The honest guide

Should you shop for an electricity supplier?

For most people, the honest answer is no — stay on your utility's default rate. Not because shopping is always a scam, but because the default is harder to beat than the offers make it sound. Here's how to know for sure in about two minutes, and how to spot the deals built to cost you more.

How this actually works

Your electric bill has two halves, and you can only shop one of them.

• Delivery — the poles, wires, meter, and the crew that shows up when the power's out. This is a regulated monopoly. Your utility does it no matter what, and you can't shop it. Switching suppliers doesn't change your reliability, your meter, or who you call in an outage. If a supplier ever goes under, you're moved back to the utility automatically. The lights stay on.
• Supply — the electricity itself. This is the only part you can shop. A third-party supplier swaps out this one line on your bill, and nothing else.

Here's the piece almost nobody tells you: the default supply rate isn't some marked-up "retail" price. Your utility buys that power at a wholesale auction and passes it through with zero markup — it's barred from profiting on supply. So the rate you're trying to beat already has no one's profit baked into it. A supplier, meanwhile, has to pay for marketing, door reps, and its own profit out of the same wholesale cost. That's why beating the default is harder than it looks.

The honest math: when shopping actually wins

Switching can save you real money — but only in a narrow case. A fixed-rate offer is worth it when it's below your Price to Compare for the entire term, has no monthly service fee, and has little or no early-termination fee. That's a clean deal, and they do exist on the official state sites now and then.

The catch most people miss: your default rate resets on a schedule. So a 12-month offer that beats today's rate isn't really beating today's rate — it's a bet against where the default will average over the next year. Compare against that, not against the number on this month's bill.

Our take: if you won't track your reset date and re-shop, the default already does that work for you — it's the safe, low-effort, usually-cheaper choice, and choosing it on purpose is a smart decision, not a lazy one.

The traps, in plain English

The retail market is legal and regulated. But a handful of tactics are built to separate the advertised rate from what you actually pay. Watch for these:

The teaser that becomes a variable rate

A low "intro" rate for the first 3–6 months that then quietly converts to a month-to-month variable rate the supplier sets at will — often higher than the rate you left. The conversion date is in the contract. Find it before you sign.

An early-termination fee on a variable plan

The worst combination there is, and it's legal: you can't leave without a fee, but they can raise your rate whenever they like. Heads they win, tails you lose. If you see both on one plan, walk.

A monthly fee hiding behind a low rate

A "$5.99/month" charge can make a cheap-looking per-kWh rate cost more than the default — especially if you don't use much power. Always do the math at your actual usage, fees included.

"100% green" for a premium

Usually the supplier just buys cheap renewable credits and retires them against your usage — the actual electrons in your wires don't change. RECs are legitimate, but you're often paying extra for very little. Don't pay a premium for a green label.

"Your utility sent me" at the door

Your utility will essentially never knock to switch your supplier, and a real supplier won't claim to be your utility. Anyone asking for your account number or to "see your bill" is a red flag — that account number is all it takes to switch you, sometimes without clear consent (it's called slamming, and it's illegal). Treat your account number like a password.

A rule you can use today

If you only remember three things, remember these:

1. If a salesperson is rushing you — at the door, on the phone — that by itself is the answer. No. A good rate will still be there tomorrow.
2. Only ever shop on your state's official, commission-run site (linked below). Never off a pitch that came to you.
3. Only sign a fixed rate, for the full term, with no monthly fee — and only if it beats your default. Anything else, stay put.

Your state

Choice works a little differently in each state — the default rate has a different name, resets on a different schedule, and a few states have quirks worth knowing (in Ohio and Illinois your town may have already enrolled you with a supplier). Here's the straight version for yours:

We only cover states with real residential choice. Virginia and West Virginia don't let households shop suppliers — there, your rate is set by the regulator, and the thing to watch is the rate cases, not suppliers.