Gimmick Watch · Case file № 3 · Bill credit
Maxx Saver Value 12 Reviewed 4Change "Maxx Saver Value": 7.3¢ at exactly 1,000 kWh — 19.8¢ at 999.
It's the most popular plan on 4Change's own shop. The EFL prices the same electricity at 20.2¢, 7.3¢, and 13.4¢ depending on how much you use — because a $125 bill credit appears at the 1,000-kWh line and nowhere below it.
The pitch
The most popular plan on the shelf
Enter a Dallas ZIP on 4Change's shop and Maxx Saver Value 12 comes up wearing the most-popular badge, priced at 7.3¢ per kWh at 1,000 kWh usage. Against a market where plain plans run in the teens, 7.3¢ doesn't look like a deal — it looks like a typo in your favor.
The plan publishes its Electricity Facts Label, so nothing here needs guessing. The EFL for the Oncor area — Dallas–Fort Worth — issued August 06, 2026, prices the plan at 20.2¢ / 7.3¢ / 13.4¢ per kWh at 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kWh. Read that row again: the price at 500 kWh is nearly triple the advertised number, and the price at 2,000 is nearly double.
A real price gets cheaper, or at worst stays flat, as you buy more. This one plunges at exactly 1,000 kWh and climbs again after. That V-shape has one cause, and the EFL prints it in a single line: “Monthly Bill Credit: $125.00 Per billing cycle > 999 kWh.”
You won't find this plan on the state's Power to Choose site — when we checked the database for downtown Dallas (ZIP 75201, August 6, 2026), 4Change listed no plans there at all; the shop is the whole storefront. And one more detail worth a sentence: the EFL names the seller as Value Based Brands LLC, REP certificate No. 10041 — the same company, certificate, and Dallas P.O. box printed on Express Energy's Flash Value 12 EFL. Two storefronts, one seller.
The receipts
The shop page on the left. The EFL on the right.
Fine print quoted verbatim from the plan's own Electricity Facts Label (Oncor Electric Delivery, issued 08/06/2026, document code ON4CMXSELBC12BA). Shop framing from shopping.4changeenergy.com. Both checked August 6, 2026.
What the pitch says
4Change’s online shop leads with Maxx Saver Value 12 as its most popular plan, priced at 7.3¢ per kWh at 1,000 kWh usage.
What the fine print says
The EFL prints the whole row, not just the middle — 20.2¢ at 500 kWh, 7.30¢ at 1,000, 13.4¢ at 2,000 — and directly beneath it, in red: “These average prices are examples.” The advertised price is the one column where a flat $125 credit lines up perfectly with the usage level.
Verdict 1/4 7.3¢ exists at exactly one usage level. Below it the price nearly triples; above it, it nearly doubles.
What the pitch says
A simple, cheap fixed-rate plan — the EFL’s own disclosure chart files it as a fixed-rate product.
What the fine print says
The fixed thing isn’t 7.3¢. The EFL’s pricing components: “Energy Charge: 13.4050¢ Per kWh” on every kilowatt-hour, then “Monthly Bill Credit: $125.00 Per billing cycle > 999 kWh.” The headline rate isn’t a rate at all — it’s a 13.4¢ rate with a rebate stapled to a threshold.
Verdict 2/4 The real price is 13.4¢ plus delivery. The 7.3¢ is a coupon with a tripwire.
What the pitch says
Fixed rate — so the price you sign is the price you pay.
What the fine print says
The EFL’s own disclosure chart: “Can my price change during the contract period?” — “Yes.” TDU delivery charges are “passed through to customer as billed,” and the averages “include pass through TDU Delivery Charges as of the issue date of this EFL.” If Oncor’s rates move, so does your bill.
Verdict 3/4 Fixed energy charge, floating delivery. The EFL says so itself.
What the pitch says
$0 base charge — nothing extra per billing cycle.
What the fine print says
Free to join, priced to leave: “A termination fee of $20 multiplied by the number of months remaining on the term of your contract will apply” — up to $240 if you bail early on. And this is “a paperless product”: let your email lapse and the Terms of Service add “certain fees … including the e-Docs Breakage Fee.”
Verdict 4/4 The $0 lives on the front of the EFL. The fees live in the exits.
