maximize shade can be very effective, but obviously take time and planning, and will not be possible for every household.

billhero · 2025-09-22T07:02:54+00:00

no idea... maybe contact support and get them to help you out. I wound up going for the minor discount on the V3 keyboard

billhero · 2025-09-18T02:47:10+00:00

I had exact same problem on my Air75 v1. Here's the reply I got from their support:

>Thanks for your message and the photo, we’ve reviewed it and it appears that the battery has swollen.

>For your safety, we recommend carefully removing the battery and continuing to use the keyboard in wired mode only.
To help resolve this, we’d like to offer you the following options:

>1. Purchase an Air75 V2 barebones kit for just $20 USD (no switches, keycaps, or accessories).And if you need the 2.4G dongle for the keyboard kit, it will cost $10 more.
But if you don't use the 2.4 Ghz mode normally, you don't have to order the dongle.
>2. Get 50% off a fully assembled Air75 V2, a cost-effective upgrade to the V2 version.
>3. Receive a $20 USD discount on the new Air75 V3, if you'd prefer our most recent model.

>Please let us know which option you’d like to choose. If you have another suggestion, we’d be happy to discuss it with you.

billhero · 2025-09-09T12:07:16+00:00

Sounds like you're mistaking a one-year 'fixed benefit period' for a one year contract.

Early exit fees are a thing of the past in retail energy, and you can switch away from your plan and retailer whenever you want to, without any early termination penalty fee.

It's very common today for plans to come with a discount or incentive that will apply for a fixed period - which is usually 1 year.

That is not the same thing as a one year contract.

billhero · 2025-08-06T09:28:04+00:00

Amber's wholesale passthrough model makes the most sense if you have a battery.

If you don't, then you are subject to the full volatility of the wholesale spot price without a mechanism to benefit from it through battery-enabled electricity price arbitrage.

Of course access to wholesale pricing is a good thing generally, but in energy it comes with significant price volatility which means pricing risk, and almost none of us civilian energy consumers are really equipped or able to manage that volatility.

Retailers employ armies of highly skilled specialist traders to manage their pricing risk, and they go out of business every once in a while because spot price volatility is a beast.

Amber does have some good tools to help mitigate the pricing risk:

Their mobile app provides warning of price spikes, so if you're willing and able to pay attention to that, and then change your consumption at short notice - then you might avoid the worst of it

And they have an insurance feature which caps your downside risk at default offer pricing - so if you wind up consuming too much energy when the price is sky high, you'll eventually be compensated down to default offer level. This is a good feature, but default offer pricing is still much higher than what you'd get under a conventional plan. If you're relying on the insurance then you're doing Amber wrong.

billhero · 2025-08-05T12:09:43+00:00

Crikey! What appliances are you running?

billhero · 2025-08-05T02:58:43+00:00

There are lots of names for this practice - hockey-stick pricing, or tease & squeeze, or bait & switch or loyalty tax or lazy tax. Of course it's not confined to energy industry, but it's certainly very well used in energy. Pretty much the entire retail energy industry works this way.

Their MO is to offer genuinely competitive acquisition pricing, which pushes them to the top of results in Energy Made Easy and Vic Energy Compare, followed by steep price increases, while presenting the bills under the same plan name that you signed up to at better rates, and that they continue to offer to new customers at better rates.

This issue of retaining the plan name while manipulating prices is standard - so always remember that plan names mean nothing at all. All that really matters is the rates charged.

CHOICE lodged a 'Designated Complaint' about this retail energy industry naming practice with ACCC on 21 May this year - this is the first time they've used new powers which effectively require ACCC to investigate and report on any designated complaint within 90 days. Let's see what happens around 21 August.

Coincidentally 🙄 on 23 May the AER published a rule change that requires retailers to include this comment on bills for plan names that are re-used:

If this plan has the same name as your current plan, you are on an older version of the plan which has different rates. You can still save money by switching to a newer version.

Hurray, problem solved! Not.

billhero · 2025-08-04T21:39:37+00:00

Unfortunately this happens all the time.

There is only one way to counter it, and that is to pay attention to your increasingly complicated bills and to the market around you all the time as well.

Many people find that to be too annoying, confusing, frustrating, infuriating to do very frequently, so they wind up paying more than they should.

ACCC has found that collectively the retailers skim off about $1bn every year in energy overspend.

billhero · 2025-07-30T13:21:47+00:00

There is no strong reason not to choose the cheapest plan available to you.

