How do I switch?

Switching energy plans is simple, but there are several steps in the process, including a mandatory cooling-off period that is required under the retail energy regulations. 

It takes about 15 business days, or 3 calendar weeks of elapsed time, to complete a switch. 

Here's everything you need to know:

Choose a new plan

Before switching, you need to choose which retailer and plan you want to switch to. 

Most people switch in order to save money, and a core part of the Bill Hero service is to automatically monitor and analyse and compare every bill for you, to identity which retailer and plan would deliver the best financial outcome for you.

Your Bill Hero results include a link to a personalised comparison showing you a ranked list of plans, with the relevant annualised savings calculated for you on each. You can filter these results in various ways, and choose the plan and retailer you prefer that both meets your requirements as an energy consumer, and gives you the right price and savings outcomes.

We have detailed information about this results screen here: Bill Hero results screen explained

Place your order

To begin the switch process, you need to place an order with the retailer. Most retailers can accept new orders via their website and via phone, and Bill Hero can facilitate order placement with participating 'Seamless Switching' retailers.

All retailers will need the following information in the application:

• The energy plan you're signing up for
• Your name & contact information
• Your ID—driver license, medicare, or passport number
• Your supply address and meter number
• Your billing address (if different from supply address)
• Your concession details if relevant
• Medical devices declaration — there are regulatory safeguards around energy supply to households where residents rely on power for medical and life-support devices such as medically prescribed heating or cooling, CPAP devices, dialysis machines etc. Retailers are obliged to ask if such devices are used in customer's premises, and to update a central register with the information.

There's no need to inform your old retailer that you're switching to a new provider. The old retailer will automatically be informed as part of the switching process.

Seamless Switching

For participating Seamless Switching retailers, you can click through to the order placement form from the 'Details' page for your chosen plan without having to leave the Bill Hero online environment at all. 

We have information about the Bill Hero plan details screen here : here.

Most of the required information is already present in your bill, so for Seamless Switching retailers, Bill Hero will pre-populate most of the signup form for you. If your chosen retailer does not yet support Seamless Switching, then we'll give you the details for you to sign up yourself – see Self Serve section below.

It takes work on both sides to establish the individual processes and technical integrations required for Seamless Switching, and Bill Hero is constantly working to establish these relationships with more retailers.

Self-serve 

Bill Hero compares plans from every retailer in the market, not just those we have existing relationships with. For retailers that do not yet participate in Bill Hero's Seamless Switching, we ask you to sign yourself up using that retailer's standard online signup mechanism. We'll provide the retailer's web address and phone number, plus the details of the recommended plan for you.

Can Bill Hero just sign me up on my behalf?

Unfortunately, the current retail energy regulations prevent an intermediary like Bill Hero from actually signing you up to a new energy plan and retailer on your behalf.

This is due to the Explicit Informed Consent regulatory requirement, where retailers must only take on new customers who have explicitly consented to enter an energy supply agreement after being fully informed about the details for that plan. This requires you as the end customer to be directly informed of the details, and to explicitly agree to the terms—Bill Hero cannot legally provide consent on your behalf.

However, things are changing: in Retail Electricity Pricing Enquiry in 2017-18, the ACCC made a formal recommendation that “consumers should be able to provide their consent to third party intermediaries to give EIC on their behalf.” This change would require every retailer to participate in a system where they must accept new customer orders via intermediaries like Bill Hero, using a standardised mechanism.

We look forward to including this in our service when the regulations allow us to.

Application review

It typically takes 2 or 3 business days for a retailer to review an application, however there is no fixed time frame for this, and it's possible this step might take longer than this. Retailers will often perform a credit check as part of the initial review, and they may reject an application if they deem the credit check result to be inadequate.

Retailers also may have policies where they can reject applications from certain localities or postcodes. These policies may exist even where an affected locality falls into a distribution zone that they more generally do serve. See our support article The retailer won't serve my address for more information.

Welcome pack

After review, the retailer will send you a Welcome Pack, containing all the detailed information about the energy plan, the rates to be charged, the fee schedule, plus their terms and conditions of supply.

This step is a crucial part of the EIC regime, since it is here that you are considered to have been fully informed about the plan you're signing up for.

 Cooling off period

The retail energy rules require a 10 business day cooling-off period to elapse from the date of receipt of the Welcome Pack before the transfer of your meter to the new retailer can be started. 

You can cancel your order at any time and for any reason during the cooling-off period without penalty. If you do, the switch will be cancelled, and you'll remain with your original retailer.

Ten business days means 2 weeks of elapsed time, and possibly longer than that if there are public holidays in that period.

Transfer

Once the cooling-off period has elapsed, the transfer of your meter to the new retailer can occur. Transfer is facilitated through an industry-wide back-end system that all retailers use to access the meter data required to generate your bills. Your old retailer will relinquish responsibility for your meter, and your new retailer will take up the responsibility.

You may recall having to wait until the next meter reading for the transfer to be completed. New regulation caps the transfer window at 2 days.