Of the nine electricity retailers in Singapore's Open Electricity Market (OEM) today, Geneco has got to be one of the most aggressive companies.

In the past, they pioneered market-first plans such as a 36-month fixed rate plan and a plan offering free electricity on Sundays (June 5).

So, do Geneco Singapore's electricity plans live up to the hype? Let's take an impartial look at their electricity plan offerings and find out which ones are best for who.

1. Geneco electricity plans review

Geneco has three electricity plans, namely a six-month trial (Give Us A Try), Get It Fixed 12 months, and Get It Fixed 24 months.

While most electricity retailers no longer offer cheaper rates for longer commitment plans, Geneco continue to offer some of the cheapest rates for their Get It Fixed 24-month plan.

In fact, as of time of writing, Geneco's 24 month price plan is the cheapest electricity plan in Singapore at $0.2880/kWh - a whole lot cheaper than SP Group's current $0.2990/kWh rate.

2. Geneco Singapore: Fees and charges

All Geneco plans do not have hidden fees (e.g. admin fee, transmission loss charges), but there is a security deposit ranging from $50 to $220 required at the moment. There are fees, though, for early termination, late payment, auto payment (such as credit card or GIRO) failure, etc.

Here are all of Geneco's fees as stated in their factsheets:

If you love collecting and using promo codes, do note that the promotion bill rebates that you've used at Geneco may be taken back by them if you terminate your contract early.

3. Geneco fixed price plans

Fixed price plans are the cheapest electricity plans on the market right now. As the name suggests, you'll be charged at a fixed rate per kWh used for the entire duration of your contract. (In contrast, discount off tariff plans that are tied to the floating electricity tariff can get more or less expensive every quarter.)

Geneco has two fixed price plans, and one trial plan:

Although slightly more expensive at $0.2980/kWh, the Geneco Give Us A Try is their six-month low-commitment plan for those who are worried about switching to a private electricity retailer.

After the contract period ends, your contract will be automatically renewed for another six months, but Geneco makes no promises on what the new rate will be. You'll just be notified of the new rate 10 days before your contract expires so you can decide whether to terminate your contract or not.

For the other Get It Fixed 12 month and Get It Fixed 24 month plan, Geneco offers pretty attractive rates at $0.2890/kWh and $0.2880/kWh respectively.

Geneco's Get It Fixed 36 month fixed price plan has since been phased out.

4. Geneco Get It Green (ceased)

Props to Geneco for offering a "green" option among its electricity plans. The Get It Green plan was a 12-month contract that costed a little more than Get It Less.

Here's the price for Geneco's Get It Green when it still existed:

With this plan, the electricity you used was supposedly be 100 per cent carbon neutral. There wasn't much of an explanation on the site, but from reading the FAQ I gathered that Geneco supplied electricity in the same way, except it also bought carbon credits under the Verra programme to offset your consumption.

Note, though, that this wasn't the cheapest 100 per cent carbon neutral electricity plan on the market. For example, ES Power also offered a 24-month green plan at a much cheaper rate of 18.45 cents per kWh back then.

As of June 2022, the cheapest carbon neutral and solar electricity plans on the market are Senoko's LifeGreen24 and LifePower12, and Sembcorp Power's Sunshine Plan.

5. Geneco discount off tariff plan (ceased)

The other major type of electricity plan that Geneco used to offer is a discount off the electricity tariff, which is set quarterly by the Energy Market Authority.

Here were the rates when Geneco's discount off tariff plans still existed:

Called Get It Less 24, this was a 24-month contract where you'll be charged a standard discount of 22 per cent off the tariff (i.e. whatever SP Group was charging).

The electricity tariff is essentially a floating rate that can go up or down. It dipped slightly in April 2019, but it's really hard to predict if it'll go up or down since there are all kinds of global factors that come into play.

In Q2 2019, the tariff is 24.39 cents per kWh. If you opted for the Geneco discount off tariff plan, you would have paid 22 per cent off this rate, which made your rate 19.02 cents per kWh.

This type of pricing was for those who like to play safe, because there's no chance of you "losing out" if the tariff falls.

Even if the tariff rises, you'll still save quite a lot of money compared to going with SP. But, note that the discount of 22 per cent back then wasn't the best on the market - there were other companies offering as much as 25 per cent off in 2019. Woo!

6. Geneco free electricity on Sundays (ceased)

You might have seen the ads for Geneco's free electricity on Sundays plan in the past:

I'm pretty sure that this one was mostly a marketing gimmick, because the rate of 22.50 cents per kWh was so much higher than the standard rate (17.78 cents) back then. I mean, how much can you realistically save?

While it sounded pretty doable to spend all of Sunday doing energy-intensive chores like washing and drying clothes, meal prepping (assuming you use electricity for cooking), and even washing dishes (if you use a dishwasher), the problem is that the bulk of electricity consumption isn't the kind you can spread out. Think stuff like lights, air con, and shower water heaters.

Also, note that you don't necessarily get your actual Sunday usage discounted off the bill with this plan. You need to obtain and install an AMI meter at a "nominal fee", otherwise, it'll just be based on a national estimate provided by the EMA.

7. Geneco referral code

When you sign up for a Geneco electricity plan, your mobile phone number will automatically become your referral code.

If you have a friend looking for an electricity retailer, you can ask your friend to type in your mobile phone number in the referral code field in their application.

This mobile phone number referral code system is truly convenient 'cause folks like me are always messing up the alphabets in promo codes and what not.

And when your friend has successfully registered, you'll get $20 in bill rebates. Your friend will, too, get a $20 bill rebate in their freshly opened Geneco account. Fair and easy, right?

8. Geneco promotion and promo codes

Ready to sign up? Geneco has a bunch of promo codes and credit card promotions that you can make use of.

The ones below are still valid, but please check the terms and conditions, especially for the credit card promos which may require you to set up a recurring payment instruction with your card.

POSB Everyday Card

• Up to 10 per cent cash rebates on food delivery

• Up to three per cent cash rebates on utilities and telecommunications bill payments 

• Up to 21.8 per cent fuel savings at SPC

Online Promo: Get $150 cashback when you apply with promo code 150CASH and make the min. spend of $800 within 60 days of card approval. Valid till June 30, 2022. T&Cs apply. 

UOB One Card

• Up to 10 per cent rebate on Shopee, Dairy Farm Group, Grab, SP and more
• $300 rebate cap per quarter
• $2000 min. spend per month, per quarter

Cash back features

• Up to five per cent cash rebate on all spend for spend above $2,000/month per quarter (up to 3.33 per cent cash rebate for spend of $500 or $1,000 monthly)

UOB EVOL Credit Card

• Up to eight per cent on online and mobile contactless spend
• Up to $60 cash back cap per month
• $600 min. spend per month

Key features

• Enjoy first year fee waiver and subsequently no annual fee with three transactions monthly
• Up to 2.5 per cent p.a. interest with your UOB One Account when you spend on UOB YOLO (Insured up to $75k by SDIC)
• Southeast Asia’s first bio-sourced card with a suite of sustainable deals

ALSO READ: UOB One account review: Go for it if you hate maths

This article was first published in MoneySmart.