$100 challenge: How we save money on our energy bills

Bryce: [00:00:41] Welcome to Get Started Investing, the podcast that answers all of your money and investing questions. My name is Bryce, and if you've just joined us for the first time, a massive welcome. Today we are back with our $100 challenge and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy, Ren. How you going?

Alec: [00:01:00] I'm very good, Bryce. Very excited for this episode. We've been loving the hundred dollar challenge here, and this is going to be another big episode that hopefully can help people, in this case, save at least the next $100 a month. 

Bryce: [00:01:15] And for those of you who have just joined us, the $100 challenge was born with the idea or from the knowledge that by saving sorry, by investing $100 a month over a 30 year period, it gets you to about $350,000. 

Alec: [00:01:33] The confidence you had in that description faded. 

Bryce: [00:01:37] I think that's right. 

Alec: [00:01:38] Yeah, yeah.

Bryce: [00:01:40] $100 a month, 30 years, you're going to have $350,000 if you're investing it in the market. And by that we mean broad based low cost index ETFS. 

Alec: [00:01:50] I didn't think that sounded right. It's actually over 40. 

Bryce: [00:01:52] That's not as inspiring. 

Alec: [00:01:55] That's what it is. $100 a month at 8%. Compound annual return over 40 years, $3,000. 

Bryce: [00:02:02] So that got us thinking. Over 12 months ago when we started this segment. How can we challenge ourselves? How can you yourself, try and find ways to earn or save an extra $100 a month to get that compound investing going. 

Alec: [00:02:17] This month, we didn't come with an idea. We actually got inspired by Phil from the equity mates community who hit us up at equitymates.com/contact and let us know about one way that he is saving money each month. We chatted to Phil earlier so we'll get to that conversation. But then Bryce, inspired by that conversation, I actually signed up to this service and I've found some serious savings that I will unveil to you after we hear from Phil. Before we do that, just a final reminder. Our live Ask an Advisor is coming up soon. 10th of April at the Chevelle cinema. As we record, we've got about 20 tickets left. So they may be sold out. There may not be. So head to equitymates.com/events to find out. And if there are any left to secure your ticket. 

Bryce: [00:03:07] Yeah. We would love to see you here in Sydney. Your opportunity to ask some of Australia's best advisors, any of your money or investing questions. So we'll see you there. All right. Well, before we jump to our conversation with Phil, he brought to us a service, a subscription service called Billhero. Now, Ren, you said you've signed up. So give us the 60 word summary of what Bill Hero is. 

Alec: [00:03:29] Yeah. So essentially, you plug in, you send them your bills and you get your bill sent to them, and they will save you money. Guaranteed. They say it's in a subscription service where they compare what you're paying, at this stage, on electricity and gas to everyone else in the market. So unlike iSselect or, compare the market where they are looking at only certain providers that I get a rebate from. You pay these guys and then they look at everything. So that's it in a nutshell. We should be clear this episode isn't sponsored. It's going to sound like it is Bill Hero. It could be if you want to. Right now, it's not sponsored. With that caveat, should we get to a conversation with Phil? 

Bryce: [00:04:13] Let's do it. 

Alec: [00:04:16] Hey, Phil, this is, Ren from Equity Mates. How are you going? 

Phil: [00:04:19] Hey. Good. Thanks. 

Alec: [00:04:20] Right. We saw your message about Bill Hero. And I'll be honest, I'd. I'd never heard of it before, but it seems super interesting. So do you want to tell us a little bit about how you came across it and, and what it is. And then we'll get into your experience with it.

Phil: [00:04:35] I came across it because I've got solar power at home and I shop around for my utilities. But it's a real pain because you have to deal with people in the sun and the people I've got my solar quote from, they've got a website called Solar Quotes. They've got YouTube videos to teach you all about solar. I actually spoke to Bill Hero. I and, so I looked it up on the internet and I went, oh, okay, I'll give this a try. It is a subscription service. I think about 80 bucks a year, but it's all online. You send it under your bill. They compare your bill like any other comparison people. But what they do is they send you all the links to the utility companies and a breakdown of everything in comparison to your bill. And, I think the first one I had was making a savings of a couple hundred dollars for the year. So I swapped over. And when you apply for it, when you go to the utility company, they give you an email address to send to them. As opposed to your own email address. And that's you essentially but @billhero, I say that I receive your email, your bills, and every time you get a bill, they do the comparison yet again. And when you move them, they'll forward the bill to you. So you actually do see it. They'll do the comparison. And apart from about two months of the year, they found a better deal because the utility companies just keep on changing their fees and amounts. Yeah. I think in that first 12 months I saved, you know, a couple thousand dollars. Well, my last electricity, yeah, my last electricity bill was like 28 bucks. Wow. 

Bryce: [00:06:30] Wow. I mean, that would be driven by solar.

Alec: [00:06:32] I mean, that would help. 

Phil: [00:06:33] Yeah. Yes yes, yes it is. It is. And that was my summer bill. So yes, the solar does bring it down a hell of a lot. Also have an EV. 

Bryce: [00:06:45] Yeah. 

