gatzdon

Don' t know if this is limited to ComED, IL, or what; but received letter in the mail with the following link:

http://nrghomepower.com/ualil05

Says that I would get 10,000 miles for switching. An extra 2,500 miles if I use a MileagePlus Credit Card.

Additional details included
2 miles per dollar spent on energy supply (3 if using a MileagePlus CC).
Must remain with them for 2 months to receive the mile bonus.
allegedly month-to-month with no cancellation fee.

you guys are better at finding the gotchas in the fine print, so let me know what I'm missing.

Mauibaby2008

The catch is that they charge you double or triple the actual cost of electricity

Dr Jabadski

Agreed. These energy supply offers are usually a terrible deal. What you’re missing is paying MUCH more for your electricity and lots of aggravation trying to end the deal.

“For your first 3 months (3 billing cycles) as a new NRG Home customer, you’ll receive a promotional electric supply price of 6.4¢ per kWh, which is 10% lower than ComEd's 10/1/15 supply rate.* After your introductory period ends, your ongoing supply price will be variable and can change each month.” “Can change” is their euphemism for “will skyrocket”. Paying even one month of the higher rate will make whatever miles you received VERY expensive.

“Cancellation takes 1-2 billing cycles depending on your utility's timeframe.”

“Seamless switching There will be no interruption in your service.” Oh yeah, seamless switching TO them. When you try to switch back it will be anything but seamless and not nearly as quick as switching TO them. Think about how fast an airline processes a purchase to your credit card (instantaneous) and how fast that same airline processes a refund (days to weeks), magnify that 3 or 4 fold; that’s how fast these companies switch you TO them and how fast they switch you AWAY from them.

Even most of us who will do almost anything (mileage runs, car test drive, timeshare tour, hair transplant consultation) for points and miles, won’t do this. Save your money, skip the aggravation; don’t do it.

Think Meatloaf “but I won't do that”.

CaptianHooks

This is an easy come up on 10k. I don't fly united much so I will wait on the southwest deal. After the points post start the process of switching back to your old supplier. I did this before with Energy plus and got 12.5K and didn't have any problems.

Firewind

There are long threads on the individual airline boards from the last round of this. I don't mean this as a blow-off, but rather as reference to extensive resources.

Mauibaby2008

With the new 30% bonus I am interested in signing up for the Energy Plus offer (for a second time), I am wondering, does anybody know if you can complete the offer a second time?

CaptianHooks

I was wondering the same thing about Energy Plus. It's been over 2 years for me, so I would be curious if anyone has gotten a second bonus from them.

meecal

The fine print for most (all?) of these offers points out that the promo is only for new customers.

I used Energy Plus in the past and was able to switch away from them after receiving signup bonus points. The snail mail offer I received from NRG looked awfully similar even though Energy Plus isn't mentioned anywhere. To minimize chances of going through with the deal only to find out that I was deemed ineligible I called NRG and confirmed that they had no record of my account in their system and therefore I'm eligible for this program.

I just signed up for the NRG United promo. I'm writing up a post on the topic now.

meecal

I got the 10,000 bonus United MileagePlus miles from NRG on time and with no hassle. I wrote up a post with more details. In a nutshell though, the miles posted a day or two before my second electricity billing statement with NRG as the provider!

bulls71986

I signed up for this last week. As soon as I see the points post I am going to cancel the NRG service. I've read that as long as you are on top of things and cancel at the right time, things go OK.

So we will see

adymo

Ok, let me explain how this works.

Yes, the energy suppliers make money by signing up people on the low rate plans fixed for several months, and then charging variable prices. Yes, depending on how greedy your supplier is, it may charge same price as utility, slightly more, or way more.

But, the suppliers won't necessarily screw up the cancellation on purpose. In most cases people just wait too long to cancel.

With NRG promotion they want you to stay 2 billing cycles (months) with them. The trick is to call to cancel immediately after the first bill with NRG as supplier arrives.

The electricity supply cancellation is never effective immediately. It will happen on the next meter reading date. So by cancelling after the first month, you will stay with NRG for the second month for sure. So you will still be entitled to your points, and will not spend extra month with NRG on variable rate.

If you do not call to cancel immediately after the first bill arrives, your cancellation might not be effective on the next meter reading date. And you will stay with NRG for one month more than necessary.

How quick you should call? For ComEd, you should call to cancel at least 18 calendar days before your next meter reading date. Other utilities have different rules. So you really have about 10-12 days to call after getting the first bill.

If you call after the points post, then you will for sure stay with NRG for one extra month, and, depending on how quickly the points post, may spend the second extra month with them.

If you still get screwed up, complain to the public utilities commission in your state. They are usually very effective at dealing with the suppliers.

Oh, and you don't necessarily want to cancel. You can call NRG and ask them the new fixed rate for the next 6, 12, or even 24 months. That rate may be actually good (same or better as your utility's).

adymo

It turned out some suppliers are actively prohibiting the cancellation scheme that I described.

For example, this is what NRG/Southwest deal wants you to do:

After you complete 2 months of active service with us, you’ll be awarded 10,000 Rapid Rewards points for each electric account you enroll.


Active accounts are defined as those that ... (ii) for which we have not received a request to discontinue service or change programs.

This means that you do need to wait for the second bill (and possibly wait for points to post) before cancelling. Otherwise per their contract they can deny you points.

The deal I got in the mail offers discounted price for 3 months. So if your deal is the same, you can cancel after the 2nd bill and still avoid variable pricing.

Z4fiend

Live in a one bedroom condo with my husband in NJ. After we receive each 10K, whoever is on the actual electric supplier's account "moves out" and the other one "moves in" under a their own account. (We each have our own account) Each time you move, in you're a new customer to your electric supplier and NRG and you're eligible for the 10K bonus. I takes about 4 months from the "move in" to the bonus, even though I registered for NRG right after the move in. For a one bedroom condo the electric bill is between $25 and $35 a month. Since the bill never went up past $35, I never checked how much the rates actually went up after the first two months with NRG. We do the move out as soon as the bonus posts. We're probably could move out sooner, as the other posts suggest but, but it's probably a couple of weeks and less than $10 that we're paying extra with the higher rates to NRG. There's a $14 account activation/start up fee with our electric supplier. The move out/move in is all done on line/don't have to call and speak to anybody. NRG just sends a letter: "We're sorry to see you go." $14/10000 = 0.0014 per mile so I think this is worth it. There is no interruption in your electric service.