Can someone give some experiences regarding electric suppliers? (Boston: live, delivery)

[BoSox 15]

I'm new to the city of Boston. I lived in NC for about 20 years and when you signed up for electricity it was one company from electricity generation to delivery to billing. I just got a letter in the mail regarding Boston Community Choice Electricity and the need to choose a supplier/opt out/do nothing by April 18.

The letter goes over the options for the mix of electric suppliers and estimated billing rate. Then there's a line about an option to "choose your own Competitive Supplier (if one is available to you)." The letter also carries the disclaimers that savings are not guaranteed.

This is all new to me so I'm just looking for experiences of people who changed suppliers and whether it made a difference on the bill or not.

Thanks in advance.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by BoSox 15

I'm new to the city of Boston. I lived in NC for about 20 years and when you signed up for electricity it was one company from electricity generation to delivery to billing. I just got a letter in the mail regarding Boston Community Choice Electricity and the need to choose a supplier/opt out/do nothing by April 18.

The letter goes over the options for the mix of electric suppliers and estimated billing rate. Then there's a line about an option to "choose your own Competitive Supplier (if one is available to you)." The letter also carries the disclaimers that savings are not guaranteed.

This is all new to me so I'm just looking for experiences of people who changed suppliers and whether it made a difference on the bill or not.

Thanks in advance.

If I remember correctly, you are opted in automatically and get a fixed rate rate through a certain point in time (not sure what it is now - end of 2024 or spring 2025, maybe?). If you opt out, you'll pay Eversource's going rate (really the only other option) which is usually higher by default and subject to fluctuation. There are alternative suppliers, but I know little about them and have (for better or worse) generally assumed they're mostly more expensive (and some borderline scams). We always considered it a two option situation BCCE (which is still delivered through Eversource) or opting out and going directly through Eversource. And BCCE was always the better option.

The only concern we had with BCCE is that if Eversource's rates dropped and we weren't paying close attention (i.e. checking regularly), we'd be paying more via BCCE without noticing it. But that's a minor concern as you can opt out of BCCE any time with no penalty/cancellation fee. If it were me, I'd check the BCCE rate and the direct Eversource rate and go with whichever was lower.