Switching

Drivers Licence card number

Drivers Licences can now include a card number that is different to the license number. If your licence is reissued or replaced, your new card will display the same license number, but a different and unique card number. Here are some illustrations on where to find your Drivers Licence card number for each state NSW Front NSW licenses display the card number on the front of the card, in the top right corner VIC Front VIC licenses have the card number of the back, in one of two locations QLD Front SA Front Back ​ TAS Click-through to the MyGov website for more information on how to find the card number on the Drivers Licences for each Australian state and territory.

Blocked applications

We've found that some retailers actively block applications from customers who reveal they are Bill Hero subscribers while talking to a sales rep on the phone or by using their Bill Hero forwarding address when signing up online. Here's everything you need to know about what is happening, and what you can do about it. How will I know if my chosen retailer is attempting to block Bill Hero? In the 'How to Switch' panel on the Deal Details pages for every plan, we display the email forwarding address to use if you want to enable automated bill monitoring but want to sign up to the new retailer yourself. Our standard email forwarding addresses use the billhero.com.au email domain. For those retailers that have adopted this anti-competitive strategy Bill Hero will display an alternative email address. How to avoid getting blocked When signing up with a retailer that is attempting to block Bill Hero, we recommend that you do not mention Bill Hero on the phone. If you are signing up online, you should sign up using the alternative email forwarding address displayed by Bill Hero, not the billhero.com.au address that you may already be familiar with. This way, the retailer will not know that you're a Bill Hero subscriber, and will not block you. How can I still use email forwarding with a blocked retailer? There are three ways to use email forwarding, even with a retailer that wants to block Bill Hero: 1. Sign up using the alternative forwarding address that Bill Hero will display in the 'How to Switch' panel on the details page for your chosen plan. We've set up several alternative email domains that provide exactly the same functionality but do not include the words Bill Hero in the domain name. 2. Sign up using your personal email address. After the onboarding is complete, instruct the retailer to update your account details and use your Bill Hero email forwarding address. It's too late for them to reject your application after you've completed the onboarding process. 3. Use the Bill Hero 'Do It For Me' process. We can complete the signup for you, including email forwarding, by using a different and anonymous email address domain that functions the same as your billhero.com.au email forwarding address but does not include Bill Hero in the domain name, so it's not recognisable to the retailer. What happens if a retailer blocks me? If you attempt to sign up using your Bill Hero address with a retailer that is blocking Bill Hero, the retailer may refuse to accept your application. In our experience, they usually present a generic rejection message that does not specify why they are refusing the application. Some retailers have told our subscribers there are technical barriers to using the Bill Hero email address. This is absolutely not true. Your billhero.com.au email forwarding address is a completely standard email address, every bit as valid as a gmail.com, outlook.com, yahoo.com or any other email address. Why would a retailer block Bill Hero subscribers? We see retailers attempting to block our service as a badge of honour. It makes us think we’re moving the needle on supporting the interests of energy consumers when the energy retailers start actively trying to avoid us. You have to wonder why any retailer would be motivated to block Bill Hero subscribers if they genuinely are committed to delivering competitive pricing for their customers over the long haul. The obvious and only answer is that these retailers are not committed to sustained competitive pricing over the long haul. Their strategy is to lure new customers in with genuinely competitve 'acquisition pricing' but then increase their prices as quickly as possible, in an accelerated version of the familiar old Loyalty Tax. They know that Bill Hero subscribers will catch them out and switch away immediately because Bill Hero automatically does the tedious work of checking every bill against the full market of alternatives on every billing cycle. Our service reinforces when a competitively priced retailer is doing a good job for its customers and immediately reveals when it is trying to gouge them. Any retailer with a 'hockey stick' pricing strategy will hate this. ℹ️What to do if your application is rejected You can ask the retailer for details on why they're refused your application. They can sometimes be quite revealing. However, the baseline reality is that all energy plan signups are applications , and the retailer can reject any application for any reason they choose. Our general advice if you find that your chosen retailer won't accept your application is to look to the next-ranked plan in your results.

How do I switch?

