Setting up electricity for a Houston move

A move compresses a decision that deserves thought into an afternoon between a truck rental and a change of address form. That is exactly why so many Houston households spend years on a plan they picked in twenty minutes.

The sequence that works

1. Confirm the address is deregulated. Nearly all of the Houston metro is CenterPoint territory and has retail choice. Parts of Montgomery County are Entergy Texas and do not — in those areas there is no provider to pick, and anyone selling you a plan there is selling you nothing.
2. Find the ESI ID if the home is new. Newly built addresses are not always in the search databases yet. The builder or the developer will have the ESI ID.
3. Estimate what the home will actually use. This is the step everyone skips. A 2,800 sq ft house in Cypress will use roughly three times what a one-bedroom apartment used, and the plan that suited the apartment can be badly wrong for the house.
4. Choose a plan against that estimate. Not against the advertised 1,000 kWh average, which describes a household that may not resemble yours.
5. Enrol with the start date set for the day you take possession. Not the day you move furniture — the day the property becomes yours, so you are never on someone else's account or without power.

Transferring an existing plan versus starting fresh

If you are already with a provider and moving within deregulated Texas, you can usually transfer the plan to the new address. That avoids the early termination fee, which is a genuine saving.

But transfer is not automatically right. The plan was chosen for the old home's usage. If you are moving from an apartment to a house, or from a house to a condo, the usage profile changes substantially and a plan built around bill credits at a particular threshold may now sit on the wrong side of it every month. Check before transferring by default.

Deposits, credit and the letter that avoids them

Providers run a credit check at enrolment. A strong result usually means no deposit. A weak or thin file can mean a deposit of a few hundred dollars, refundable after a period of on-time payment.

If you have been with a Texas provider for at least twelve months with a clean payment record, ask them for a letter of credit. Most providers accept one in place of a deposit, and most customers never learn it exists.

Moving out as well as in

Set a service end date at the old address for the day you hand it over. Leaving service running means paying for a property you no longer occupy — including anything a new occupant uses before they enrol. If the property is being sold or re-let, coordinate the dates so there is no gap for which nobody is responsible.

If your contract has time left and you are leaving Texas or moving into a non-deregulated area, ask about the early termination fee. Many providers waive it when you can show you are moving out of their service territory entirely.

Call 832-573-8546 with your address and date and we will arrange the service and make sure the plan fits the home.