Phil: [00:06:45] No, I'm shocked about that as well. 

Bryce: [00:06:47] So I'm actually super interested in solar space because I've heard that solarquotes.com, I'm assuming that's the website you're talking about. They got the gold standard in, where to go to start your solar journey. Oh, yeah. So we might have to save that for another hundred dollar episode because there is some serious savings to be made if you are in a position to put solar on the roof. But, yeah, I'd never heard of this, Phil. So thanks for bringing it to the table. I, my original question was going to be, has the $80 been worth it? But obviously. If you use the savings for it. Yeah. 1 or 2 grand a year. And a lot of the stress and hassle takes out of it, then it certainly takes the box in that, in that $100 challenge for sure. 

Phil: [00:07:29] Yeah. And make sure you watch some of those solar quote, YouTube videos. He's brilliant. He worked for the CSIRO. And he knows everything you need to know. 

Bryce: [00:07:38] Yeah, I've heard he knows his stuff. 

Alec: [00:07:40] Well, this took a turn. I can't get solar. I'm in an apartment, but I'm going to bring it back to Bill Hero. I guess the original. When I first saw your email, I thought, is this similar to like an iSelect or, you know, compare the market or something like that because there are other bill comparison services out there. But the key thing is those guys make their money from, getting rebates from companies. And so there's only like a certain number of companies. Whereas Bill Hero, don't make money from any rebates. And that's why you pay the subscription. Is that what I got right? 

Phil: [00:08:19] I can't be 100% on that. I think I don't get kickbacks, but, yeah, they compare everybody. So there are some companies out there I'd never heard of, those with CovaU, C-O-V-A-U for a couple of months, and must be a small company because, when I got the next bill and it was, I got a cheaper one. I changed companies. CovaU rang me up and said, oh, why did you leave? I said, because I've got a cheaper one. And then they compared my bill with theirs, and then they just lowered this down and then gave me a $100 credit. Oh, and, well, just to stay with them, but they couldn't match my gas one.They could only match the electricity one. So obviously the gas one was too cheap. So. Yeah. So it is legit. 

Alec: [00:09:20] And if you, if you're changing every couple of months, like, is it easy to change providers. 

Phil: [00:09:26] It is. It's amazing, because when I've done the comparisons through like, those are the comparison sites like iSelect and things like that, you gotta do it over the phone and you got to listen to the long winded conditions. Whereas online they give you the link, you go to the company, you tick the box. Yes, I've read the contents and conditions and bang you're white. And then they just give them, you know, and I direct debit everything and I'm done and I'm not the most tech savvy person in the world, but, you know, I'm done in five minutes. All right. 

Alec: [00:10:07] Nice, nice. I love this, Phil. Well, I'm certainly going to check it out, and I'll share my experience on the podcast. But yeah, thank you for bringing it to our attention and the community's attention. I'm sure a lot of people are going to benefit. 

Phil: [00:10:20] no worries. You're welcome. Well, it's helped me out a lot, so. Yeah, it's the time to get back. 

Bryce: [00:10:25] That's awesome. Thanks, Phil.

Alec: [00:10:26] All right, so that was Phil outlining Bill Hero, how he found it. Some serious savings.

Bryce: [00:10:32] Serious savings? Absolutely. Yeah. 

Alec: [00:10:35] Should we do a little detour now to talk about your solar panel plans? Oh, no. Okay, let's save that for another month. 

Bryce: [00:10:42] Let's take a quick break. But then on the. The side Ren, you said you have started using Bill Hero and, you've got some serious savings yourself to go through. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Get Started Investing, where during the $100 challenge we've spoken to feel about Bill Hero and Ren, you've tied it up. You yourself, have had an experience with Bill Hero. 

Alec: [00:11:10] Yeah, well, I thought this would be a much better episode if, I actually did it and could talk to the experience. So after hearing from Phil, I signed up $79 a year. Because I've got gas at my house. If you just have electricity, I think it's like 49 bucks a year. And then if you've just if you've just got gas, it's like another 29 or something. But then if you want, combined 79 a year. And so they guarantee that you'll get at least $80 in savings. So that's pretty good. All your money back. So the way it works I signed up. And then they ask you to email your latest bills through the email address. And it probably was like an hour or two. And then they send you a text and they give you an email. It's how much you can save over the course of a year based on what you're currently paying is electricity and electricity, right. And the best deal that they have on the market. So I got two separate messages, one for my electricity bill, one for my gas bill. Let's go. Electricity first. 

Bryce: [00:12:09] Sure. 

Alec: [00:12:10] How much do you think they can save me? 

Bryce: [00:12:16] Up to 300 bucks. 

Alec: [00:12:17] Up two? $321.98 saving on your electricity bill. So something that I notice that I'll. I'll get into after this, but let's do the guessing game. What about gas? 

Bryce: [00:12:32] I actually don't know. We didn't have gas. Maybe up to 100. 

Alec: [00:12:36] $265.63. Nice. So together they think they can save me. A bit under 600. That's pretty good. Yeah. I was expecting more of a reaction from me. 

Bryce: [00:12:52] I mean, I think my challenge with, like. That's great. Definitely. It changes every quarter.