Switching is easy. The hard part is reviewing all the options and deciding which plan and retailer to switch to. Bill Hero does all that for you, and the actual switch application process will take only about 10 minutes of your time. Once your application is submitted, it takes about 15 business days, or three calendar weeks of elapsed time, for your new retailer to complete your switch. You'll be updated through this process, but you don't need to do anything at all. Here's everything you need to know: Choosing your new plan Most people switch to save money, and a core part of the Bill Hero service is to automatically monitor, analyse and compare every bill to identify which retailer and plan would deliver the best price outcome for you. Your Bill Hero results include a link to a personalised comparison showing you a price-ranked list of plans, with the relevant annualised savings calculated for you on each. You can filter these results in various ways and use this to easily choose the plan and retailer that will give you the best price and savings outcome, while meeting your other requirements. We have detailed information about this results screen and the available filters here: Bill Hero results screen explained. Every plan in the Bill Hero results includes a link and a phone number for the relevant retailer so you can proceed with a switch to your selected plan. 'Do It For Me' Switching Bill Hero offers an optional 'Do It For Me' service to place your switch application with your chosen retailer on your behalf. Details of this service are available here: Do It for Me switching. Do It Yourself Switching To begin your switch, you need to place an application with your chosen new retailer. Retailers can accept new applications via their website or by phone. Bill Hero displays the relevant retailer's phone number and website link in the details page for every plan. 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's license, medicare, or passport number - Your supply address and meter number - Your billing address (if different from your supply address) - Your concession details, if relevant - Medical devices declaration — there are regulatory safeguards around energy supply to households where residents rely on uninterrupted power supply for medical and life-support devices. Retailers are obliged to ask if such devices are used in customers' premises and to update a central register with the information. TIP: You do not need to inform your old retailer that you're switching to a new provider. The old retailer will be automatically notified as part of the switching process. Application review It typically takes 2 or 3 business days for a retailer to review and approve a new application, however there is no fixed time frame for this, and it's possible this step might take longer than this. Retailers often perform a credit check as part of the initial review, and they may reject an application if they deem the result inadequate. Retailers can have internal policies that mean they could 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 If your application is accepted after review, the retailer will send you a Welcome Pack containing detailed information about the energy plan, the rates to be charged, the fee schedule, and their Terms and Conditions of Supply. This step is crucial to the EIC regime because it is here that you are considered to have been fully informed about the plan you're signing up for. This fulfils the 'Informed' part of the 'Explicit Informed Consent' requirement that every retailer must meet when signing up a new customer. 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 transferring your meter to the new retailer can be started. During the cooling-off period, you can cancel your order anytime and for any reason without penalty. If you do, your switch will be cancelled, and you will remain with your original retailer. Ten business days means two weeks of elapsed time, and if there are public holidays during that period, it may be longer. 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 billing the consumption measured through your meter, and your new retailer will take over. You may remember having to wait until the next meter reading for the transfer to be completed. New regulation caps the transfer window at 2 days. Since October 2021, the transfer window for electricity switching is capped at two business days. Previously, the standard approach was to wait for the next meter reading before the transfer would complete. This meant that customers with manual meters on a quarterly read cycle might have to wait up to 90 days or more before their switch would finally be activated.

Gift subscriptions

Forget boring old scented candles or pair of socks, Bill Hero has solved your gift-giving dilemmas with the Bill Hero gift subscription. Want to give a gift subscription? It's easy! Just go to https://billhero.com.au/gift-subscription and set up your gift subscription for your friend or loved one. Why a Bill Hero subscription makes the perfect gift: - Saves the recipient real money (our average customer saves over $380 on their very first bill comparison) - Shows you care about their financial well-being - Keeps providing value long after the gift has been received - Arrives instantly (perfect for last-minute shoppers!), or on the day you nominate Have you received a gift subscription? Lucky you! Welcome to Bill Hero! You'll now be able to access Bill Hero services to help minimise your energy bills! Your Bill Hero gift subscription is exactly the same as a self-funded subscription - it will last for (at least) a full year, and Bill Hero will monitor and compare every bill for you over the lifetime of your subscription. Bill Hero offers four kinds of gift subscriptions: - Electricity-only, first year only : Your subscription covers monitoring, comparison and reporting for your electricity bills only, not gas, and has been paid in full for the first year. We hope that you'll continue your subscription into the second year and beyond, but you're not obliged to. - Electricity and Gas, first year only : your subscription covers monitoring, comparison and reporting for your electricity and gas bills only, and has been paid in full for the first year. We hope that you'll continue your subscription into the second year and beyond, but you're not obliged to. - Electricity-only, recurring annual subscription : your subscription covers monitoring, comparison and reporting for your electricity bills only, not gas, and has been set up to be paid in full for you on a recurring annual basis. Your gift-giver can cancel the recurring subscription in future, and we'll let you know if they do that. - Electricity and Gas, recurring annual subscription : your subscription covers monitoring, comparison and reporting for your electricity and gas bills, and has been set up to be paid in full for you on a recurring annual basis. Your gift-giver can cancel the recurring subscription in future, and we'll let you know if they do that. Find out more about Bill Hero Bill Hero is the only service designed to help make sure you'll never overpay for energy again. We offer more than just comparison. We cover the full lifecycle of comparison and switching to help you stay always on the best-priced plans. There are four steps to the comparison and switching lifecycle. Bill Hero is the only service that covers all of them: 1. Automated bill monitoring - our innovative email forwarding system allows us to automatically monitor every bill for you, without you needing to do anything at all 2. Automated comparison - Our system will auto-compare every bill against every alternative plan from every retailer. Yep, all of them 3. Automated reporting - We bring the comparison experience to your email and SMS inbox for every bill you receive. 4. 'Do It For Me' switching - Our optional 'DIFM' switching service makes it easier than you can imagine to switch to a better-priced plan. Find out more Want to learn more about Bill Hero? - Ask questions to our automated AI-powered Bill Herobot, which you'll find in the chat bubble at the bottom right of every page on the Bill Hero website. - Browse our help articles in the Knowledgebase here: https://support.billhero.com.au Got specific questions? - Contact our friendly support team at [email protected]

