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A paper bill fee applies to some customers. The fee is $1.69 (incl. GST) per bill.
There are exemptions and if you’re one of these customers listed below, you won’t be charged this fee:
- You live in New South Wales
- You live in Queensland and are on a Basic Home electricity plan, also known as Default Market Offer (DMO) pricing
- You live in Victoria and are on a Basic Home electricity plan, also known as Victorian Default Offer (VDO) pricing and/or a Basic Home gas plan
- You’re visually impaired
- You’re a business customer
- You’re a concession or pension card holder (valid concession cards only)*
- You’re on our EnergyAssist program*
- You’re a life support customer*
- You’re on a family violence protection arrangement with us*
*If your circumstances change and you’re no longer eligible for any of these programs, then a paper bill fee will apply if you choose ‘post’ as a bill delivery preference. We suggest you change your bill delivery preference to email to avoid this fee.
Due to the rising costs of producing and posting paper bills and to reduce paper clutter. We currently post 12 million paper sheets for energy bills across the country each year - if you choose eBill it will reduce the use of paper and you won’t pay a paper bill fee.
You can avoid this fee by switching your bill delivery preference to email.
We're introducing a paper bill fee on each paper bill, due to the increasing costs of postage and production of nearly 12 million sheets of paper each year. You can help reduce this volume of paper and avoid paying the fee.
You can avoid this fee by switching your bill delivery preference to eBill through My Account.
If you haven’t registered it only takes a couple of minutes to set up. All you’ll need is your account number to get started. Then you can easily manage your energy account - update your details, view and pay your bills, and more.
eBill is a simple and convenient way to access and manage your bills anytime. Since its launch in 2016, over 1.2 million of our customer accounts are being billed this way.
With eBill you can:
- View and pay your bills securely online at any time
- Access from any device anywhere
- Set calendar reminders to pay your bill
- Reduce paper clutter
It’s the cost of printing and processing a paper copy of your bill and sending to you by post.
Due to the rising costs of producing and posting paper bills. Also, when we removed the fee in 2018, our eBill, My Account and EnergyAustralia App services didn’t have all the great features they have now to help you manage your energy account in a simple, convenient and more efficient way.
Today we have over 1.2 million of our customer accounts being billed through eBill. This is more accounts than receive paper bills (just over 1 million).
Call us on 133 466 to discuss ways we can help you.
You can easily change your email address using My Account or by calling us on 133 466.
If your email doesn’t work, then your bill will be printed, and we’ll send it to you by post. There will be a message attached letting you know this has happened and will ask if you want to:
- Call us to update your email address
- If you haven’t already, register and use My Account to update your email address and you’ll also have access to your latest bills and can manage your account.
You won’t be charged a paper bill fee at first, but if you haven’t updated or fixed your email before your next bill is sent, you may be charged the paper bill fee.
Different states have different rules on whether certain fees can be charged. To align with these rules set out by New South Wales government, residential customers are exempt from being charged paper bill fees.
There isn’t a plan underway to apply the same fee for our business customers, as more than half of our business customers have chosen eBill as their preferred billing option.
Some businesses have special billing requirements that eBill can’t support right now. For example, some businesses need a service called consolidated bill, where they have many locations and need a summary of all their energy accounts.
However, we’re still encouraging business customers to change to eBill if they can, so they can also enjoy the benefits of eBill.
While we can't comment on all other retailers, our understanding is that other major retailers do charge a paper bill fee however we’re investing in products, services and initiatives to benefit our customers such as;
- Our eBill, My Account and EnergyAustralia App services have easy to use features to help you manage your energy account in a simple and convenient way. These services will also help us to reduce the 12 million paper sheets for bills we mail each year.
- We've helped over 150,000 customers (and counting) avoid rate rises with our fixed rate products.
- We can help you understand rates and discounts to make sure you’re getting the best value plan for you.
- Our customers can choose from two plans – one that has discounts guaranteed, every time on every bill; and a simple plan with a low fixed rates.
- As part of our commitment to cleaner energy for all, you can choose carbon neutral electricity at home by opting into our Go Neutral program, at no extra cost to you.
- The introduction of our Power Response program aims to help reduce pressure on our electricity grid in high usage times - such as extreme hot days, by encouraging our eligible customers with smart meters to reduce their electricity usage through bill credit incentives.