Why you shouldn’t trust anyone’s recommendation when it comes to choosing your electric provider
Everyone loves giving their opinion about fashion, love and money no matter the extent of their qualification on the topic. Our species’ quest to find the secret to these desires is never-ending. That may explain why some of the largest empires have been built preying on these central themes for decades. However, when it comes to shopping for electricity, it’s simply not the same.
The latest frontier of popular opinion is which electric provider to go with. Scroll up on your social media feed and you’ll see that someone at some point in time had expressed frustration with their current electric provider. Then they decided to take it social media to poll their friends which electric company they should choose.
Value is found in asking the right question
Therein lies the issue and opportunity. The wrong question was asked, and therefore the wrong advice was given. And this pattern of ill-advised questions and answers constantly repeats itself.
The answer that is given is most likely one of loyalty, and seldom is advice given for which product and electric provider you should choose and when. We’ll forgive both parties in this example, because most likely neither of them are electricity experts. Yet we usually take our friends’ advice under the presumption that they know what they’re talking about.
Let’s examine the electricity situation in Texas for a second. Each electric provider offers a full suite of products, ranging in a variety of contract lengths (month-to-month up to 60 months, in some cases) and product type (fixed and variable or indexed). Multiply this product portfolio by the 100+ electric providers licensed by the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT). You’ll quickly realize it is almost impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison.
Find out which electricity product they recommend
So, the next time a friend advises you by saying, “You should go with my company” the next question that should be asked is, “Great, which product?”
Let’s pause there for a second. Even that can be misleading. You can’t possibly get a valuable answer because the reality is that prices could be much different today than they were when your friend signed up.
It’s like a friend recommending you should fill-up your car’s gas tank at the local convenient store in town because they got a good deal yesterday. Okay sure, they could’ve gotten a great deal because they pumped gas right before the storm, but it’s a different story today. We’re not dealing with the aftermath, whatever that may be.
Moral of the story, choosing an electric provider and product that fits your household budget is a homework assignment you can’t afford to cheat. Unless you use Honest Gorilla, we don’t mind you cheating off of us because we’ve already done all of the hard work.