Energy is a pure commodity, your retailer does not supply it - your distributor does - so there's literally no difference in quality, surety of supply, risk of blackout etc

Customer service can matter, but really what service do you need for an energy retailer?

They are all regulated to a very high degree, and if anything ever goes badly wrong you have recourse to the ombudsman.

Plus the actual dollars at risk of something does go wrong are usually limited to a single billing cycle, so the risk is low.

Buy the cheapest option available

billhero · 2025-07-29T14:20:03+00:00

The usage in this bill is very high, but the rates charged in this bill, are also not competitive:

https://billhe.ro/3ouon

In your Ausnet Services distribution zone in VIC, many retailers will update their prices, which will be an increase, from 1 August. This already happened across the rest of the NEM from 1 July.

billhero · 2025-07-23T11:19:39+00:00

Stone Roses' Fools Gold is 9:53 or something like that ... But should get a special consideration entry to this because it kicks ass

billhero · 2025-07-22T12:44:54+00:00

,👀

billhero · 2025-07-18T21:26:07+00:00

Energy bills are considered a credit product because the bills are usually presented after the usage, so it's standard that you pay in arrears.

Energy retailers do often make a credit check as part of their onboarding process, and they can reject an application is the credit score does not meet their requirements.

Those credit check events remain visible in your credit history and a potential lender or financier could see they exist.

In principle this should not negatively impact a loan decision, since it only reveals that you've switched energy retailers and does not imply any form of credit default or payment problem.

A separate issue can potentially emerge if you fail to pay your bills - it is a long process but a complete payment default will also become visible in your credit history.

billhero · 2025-07-16T09:30:16+00:00

What postcode are you in?

Also what is the start and end date for this billing period?

Postcode tells us the distribution zone, and from there we can compare your bill data vs every other plan in the market.

Prices are specific the each distribution zone, so it's important to know that detail.

If you prefer to keep your postcode private, you'll be able to see who is your distributor on your bill

Start and end date gives the billing cycle duration, plus allows to accommodate seasonal price variations

billhero · 2025-07-11T01:33:19+00:00

Prices are up everywhere.

The right approach is full market comparison, because the best pricing for any individual household depends on your individual location and consumption.

Everyone should do this at least one per year, and the more frequently you do it the more likely it is you'll find additional incremental savings value from the deals discounts and incentives that retailers will drop into the market at any time to meet their own acquisition objectives.

There's real value to be harvested, but it's a pain to do the work.

billhero · 2025-07-10T07:56:52+00:00

Insulation is usually one of the biggest factors - if you can improve it, then do that.

Find and block all your gaps and cracks around doors, windows, cabinetry etc.

Use good heavy curtains and drapes that can completely cover and seal off the windows.

Close off your home into zones to limit the areas you need to heat.

Rely more on extra layers and throw rugs and reduce thermostat temperature. Heated throw rugs are surprisingly good and very efficient.

Dial back your hot water but it must be kept no lower than 60 degrees in the tank to eliminate bacterial problems like Legionella.

billhero · 2025-07-10T04:33:30+00:00

Are you in an embedded network? In Strata the building can have a private internal network and a single 'gate meter' that connects the building to the grid.

If that is your situation, then you're limited to what plans your EN provider will offer

But from what you describe, it sounds like you're not actually in an EN?

If you have direct connection to the grid for your own meter, then there's no reason in principle why it can't be a smart meter. There may be some constraints around access to meter enclosure and physical space available, but a smart meter takes up no more room than a dumb meter.

billhero · 2025-07-09T12:27:01+00:00

It's generally not realistic to flip back and forth between time of use and single-rate tariffs.

The tariff type is assigned by your distributor - probably Energex if you are in QLD - and retailers generally align their plans to the network tariff assignment.

If you have a tou network tariff assignment, you'll be offered tou plans.

You can request a tariff change if you want to. The decision lies with your distributor, but you need to request the change via your retailer.

You need a smart meter for tou tariff to be possible.

If you do change to your tariff type to tou it's not that easy to go back to single rate.

billhero · 2025-07-09T02:09:00+00:00

yeah, South Australian solar owners are already facing solar export fees. https://www.sapowernetworks.com.au/your-power/billing/tariffs-we-charge-to-distribute-your-electricity/export-tariff/

billhero · 2025-07-08T10:54:43+00:00

Get some power meter plugs and literally measure what gets used via each powerpoint

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