The Offer
Direct links to offer: Hilton, Marriott, Southwest (extra 2,500 points for Chase Southwest cardholders), United (extra 2,500 for Chase United cardholders), Amtrak, American Airlines via Points With A Crew, JetBlue (5,000 points only)
- Earn 10,000 points/miles as a bonus after your second month as an NRG Home customer. Southwest & United Chase cardholders get an additional 2,500 miles.
The Fine Print
- First three months you receive a promotional rate, after that the price increases dramatically
- Limited-time offer. Price and Bonus offers are only for first-time customers so previous or existing customers are not eligible
Our Verdict
NRG is a sister company to Energy Plus that also offers similar deals. If you’re going to do this deal, you really need to make sure you change your service after two months because after the end of the third month your rates will skyrocket (people have reported increases of 2x what they are normally charged). I’d recommend reading these reports on Energy Plus, as this deal will work similarly.
- 10,000 miles I want nothing to do with: Energy Plus, and a basic rule when chasing miles : Rapid Travel Chai
- Is Energy Plus A Scam? : Travel Sort
- Flyertalk thread
They also have smaller bonuses for Marriott & JetBlue. Points from Energy Plus have counted for the Companion Pass in the past as well, I’m not sure if that’s still the case or not.
Has anyone got their bonus? How long after the second bill did it occur? Was it 2 full billing cycles or 2 bills (mine had 20 days on first bill)? Need to make southwest booking when dates for June open and was doubtful I’d have the points before it occurs.
Got the bonus from NRG on nov 5, showed up into my southwest account today and now trying to sign up with energy plus. Will see if it works for both.
The question is on when to cancel. Do you cancel after your second bill posts to get out before the 3-month period is over? I read on TPG that some people were canceling as soon as the second meter read happened. I read the FT thread and it looked like people had a hard time/long time getting their points.
NRG has included the Nest thermostat as an additional incentive to switch to their service. Can you stack Nest and the offers above? I do not know. I am not in their service area, but I do like my Nest thermostat.
I have completed this deal about two years ago with NRG. While the above is true about the rates going up exponentially, if you call prior to the promotional period expiring, they will keep extending the promotional rate for you. You won’t get the continuing miles/points doing this, but you won’t have to switch providers. I liken it to XM/Sirius. Of course, if you’re not proactive about these sorts of things, best to cut and run after hitting the promotional milestone.
Is it really worth it to keep calling in to get it extended though?
We’re talking pennies here, but their (extended) promotional rate are always just a tad better than the standard utility. You’re probably right that I should just cancel, but one phone call every six months isn’t a big deal for me to make.
I really just wanted to make clear that people should go for this offer without fear of paying crazy amounts for their electricity. If you are on top of it and call in advance, you can either cancel or extend with no real difficulty
Good to know, thanks EO. I always try to be a bit overly cautious in my recommendations for this sort of thing because the punishment for forgetting can be so big.
Is this churnable?
I don’t think so. I know they have language saying new customers only. However, I have read you can get the nrg bonus then get the Energy Plus bonus.
I did just get the nrg bonus. Hit my account about two weeks after the second monthly bill.
Yes it’s churnable. You can sign up again six months after the cancellation. Call and they let you know the exact date. I’m two months in my second round after cancelling November last year.