Australian energy provider ReAmped Energy has issued a warning to its customer base that its power prices could double, and that its users would likely be better off with another provider.
This news comes at a pretty big time for the energy market, amid a change of government, rising energy prices and AGL’s failed demerger. This is not something we see that often from the Australian energy market, but ReAmped Energy appears to be taking a customer-first approach to the news.
It’s the second smaller energy provider to buckle under rising wholesale energy prices, after Weston Energy lost its gas retailing licence. As The Guardian notes, ReAmped Energy has a customer base of some 70,000 people.
“Thanks for being with us – but it’s important you switch to another retailer now,” the announcement on the ReAmped Energy website says.
“Unfortunately, conditions have reached the point where we must inform customers that it’s now in your best interests to leave ReAmped Energy and switch to another retailer for a better deal, as soon as possible.
“If you stay with ReAmped Energy, your bills could double in the days and weeks ahead.”
Personally, I first found out about this news as a ReAmped Energy customer. Firstly, I noticed targeted ads when scrolling through Instagram.
Just as an aside, you don’t typically get this kind of ad, hey? Sponsored content that says “please don’t buy our thing!” is pretty uncommon.
Then, later that night, ReAmped Energy issued an email to its customers, including detailed explanations for why prices are going up as much as they are.
“We wrote to you a while back about a price increase related to surging wholesale costs. Since that letter, wholesale costs in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory have surged a further 50 per cent. This is unlike any event we have seen in Australia before,” the ReAmped Energy email reads.
“With prices this elevated, every extra customer we have increases the need to buy more, extremely expensive, electricity in the future. In short, the more customers we have the higher our prices will need to go.”
Later, I also received a text message alerting me to the email.
“We would urge you to act fast, good pricing in Australia may be short lived, so please check out Energy Made Easy now and pick a provider with better rates,” the email ends.
So, yeah, woof. This is a strange situation, isn’t it?
If you’re like me and you were first attracted to ReAmped Energy by the lower prices that it offered at the time, then I’m afraid it’s time to start looking around again.
ReAmped Energy are right in recommending Energy Made Easy, a government website dedicated to comparing energy plans, however it might also be worth checking out Canstar Blue and Finder’s energy comparison tools, just to cast your net as wide as possible.
It’s probably best to switch sooner rather than later. This definitely isn’t a reverse psychology gag from ReAmped.