'Do It For Me' Switching

Bill Hero’s 'Do It For Me' (DIFM) switching service is an optional concierge service to make your energy switch application to your chosen retailer on your behalf. DIFM closes the loop on the energy comparison experience to deliver a true end-to-end solution to minimise your energy bill expenses permanently. To make a switch application for you, Bill Hero will need to collect some information from you, including Personal Information. We'll also need a signed Letter of Authority so we can engage with energy retailers on your behalf. We've developed a seamless and simple process to collect this information, and you only need to do it once - the same information can be re-used to facilitate your next DIFM switch in future. Step 1 - Choose your retailer and plan Bill Hero does not provide 'advice' or make the choice of retailer and plan for you. However, our system makes it easy for you to make an informed choice by presenting factual information and easily digestible analytics on how each plan ranks by price, based on your own unique consumption profile. Step 2 - Switching options Self Serve Switching You can choose to apply to your chosen retailer yourself, either over the phone or via the online signup forms that all retailers offer. Bill Hero always provides all the details required to enable you to sign up yourself. 'Do It For Me' Switching In most (not yet every) cases, Bill Hero will offer to make the application on your behalf. Look for the 'Do It For Me' option on the Plan Details screens that we publish for every plan in our system. We call this part of our service 'DIFM'. Every retailer needs the same information to onboard you as a new customer, and the signup process is one of the points of friction that results in more customers staying on sub-optimal plans for longer. Bill Hero can collect that information once, then re-use it as often as you choose to facilitate the switch application multiple times. Most of the information required by any retailer to onboard you as a new customer is already present in your uploaded bill, so with Bill Hero, there's no need for you to re-enter it. You'll need to provide some additional information so we can complete the application on your behalf. We will securely save your information, so we can make the process even easier for you next time by pre-filling the next application form. Our Privacy Policy protects all personal information collected and held by Bill Hero, and we will provide it to your chosen retailer only with your authority, and under your instruction, according to our Terms of Service. After delivery to the retailer, your personal information will become subject to their privacy policy. Do It For Me service fee DIFM switching is an optional, paid service, with a service fee for each switch application performed on your behalf. The DIFM Switching fee is clearly presented on the first screen of the process: The DIFM Switching service fee will be charged only when your switch application has been completed. Switching energy plans means making an application to the new retailer to enter a new energy supply agreement. Retailers have the discretion to accept or reject new customer applications as they see fit, and Bill Hero makes no representation that your chosen retailer will accept your application. The DIFM switching service fee is not refundable. If, after placing an application on your behalf, your chosen retailer rejects your application for any reason, you can choose an alternative retailer and plan, and Bill Hero will facilitate a new application to that retailer on your behalf, under the same DIFM switching service fee that you'd already have paid. Alternatively, you can make a new application to a new retailer yourself.

Medicare IRN

Several people, or a family, can be included on a single Medicare card. Each person named on a Medicare card is identified by an Individual Reference Number (IRN).

