Here’s what happens 60-90 days before your business energy contract ends:
Your retailer’s CRM flags your account as “approaching renewal.” A pricing team sets your new rate. Almost without fail, that rate is higher than what you’d get if a broker quoted the panel fresh today.
It’s not an accident. It’s a deliberate retention strategy. Retailers know that 80%+ of business customers don’t shop their renewal. They accept the first offer, sign, and move on.
This guide is the alternative.
What you’ll get out of reading this:
- Why retailer renewal offers almost always land above market
- The 90-day checklist — exactly what to do, in order
- The “tactical renewal” playbook your retailer is running (so you know it)
- What to do if your contract is already past expiry
- Multi-site portfolio timing — when to start
If you’d rather skip the reading: find your contract end date, send us a photo of your bill, and we’ll set a calendar reminder to rebid the market 90 days before. Free. We’re paid by the energy retailer when you switch, never by you.
The 30-second version
Three rules:
- Set a calendar reminder for 90 days before your contract expires. That’s your trigger to start the rebid.
- Never accept your retailer’s first renewal offer. It’s almost always above market — sometimes by 8%, sometimes by 22%.
- Get the panel quoted fresh. If your current retailer wins on the rebid, great — stay. If not, switch. Same wires, same poles, new name on the invoice.
If you do nothing, two things can happen at expiry: you auto-renew onto a “default rate” (always the worst) or you drop into a month-to-month variable rate (also bad). Neither is what you want.
Why your retailer’s renewal offer is above market
Three reasons, in order of how cynical they are.
1. They know you probably won’t shop
Statistically, most businesses don’t. So the retailer can quote close to the published default rate rather than the competitive panel rate — and most customers accept it. Easy margin.
2. They have a “retention margin” baked into renewal pricing
Most retailer CRMs price renewals with an explicit margin buffer above the price they’d offer to win a new customer. Anywhere from 2% to 12% above their new-customer rate. The bet: you’ll accept rather than shop. Often correct.
3. The published rates have moved while you weren’t looking
Wholesale energy markets move quarterly. If you signed a 2-year contract when wholesale was high, the renewal offer might technically be lower than your previous rate — but the panel’s current pricing is much lower. Lower rate, still above market.
This is the most insidious one: you see a small decrease vs your old rate, feel good about it, sign. Meanwhile the panel would have given you a meaningful drop.
The 90-day checklist
This is the order to do things.
Day -90: Trigger the rebid
Find your contract end date (it’s usually on the front page of your bill — look for “Contract end” or “Anniversary date”). Set a calendar reminder for exactly 90 days before.
Why 90 days: retailers need 6-8 weeks to quote a tender properly. Switching takes 2-4 weeks after contract signature. That leaves you no buffer if you start at 60 days. Start at 90 and you have room to negotiate without supply gaps.
Day -90 to -75: Send your bill to a broker (or three)
If you’ve got a trusted broker, send the bill and let them get going. If you don’t have one, get quotes from two or three — compare not just the rates but their commission disclosure, their LoA terms, and the retailers on their panel.
(Quick aside: brokers who can’t tell you the dollar amount of their commission on a deal are red flags. Ours is always disclosed on request.)
Day -75 to -45: Quote the panel
A good broker quotes 4-8 retailers for SME sites, runs a closed tender for C&I sites. You should see:
- A one-page comparison sheet
- The broker’s recommendation with the reason
- The dollar amount of the broker’s commission for each option (ask if it’s not shown)
- The contract term options (12, 24, 36 months) priced separately
Day -45 to -30: Decide
You’ve got the comparison. The choice is usually clear:
- Switch if a different retailer is materially sharper (typically 5%+ saving on the total)
- Stay if your current retailer matches or beats — they usually will when forced to compete
- Stay but renegotiate the demand or supply lines — this is the underrated outcome. We’ve kept clients with their existing retailer many times by getting the retailer to sharpen specific line items.
Day -30 to -14: Sign
Sign the new contract (whether stay or switch). If switching, your broker handles the customer transfer admin. The actual switch happens at your next meter read after the cooling-off period ends.
Day -14 to 0: Confirm the switch is in flight
Final check: your broker should confirm the customer transfer has been submitted. If switching, you’ll receive a welcome letter from the new retailer.
