Don’t be Mislead, not all Electric Companies Play Fair

If you have been researching Texas residential electric rates on the net there is one provider I have noticed that is advertising on some pay per click advertising and they have some very misleading residential quotes they are telling people who call in to request a quote even if the company is not intentionally being misleading it confused me as well as my customers. A customer of ours who almost switched to Liberty Power on their 24 month electric rate called me first and we discovered their rate wasn’t what it appeared to be at first look. Although most electric companies bundled in all charges including TDSP charges in their rate some do not and they are not required to do so either by the PUCT.

Some Residential Companies Leaving off the Generation Charges

July 9 2008 we confirmed on two seperate instances that Liberty Power was quoting residential electric customers a rate that did not include the transmission and distribution service provider charges. If you look on the state power to choose website you will notice that all rates are quoted as a total bundled rate that includes the generation charge. Most people are familiar that residential rates are normally quoted as an all in rate as everyone pays the same pole charges as a residential customer.

Called Electric Company 3 Different Times to Verify

I called Liberty Power and found out they are misleading those who call even if unintentional as they are not required to bundle in TDSP charges if they do not want to. It is a Fixed Rate with an $8.95 monthly service fee but they would not tell me about the additional charge until the end of the call and only after I asked if there was a monthly service charge. The monthly fee isn’t the main issue. The main misleading part of the electric rate with Liberty Power in my opinion is that they also have a TDSP delivery charge of: $0.04 that they do not bundle into the rate when quoting you the rate on the phone. I went the whole sales call without being told of this as well as one of my customers. I called them back and asked after another sales call with them if a TDSP charge has been left out and they told me I would need to add approximately $.04 to the rate. This makes their supposed 12 month 0.1210 rate actually 0.1610 cents kWh. This makes their 24 month 0.1145 electric rate actually .01545 cents kWh. Once you add this and average in the monthly service fee the rate actually ends up being a much higher rate then quite a few competitive electric companies in Texas. It must be noted that the PUCT rules does not require that retail electric providers show the total bundled rate including TDSP charges in advertisements. Although Liberty has not broken a PUCT rule many public energy consumers will think they are signing up for an “all-in” rate when it really is only the “energy only” portion of the total rate.

Reputable Electric Companies in Texas

You can check on the top of this page above for a competitive fixed rate discount offer that includes all fees charges, and TDSP fees. The comparison chart will bring up a detailed list of energy providers along with all charges bundled into the rate. We keep this updated daily so you can check back to see what reputable electric company we recommend for the time being with a straightforward low cost Texas electric rate.

Tweet This Post Facebook