I can't find the plan on the retailer's website

It can sometimes be tricky to find a specific plan on a retailer's website. Retailers will usually have multiple plans for each tariff type and distribution zone, so its understandable that its hard for them to display every permutation to a prospective buyers. However, many retailers seem to deliberately make their less competitive plans more obvious in their own websites, forcing potential customers to look a bit harder to find the better priced plans. This can result in a version of ‘bait and switch’ where a potential customer finds a great deal,. then signs up at the retailer website, but they actually sign up to a less competitive plan that the retailer has displayed more prominently. To help avoid this scenario, Bill Hero includes the unique Plan ID for every plan we compare. To find the Plan ID, click through on any individual card from your Bill Hero results to see the Details Page for that plan. The Plan ID will be visible in the Offer Details section of that screen You can quote this Plan ID when dealing with the retailer to be sure you're talking specifically about the same plan you found via Bill Hero. Links to BPIDS and Fact Sheets For all locations outside Victoria, this Offer Details section also includes a deep-link to the relevant Basic Plan Information Document for the plan, which is hosted on Energy Made Easy. In Victoria, these detailed plan spec sheets are technically called Fact Sheets rather than BPIDs. Retailers must publish their Fact Sheets via the Victoria Energy Compare (VEC) website, and they must also maintain a library of their Fact Sheets accessible from their websites. Unfortunately, the VEC website does not support deep-linking to an individual Fact Sheet, so we link to the relevant retailer's website instead.

Final Bills

When you switch to a new retailer, your old retailer will issue one last ‘Final Bill’, which covers the time period between the last full billing cycle, and the date of transfer to the new retailer. Since the launch of the AER's ‘Better Bills’ regulations in October 2023, final bills must now prominently display the words ‘Final Bill’ on the first page. Bill Hero will not compare Final Bills, because the results can be misleading and confusing. It's misleading because Final Bills are usually for a shortened billing period, sometimes extremely short, so when we calculate a price difference and then extrapolate that to an annualised result, minor price differences can appear more significant than they really are. It's confusing because you will have only just switched to a new retailer, so seeing results on the final bill from the old retailer, which may present another switch opportunity, only invites confusion.

Do I need to contact my old retailer when I switch?

The new retailer will commence the switch process on your behalf, and the old retailer will automatically be notified. They might make a retention offer when they discover you're leaving. If they do, make sure you get the details in writing and send them to Bill Hero. We'll help you see if that retention offer represents good value for you.

How long does it take to switch?

A change to the energy regulations in October 2021 has dramatically shortened the average switching time for Australian energy consumers, by reducing the transfer component of the switch to only 2 days, when it could previously take up to 95 days. Previously, the standard switching process included waiting for a scheduled meter read to be performed. For those on a manually read accumulation meter, this could mean waiting for as long as 95 days, or 3 months. Smart meters can be read remotely, so this issue does not impact those on smart meters. Since 1st October 2021, new regulations have made it clear that the switch can proceed on the basis of an estimated meter read, and the transfer can be completed by the 'winning' retailer in only 2 days, which is a huge win for energy consumers, and is expected to accelerate consumer access to savings, plus virtually eliminate the confusing 'win back' offers that retailers would often make in the interim period while waiting for the switch to be completed. The end-to-end switching timeline should now be less than 3 weeks of elapsed time, comprising these steps: 1. Retailers will review your application before they send a Welcome Pack, which is the first step toward switching. This usually takes up to a few days, but there is no fixed time frame to complete. Many retailers will make a credit check as part of this process. 2. Your new retailer will then send you a Welcome Pack confirming the detailed information for the plan you're switching to, and any additional steps that may be required - for example, it may be necessary to complete a direct debit arrangement for some plans 3. There is then a minimum 10 business day cooling-off period required under the energy regulations, from the time of delivery of the Welcome Pack before your new retailer can initiate the transfer of your meter to them. 4. The transfer process has been dramatically shortened to two days when it could previously take up to 95 days

Why do I need to keep switching?

Retailers have traditionally used a pricing strategy that we call 'tease and squeeze'. They lure new customers in with seemingly great prices and discounts and then ratchet the prices up over time, sometimes very quickly. From Q1 2020 until mid-2022, wholesale prices were declining, which is great news for consumers as long as the retailers actually pass on those price decreases. The problem for energy consumers now is that you need to keep an eye on things to ensure you benefit from the price drops, not just your retailer. Since June 2022, we've seen very dramatic increases in wholesale pricing. It's no surprise that the retailers are very fast to pass-through price increases. No matter, if prices are going up or down, just comparing once, is not enough. There is no such thing as set and forget for energy pricing. You need to stay on top of it all the time, which is boring and hard, or you need Bill Hero to stay on top of it. for you