FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Getting miles for paying your electric bill
Old Aug 12, 2004, 7:13 pm
  #6  
ILUVCITIBANK
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: SWUSA / AA PLAT, SPG PLAT, AMEX CENTURION, HHONORS Diamond
Posts: 1,420
I know something about GEXA myself; in Jan, 2003, the very first day of DE-REGULATION of Texas electrical power and the day when all these 2nd tier energy companies could start reselling energy statewide in Texas, I decided to try to find an energy company that not only took credit cards (for 'da points, of course), BUT took them for COMMERCIAL as well as RESIDENTIAL accounts. I started by calling TXU to see how aggressive they would be - that's like calling AT&T and asking for their best ld rate, or calling pfizer and asking for a discount on Lipitor...was not to be. BTW - of note, and to their detriment, TXU stopped taking credit cards that very day as a shift of policy (guess they smelled their margins eroding with the advent of true competition and "freedom to choose"), and I found a couple after a lot of phone calls that would take credit card payments for residential BUT NOT COMMERCIAL. Yes, Reliant was one of them, but they took only v and mc, and did not (at that time) take AMEX (I had just become a huge fan of the starwood/amex card). Moreover, Reliant was about as large and inefficient as TXU, so there was no genuine cost savings, which was and should be one primary reason to move.

Moving forward a couple of months into the DE-REG period, I came across GEXA as a 1) very competitively-priced energy reseller out of the HOU, TX area, something like 15% below TXU (the benchmark "price to beat for Texas) across the boards and without even having to negotiate for the price break, and to my great surprise, they 2) ALSO took credit card payments, incl AMEX, and to my very nice surprise, they also took 3) credit cards, incl AMEX, for COMMERCIAL accounts, with no surcharge.

I had reached the end of the rainbow and found the pot of gold. I immediately moved both my residential and commercial accounts to Gexa, and they have been flawless in billing (about the only thing a reseller does in TX anymore is back-office and billing and CSupport)...TXU still produces and distributes the power itself, so no risk of going with these 2nd tier companies IMO.

OF NOTE ALSO - I studied the Continental Nonepass angle only a week or so ago, by calling my GEXA rep....BE AWARE that you will pay as much as 10% more for your power with GEXA just to be on their Continental Airlines rate. Yes, as the prior poster deduced, one can get on the Continental program AND ALSO pay via AMEX (which yields MR points of Starood or HHoinors, etc, depending on the AMEX card), but IMO anything above 2-3% higher energy rates is a baad deal just to chase miles or points.

Conversely, to get 10-15% true rate reduction, and then channel both residential and commercial payments through GEXA using my starwood/AMEX...well, lets call it lucrative and nice leverage for over $1000 monthly in total billing. For a high, recurring charge like my residential and commercial energy bills...this is the combination TXU just can't seem to "get". And, oh, did I mention GEXA comes out on top of all surveys for Texas energy resellers that I've seen in terms of CS satisfaction, etc. So, not to be a cheerleader, and I do not own their stock, but they offer one of the few WIN/WIN/WIN relationships I can think of in the affinity world.

MY VOTE: Blow off the Continental/Nonepass rate program (who wants 'em anyway - most worthless affinity point out there, AA's aadvantage milesaver program is catching up fast) ...and take Gexa's standard aggressive rates...saving 10-15% off TXU rates immediately...and pay by credit card. < https://gexaenergy.com/promotions/ >

Last tip - call them, especially if you have a commercial account, and ask for their 2-yr contract rate...they'll drop it a bit more over their initial 1yr contract rate. They also have a month to month...but its not competitive.

http://www.gexaenergy.com/English/default.htm

Last edited by ILUVCITIBANK; Aug 12, 2004 at 7:16 pm
ILUVCITIBANK is offline