I am trying to assist my father-in-law with setting up an energy ogre account. It is my understanding they place with you with a different company every 6 months or so depending on rate.

He has placed a credit freez on all of his credit reporting (experian, transunion, etc). He is concerned that he will have to lift all of those. Does energy ogre continue to run soft checks or do they only do it initially?

We are attempting to reach out to them, too, just wanted to see if anyone here knew.

It is an issue. They were trying to move me to a cheaper plan but couldn't because of my credit freeze so they just left me on the same plan. Definitely a downside to Credit Freezes and a hiccup in the Energy Ogre business model.

I have an alert on my credit, they've worked around that...I'll typically get a call from the new provider before everything gets finalized.

I suspect a freeze would make for an issue. Every provider is going to treat you like a new customer and run checks, Ogre just does the legwork for you. But probably not a very good freeze if they can circumvent it.

I tried signing up with them, asked who they sourced my credit report from, and paid for a temporary lift of the credit freeze. Energy Ogre then decided to shop with a different energy provider that used a different source for the credit score and the freeze prevented the search. I was told I would have to make a significant deposit instead. I ended up cancelling with Energy Ogre.

Thanks all. That's disappointing. I guess we will just help him shop manually. Thanks again!

Yeah credit freezes and Energy Ogre don't work well together.

The two or three cheapest options were requiring a $300 refundable deposit because they couldn't verify my payment history due to my credit freeze. Well instead of telling me that, Ogre just signed me up with the first company not requiring a deposit... resulting in a ~60% increase is cost.

I caught it in time and told them I'd pay the stupid deposit. I did that and just had to have my old utility provider email me a letter or credit... I forwarded it and had the deposit refunded the next day.

Ogre needs to fix their process.

Seems like this isn't an Energy Ogre issue. The provider is doing the credit check as it is their policy. You hire energy ogre to do a job but put road blocks in the way that prevents them from doing that job.

Energy ogre should provide a payment history for you. Shouldn't they have enough clout by now to be able to vouch for you?

schmendeler said:

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Energy ogre should provide a payment history for you. Shouldn't they have enough clout by now to be able to vouch for you?

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not if you are a new customer which seems to be the case in the OP.

I think EO is an Aggie owned (or at least operated?) company. They respond pretty regularly on the Home Improvement board. I'd be surprised if they don't have an answer....especially if you email them directly and mention TexAgs. They have received a LOT of business from this site, me included.

Stop being lazy shop for your own rate.

It's not hard at all to shop your own rate. Look at your previous 12 months of usage and just go to powertochoose.org. My last shopping took a whole 15 minutes and I dropped my monthly rate $13.

Yep.

Made my own spreadsheet...get the feed from Power to choose and I'm done in few minutes.

basically what EO does...although good for them for making a profitable business out of it.

GoAgs92 said:

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Yep.

Made my own spreadsheet...get the feed from Power to choose and I'm done in few minutes.

basically what EO does...although good for them for making a profitable business out of it.

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Do you continue to shop rates and plans every day you're under contract?

Ducks4brkfast said:

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GoAgs92 said:

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Yep.

Made my own spreadsheet...get the feed from Power to choose and I'm done in few minutes.

basically what EO does...although good for them for making a profitable business out of it.

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Do you continue to shop rates and plans every day you're under contract?

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How do they get around early termination fees?

The Wonderer said:

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Ducks4brkfast said:

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GoAgs92 said:

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Yep.

Made my own spreadsheet...get the feed from Power to choose and I'm done in few minutes.

basically what EO does...although good for them for making a profitable business out of it.

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Do you continue to shop rates and plans every day you're under contract?

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How do they get around early termination fees?

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They don't.

They signed me up for a 12-month contract, and about 4 months into it, they notify me a new plan with someone else had just popped up, and when factoring in the $200.00 early termination fee, I would save well over and above that with the cheaper rate.

Anyone here ever try GoGriddy?

So the only similarity is that its a pay/month service like EO ($10.80 w/tax), however, you are joining a group that is like a utility and you only pay what the market rate of electricity is at that time.

For Houston, market rates change every 15 min/ so I was not exactly trusting of Go Griddy's marketing about how cheap the average electricity was for a given month (especially the summer).

They also don't show the pass through charges from centerpoint, which are fixed at $.045913/kWh and $5.47/month.

I pulled my data for the entire year off Texas Smart Meter, and I am running a real costing event from historical market pricing from last year. Might take me a little bit to get through a whole years worth, but its fun for me.

Once I get done with my analysis, I'll show you guys what costing from Griddy looked like against a plan I had from Our Energy that Energy Ogre selected for me. I dropped EO b/c they do not provide enough of a service for me to justify the $10/month when they sign me up for a 12 month plan. The previous 4 plans just ran till the end and kept getting longer.

Anyways, anybody's thoughts on GoGriddy are appreciated!

I think a lot depends on your usage. I live in a new apartment, so my bills at their most under a contract were $49. Now they're locked at $36.XX because I've never used more than 847 kWh. Compare that to my mom's old house that routinely burned more than 2000 kWh and had bills >$600.

More than $600? Jesus

so you pay an extra $200 three times a year plus $10 per month for a total of $720 extra...my entire bill for the year is only about $1,100 on my plan if I work it right.

Plus EO gets a commission on all of your new signups...those guys are geniuses.

The Wonderer said:

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It's not hard at all to shop your own rate. Look at your previous 12 months of usage and just go to powertochoose.org. My last shopping took a whole 15 minutes and I dropped my monthly rate $13.