Alec: [00:12:59] No. This is the thing and this is what we asked Phil when we spoke to him is the way this service works is so your initial bills, you email them, but then what they ask you to do is they create an email address for you. So like bryce.leskey@billhero.com right at you and they ask you to put that email address in your utility provider. And so the bills get sent directly to them. And then they're everything that gets sent to that email address gets forwarded to you. So you say it. But then they're automatically processing your bills every time you get one. 

Bryce: [00:13:29] Yeah. So you could be flip flopping in a worst case scenario every quarter. 

Alec: [00:13:33] Yes. Some would say that's the best case scenario. 

Bryce: [00:13:36] Well yeah 

Alec: [00:13:38] Saving every quarter. 

Bryce: [00:13:38] Yeah. Just well you know you're not saying you still got to pay that quarter right. Yeah. Yeah yeah. And I think Phil made it reasonably clear that it's not a time consuming thing to do if they're looking after it on your behalf. 

Alec: [00:13:53] That is the thing that I'm still unsure about. Yeah. So that's a thing that I haven't done. I haven't flipped over anyway yet. But that's the thing. 

Bryce: [00:14:01] Yeah, yeah. So we have a service like this for our office. They review it quarterly. 

Alec: [00:14:07] I should have said there is a business version of this. We should compare the service we're using with this. 

Bryce: [00:14:12] Yeah, well, our service does this. They'll review it. It wasn't. We didn't quite get the savings in the hundreds, but I found as well actually went into my electricity provider the other day to have a look at where we were at, and they actually flashed up themselves and said, we can give you a better plan. Full stop. Not necessarily. It wasn't prompted by me, but they were just like, hey, like, you're on this. We have this. For me, it was a no brainer. Click the button. No. Why are you guys so, I think the competitive nature of what's out there it's definitely something that even if you don't have a subscription service, you don't want to do it. You can be saving on your utilities. 

Alec: [00:14:48] So my I'm with origin. And the thing that surprised me, well, not surprise me, but I flicked through the options because I listed all the providers and how much it could be saving. And I was like, I wonder if I'm on the best deal with Origin. And like, with my utility provider. According to Bill Hero, I could save $225 a year on gas with a different origin plan and $185 on electricity. 

Bryce: [00:15:16] So, yeah. So, if you would, you would save more by changing electricity providers, but you could if you didn't want to change provider, you could still save, as you said, the electricity. You're saving almost 320 bucks or something. Yeah. Yeah. If you were to change providers. 

Alec: [00:15:31] Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah. So they give you heaps of options and how much you can save. Yeah. So yeah, it's. It's compelling. 

Bryce: [00:15:36] Nice. Well, let us know if you actually are going to pull the trigger.

Alec: [00:15:41] So there's one complication to all of this, which is that I bundle my internet with it as well. So I reckon some of these savings are illusionary because there's probably a bundle discount, but I don't look at my internet as part of this. So that is the one caveat to this whole conversation that potentially the savings could be a lot smaller. Once I factor in, you know, potentially unbundling. 

Bryce: [00:16:08] So you bundle internet with origin 

Alec: [00:16:09] Yeah. Origin has like some deal where they bundle it all together. 

Bryce: [00:16:12] Who's the internet provider? I don't know. 

Alec: [00:16:14] NBN. 

Bryce: [00:16:16] Interesting. Nice. 

Alec: [00:16:17] Yeah. Well, like it's all NBN, so it's just like. Just who sends you it. Yeah. But only send you a set top box. Like they're all in every house. The house. Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's nothing now. It's just like electricity. It's just like, outlet. We're very technical here. 

Bryce: [00:16:36] Nice. Well thank you, Phil. Keep them coming in. Yeah. I love the hundred dollar challenge. I mean, if you were to really make that savings up to 600 bucks a year. Pretty significant. And by the sounds of it, you get to say it in practice. But low touch. 

Alec: [00:16:51] Do you remember how Victoria used to, they met, so. No, I don't think they do anymore. They were paying people 250 bucks to check if they could get it at a cheaper rate? And all you had to do was like, put your bill into the Victorian government website or something like that. And even if you didn't switch. Middle of last year they were doing it. This is why they were doing it. Because like, they like, there's so much to be saved by checking the rates that you're paying. But there's such an inertia to, like, not do it. The government, the Victorian government was literally giving people cash to check. So it pays to check whether it's with Bill Hero or whether it's with something else, ideally with someone that is looking at all the options rather than just the options they get a kickback from. Use Bill Hero or don't use Bill Hero, check the rates you pay. That's the takeaway here. 

Bryce: [00:17:42] Well thank you Phil. And if you'd like to provide us with what you're doing to earn or save an extra hundred bucks a month, head to equitymates.com/contact. There's a section on there for the $100 challenge. We'd love to get you on the show in a month to hear what you're doing and, and help the community as well. So again, thanks, Phil. Ren, we'll pick it up next week with some of Australia's best savings accounts. If your savings account doesn't have a five in front of it, then this episode is for you. 

Alec: [00:18:12] Yeah, another good way to earn $100. All right, well, until next week.