Cost spike powers price rise

AUSTRALIAN energy bills are set to more than double as retailers announce up to 130 per cent price hikes amid rising costs of living.

Four Australian retailers, including Discover Energy, Mojo Power, LPE and RE Amped, have notified their customers via a letter and email this week that they will be hit with an “unprecedented” price increase come mid-June. One Big Switch Energy expert Joel Gibson told Ben Fordham that “every Australian household can expect a price hike letter over the next three weeks”.

“We’ve never seen anything like this. We’ve never seen price rises like this in Australia and living memory.” he said.

LPE has slapped some Queenslanders with a 100 per cent increase in usage rates, while Mojo Power has emailed NSW customers, informing them that they will see a 58 per cent rise – although the daily supply support charge will drop by 29 per cent.

Discover Energy notified NSW and South Australian residents that some peak rates would rise by up to 95 per cent on top of a 130 per cent supply charge increase in NSW and 45 per cent increase in SA.

Mr Gibson has urged people to check their bills closely so they are aware of any price rises.

“We’ve asked our members to send us their price hike letter when it lands in the inbox or the letter box from their retailer.” he said.

“Don‘t let that letter disappear into the wastepaper bin because this year it’s going to be a really important moneysaving exercise.

“We‘re building out a league table of the biggest price hikes and that’s how we know that the first four retailers to contact their customers all had increases on the usage rates of over 40 per cent.”

The consumer network expert said there were still some fixed rate plans on the market that could help consumers avoid the “big red flag”.

“Just keep switching every time you get an unreasonable price hike,” he said.