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Not all rates are published. PCT narrows you down by zip code. Ogre does not.

JSKolache said:

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The Wonderer said:

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It's not hard at all to shop your own rate. Look at your previous 12 months of usage and just go to powertochoose.org. My last shopping took a whole 15 minutes and I dropped my monthly rate $13.

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Not all rates are published. PCT narrows you down by zip code. Ogre does not.

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And if you know what you're doing, you can get plans outside your zipcode. I live in 008, but my plan is from 389. Still works.

schmendeler said:

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More than $600? Jesus

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Big ass house with big ass pool.

Wonderer is right you have to download the full list of offers from PTC, EO has no top secret rates. They just pretend they do.

again, those guys are geniuses!

"I too have an Electric Plans Search Tool, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than PowerToChoose, and my Tool works!"

If you know and shop by your monthly usages --- especially with PTC --- plug them in here and see if you get the same answer: http://www.texaspowerguide.com/

If you choose to share your usage numbers, it'll also monitor daily and alert you to better deals as they arise. (But you have to do the sign-ups yourself.)

GoAgs92 said:

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so you pay an extra $200 three times a year plus $10 per month for a total of $720 extra...my entire bill for the year is only about $1,100 on my plan if I work it right.

Plus EO gets a commission on all of your new signups...those guys are geniuses.

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can someone translate this for me

GoAgs92 said:

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Wonderer is right you have to download the full list of offers from PTC, EO has no top secret rates. They just pretend they do.

again, those guys are geniuses!

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it's basic business... do something someone else hates doing.

I do my own housework, cooking, lawn, pool maintenance, Christmas light hanging, appliance repair....
but I hate shopping rates, even using power to choose. For me $10 is absolutely worth it so I don't have to spend any time doing something I hate.

GigemCO2008 said:

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...
Anyways, anybody's thoughts on GoGriddy are appreciated!

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Here's my analysis of Griddy and similar plans from back in May: http://www.texaspowerguide.com/2017/indexed-tou-plans/

Tl;dr: Griddy can be ok for homes larger than ~2000 kWh/month average. Be aware they're passing through not just the wholesale pricing benefits, but also the risks, so you'll want extra cash on hand to absorb any peaks. Back then they were touting their costs vs. someone paying 10.9 c/kWh, not a savvy shopper paying 8c (or less).

zidnaut said:

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GigemCO2008 said:

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...
Anyways, anybody's thoughts on GoGriddy are appreciated!

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Here's my analysis of Griddy and similar plans from back in May: http://www.texaspowerguide.com/2017/indexed-tou-plans/

Tl;dr: Griddy can be ok for homes larger than ~2000 kWh/month average. Be aware they're passing through not just the wholesale pricing benefits, but also the risks, so you'll want extra cash on hand to absorb any peaks. Back then they were touting their costs vs. someone paying 10.9 c/kWh, not a savvy shopper paying 8c (or less).

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there was a lady on next door bragging about the solar panels she had installed on her house and the 10-year loan she took out to pay for them and how they pay for themselves,etc. and how everyone should do the same.

Someone asked for her cost/benefit analysis so she posts the analysis the solar panel company ran for her and the assumed c/kWh in the analysis was something like 12c.

Ducks4brkfast said:

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there was a lady on next door bragging about the solar panels she had installed on her house and the 10-year loan she took out to pay for them and how they pay for themselves,etc. and how everyone should do the same.

Someone asked for her cost/benefit analysis so she posts the analysis the solar panel company ran for her and the assumed c/kWh in the analysis was something like 12c.

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That exact scenario is what led me to launch Texas Power Guide.

And "Current ROI of Solar in Texas" is coincidentally the subject of my next analysis. "Simple payback" (at 0% vs. no other alternatives), sure. But as a financial "investment", probably not yet

Hey,

So I used the TexasPowerGuide and then finished my spreadsheet for usage during the year with GoGriddy.

Griddy loses to Our Energy Plan FixAll b/c of their monthly fee.

If anyone wants to view the spreadsheet, here's a link

Energy Pricing Analysis 2017

Flashdiaz said:

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...I hate shopping rates, even using power to choose. ...

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Perhaps that's the problem. The PUC is selling a spool of rope marketed as a fishing net.

Texas Power Guide is my go to site for this sort of thing. I wasn't impressed with Energy Ogre.

I'm on a Frontier Plan now but they just put up a billboard so it's probably time to switch to someone more low rent.

GigemCO2008 said:

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Hey,

So I used the TexasPowerGuide and then finished my spreadsheet for usage during the year with GoGriddy.

Griddy loses to Our Energy Plan FixAll b/c of their monthly fee.

If anyone wants to view the spreadsheet, here's a link

Energy Pricing Analysis 2017

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Exact same thing I just got. Significantly better tool than power to choose.

Ducks4brkfast said:

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GoAgs92 said:

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so you pay an extra $200 three times a year plus $10 per month for a total of $720 extra...my entire bill for the year is only about $1,100 on my plan if I work it right.

Plus EO gets a commission on all of your new signups...those guys are geniuses.

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can someone translate this for me

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You said you get moved every 4 months.

that's 3 times per year

at $200 per move, that is $600

EO cost $10 per month, that's $120

so you pay $720 to be moved around.

My bill is usually under $100, so I pay about $1100 per year on my plan...I cannot imagine a rate low enough for my situation that switching around like that would pay off...