Day 0: Old contract ends, new contract begins
Same wires, same meter. New name on the invoice. Done.
The “tactical renewal” playbook (know it so you can spot it)
Retailers do four things in the 90-day window. Knowing about them lets you push back.
1. “Pre-renewal” emails 120-150 days out
You’ll get an email saying “your contract is coming up — here’s an offer to lock in early.” The offer is rarely the sharpest. It’s a first move to capture you before you shop. Ignore early offers. Wait for your 90-day trigger.
2. A “loyalty rate” if you push back
Push back on the first offer and you’ll often get a 2-5% discount “as a loyalty customer.” Accept it without quoting the panel? That’s the same trap, just slightly cheaper.
3. The “free service review” call
A retailer salesperson rings, offers to “review your account,” ends up presenting their renewal offer. The conversation feels helpful but it’s a sales call. Ask them to email the offer instead, then run it through a broker.
4. The 7-day “limited time” offer
The “this rate is only valid until Friday” framing. It’s almost never true — retailers can extend pricing windows. The pressure exists to discourage shopping. If you ever feel rushed, that itself is the signal to slow down.
What if my contract has already expired?
You’re probably on one of two things:
- A default “out-of-term” rate — almost always the worst rate the retailer publishes
- A variable month-to-month rate — better than default but still above market
Either way, the answer is the same: rebid the market this week. You can switch with no penalty (no contract = no exit fee). We’ve moved out-of-term clients onto sharper deals in as little as 10 business days from first phone call to live on new plan.
If you’ve been out-of-term for 12+ months without realising it: you’ve been overpaying for at least a year. It’s worth running the rebid even if you’re “happy with” your current retailer — the gap is usually bigger than people expect.
Multi-site and C&I — different timing
For larger portfolios:
- Start at 120-180 days before the earliest site’s expiry. Tendering 6-15 sites takes longer than tendering one.
- Don’t aggregate sites with different end dates — bid each cohort separately, or contract for a synchronised future expiry date and move everyone onto one term.
- Run a closed tender with 4-6 C&I retailers — SmartestEnergy, Shell C&I, AGL C&I, Origin Enterprise. They quote against each other on your specific load shape.
- Watch indexation clauses — many C&I contracts have CPI or wholesale-indexed pricing that adjusts mid-contract. Read these clauses carefully before signing a 3-year deal.
If you’re a procurement manager managing renewals for a portfolio above 1 GWh/year, the tender process is what unlocks the meaningful saving. Single-retailer panel pricing isn’t built for you.
Common questions
My contract has an “evergreen” clause that auto-renews. Can I get out of it?
Evergreen clauses (also called “rolling renewal” or “auto-extension”) legally require you to be given notice before they trigger. If your retailer renewed you without clear notice in writing 30+ days before expiry, you may have grounds to dispute. The Energy and Water Ombudsman Queensland handles this kind of dispute.
Can I lock in a rate now for a renewal that’s still 6 months away?
Sometimes. Some retailers offer 6-month forward locks. Worth quoting if wholesale markets are spiking — but locking in too far ahead can also mean missing a drop. We model both scenarios for clients.
What’s the right contract term — 12, 24, or 36 months?
Depends on your forward view of wholesale prices. In a falling market, prefer 12 months (rebid soon). In a rising market, lock 24-36 months. For most SME sites in stable conditions, 24 months is the sweet spot — long enough to be worth the switch effort, short enough to rebid before the market moves.
Can my broker quote without an LoA?
No. Retailers won’t release pricing or quote a new contract without an LoA. It’s the entry pass.
What’s the typical saving from a clean rebid vs accepting a renewal offer?
On SME sites: 5-15% of the annual bill. On C&I sites: 8-25%. On out-of-term sites: 15-40%. Real numbers from real audits — not projections.
One last thing
Energy retailers structure their renewal process to capture customers who don’t shop. Shopping the renewal is the single highest-ROI thing you can do on the energy side of your business — for most owners, an hour of focus saves more than a week of cost-cutting elsewhere.
If you’d rather just set a calendar reminder and let us do it: that’s what we do. Email hello@smartaswitch.com.au with your contract end date and we’ll automate the 90-day trigger.
Joe Lawrence — Co-founder, Smarta Switch Australia
0435 642 592 · joseff@smartaswitch.com.au