Ban Variable Rate Electric Contracts in Connecticut

IMPORTANT UPDATE, MAY 27, 2015: The Connecticut General Assembly gave final passage on May 27, 2015 to legislation (S.B. 573) that bans variable electric rates for residential customers and sets up a process for PURA to further investigate and make future recommendations to completely eliminate variable rates when a customer's contract expires. The bill now goes to the Governor for signature.

AARP is fighting to save you money on your electric bills so you can keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket.  Join our fight to put an end to predatory variable rate electricity contracts.

In 2014, AARP was instrumental in passing a new law that provides additional protections for consumers who choose to purchase their electricity from a third-party supplier, instead of the default Standard Offer from Eversource (formerly CL&P) or United Illuminating. Unfortunately, the final law did not include all of the protections AARP advocated for, and as a result, consumers can still find themselves paying more than they should for their electricity.

AARP is fighting to ban variable rate electric contracts in Connecticut because we believe they have been detrimental to rate payers, and have resulted in too many electricity customers paying more for their electricity. Some electric suppliers use variable rate contracts to lure customers in by offering a very low rate for the first few months and then counting on you to forget or fail to renew your contract by a certain deadline. Suddenly your rate sky-rockets and by the time you take action, you’ve already lost any savings you might have seen during the initial months of the contract. AARP is fighting to ban these predatory variable rate contracts this year and we need your help! Please send an email to your state legislators asking them to ban variable rate electric contracts in Connecticut.

Here are the facts:

• When a third party electric contract expires and you miss that deadline you can be dumped into a variable rate contract.
• Variable rate contracts can raise your rates from month to month by up to 25% per month.
• If your variable rate contract expires, a supplier can move you to a more expensive contract with costly cancellation fees, or dump you as a customer altogether, without penalty, if you are no longer profitable to them.

The bottom line? Variable rate electric contracts are a bad deal for you and a good deal for the suppliers who use them.

Take action today! Tell your state legislators to support S.B. 573 to ban variable rate electricity contracts in Connecticut this year.