Anyone had any experience with these? My term is coming up, and I used Texas Power Guide to determine what plan makes the most sense. I got Now Power Protection 12 plan, which is a pre-paid energy plan. From what I can gather, it operates similarly to a toll tag. You put money in your account as a balance, and when it gets low, you put more in so you are only paying for the electricity you are using. Interesting concept, but having never used something like that, I have some hesitancy. Thoughts? What am I missing? My next option really isn't that different from a cost perspective, so I can just go with that if need be, but curious if anyone has experience here. For reference:

https://nowpowertexas.com/about/

Seems very difficult to determine what their price/kwh is. That usually means they're trying to hide a large effective rate by saying they do 3 cents off per kwh. 3 cents of 10 cents/ kwh is great. 3 cents off 20 cents is a ripoff.

Looks like 3 cents off of 15.7 cents.....

The plan I am looking at is fixed rate, $11.3 cents pkwh. Next best option is $11.9 cents. Definitely know it isn't any benefit other than getting the lowest rate offered in my area.

HouseDivided06 said:

---

The plan I am looking at is fixed rate, $11.3 cents pkwh. Next best option is $11.9 cents. Definitely know it isn't any benefit other than getting the lowest rate offered in my area.

---

How easy is it to load the card? What happens if you have a balance when you cancel?

I'm sure these plans have come a long way with technology. But they remind me of being in college and living at reveille ranch. We had to take a card to a certain gas station and pay them to load the card. You'd then swipe the card in the apartment to load more energy.

As long as it can automatically load and you don't have to mess with it, it seems ok. If you have to manually load money in, they are counting on you forgetting and then they get to charge fees to make up for the lower price. They get interest on the money in your account which is probably how they're able to offer a lower price. They're also counting on you renewing next year when they raise the rates instead of shopping around again. continue to change to the cheapest every year and it should be ok.