The math
The cliff at 999 kWh
The EFL's three averages hand us everything we need. Between its 500- and 1,000-kWh rows, the numbers imply a combined energy-plus-delivery rate of 19.4¢ per kWh (13.405¢ energy charge plus Oncor delivery) and about $4.00 in fixed monthly delivery. Rebuild the bill at usage levels the EFL doesn't print, and the shape of the plan appears:
| If your billing cycle uses | $125 credit? | Your bill | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 900 kWh | No | $178.60 | 19.8¢/kWh |
| 950 kWh | No | $188.30 | 19.8¢/kWh |
| 999 kWh | No | $197.81 | 19.8¢/kWh |
| 1,000 kWh | Yes | $73.00 | 7.3¢/kWh |
Rebuilt from the EFL's own three published averages; the rebuilt bill reproduces the EFL's 20.2¢ and 7.3¢ rows exactly. TDU delivery charges pass through as billed and can shift totals slightly after the issue date.
Look at what the cliff does: at 999 kWh you pay $197.81. Use one more kilowatt-hour — about 19¢ of electricity — and the bill falls to $73.00. Using less power costs you $124.81 more. No other product you buy works this way. It's the only plan design where running the dryer one more time is the financially responsible choice.
And you can't aim at the line. A billing cycle is whatever Oncor's read dates make it — shorter one month, longer the next. A home that averages 1,050 kWh clears the threshold in a long cycle and misses it in a short one, same thermostat, same habits. Every miss costs about $125.
Could it ever make sense?
The steelman is real: a home that lands at or above 1,000 kWh every single billing cycle — a larger house, a pool pump, an EV — harvests the full $125 twelve times, and its average lands near the advertised number. At exactly 1,000 kWh this is genuinely one of the cheapest bills in the Oncor area. But the sweet spot is narrow: the credit is a flat $125, so by 2,000 kWh the EFL's own average is back up to 13.4¢. And the trap is the mild months — a home that runs 1,300 kWh through the summer routinely dips under 1,000 in April, October, and November. Pull your last 12 bills and count the cycles under 1,000. Each one is a ~$125 fine for good weather.
Live rates · updated August 7, 2026
What Dallas–Fort Worth homes can get instead, today.
The cheapest of the 117 live Oncor-area plans we list, priced at 1,000 kWh with TDU delivery and base fees included. Where a price leans on a bill credit, we say so on the card.
APGE SimpleSaver 11
APGE SimpleSaver 12
Discount Power Bill Credit Bundle 12
Cirro Energy Bill Bonus 24
Cirro Energy Bill Bonus 12
Rates as of August 7, 2026 — always verify on the EFL before you enroll. See every Dallas plan we list →
The playbook
If this plan is on your screen right now
- Read all three EFL columns, never just the middle one. A plan that prices 20.2¢ / 7.3¢ / 13.4¢ isn't cheap — it's cheap at one point. The spread between the columns is the size of the gamble.
- Count your under-1,000 months. Pull 12 months of bills (your current provider's portal, or Smart Meter Texas, has them). Every billing cycle under 1,000 kWh on this plan forfeits the full $125 — three mild months erase roughly $375 of the advertised savings.
- Price it at 13.4¢, not 7.3¢. The energy charge is what every kilowatt-hour costs; the credit is a conditional rebate. If a plain fixed plan beats 13.4¢-plus-delivery at your usage, it beats this plan in every month the credit doesn't land.
- Watch the cycle, not the calendar. The threshold is per billing cycle, and cycles vary with Oncor's read dates. A short cycle can drop a reliably-over-1,000 home under the line through no fault of its own.
Quick answers
4Change Maxx Saver Value 12 — your questions, answered
Is 4Change Maxx Saver Value 12 a good deal?
Only if every single billing cycle of your year lands at 1,000 kWh or more. The plan charges 13.405¢ on every kWh (per its EFL, Oncor area, issued August 06, 2026) and refunds $125 per cycle — but only when the cycle passes 999 kWh. A home that clears the line all 12 months gets a genuinely low average near the advertised 7.3¢. One mild month under 1,000 kWh hands the whole $125 back. Count your under-1,000 months before you decide — the math is on this page.
Why is my 4Change bill higher than 7.3 cents?
Because 7.3¢ was never the rate — it’s the EFL’s modeled average at exactly 1,000 kWh, after a $125 bill credit. Every kWh is billed at 13.405¢ plus Oncor delivery, about 19.4¢ all-in. If your cycle came in at 999 kWh or less, the credit didn’t apply and you paid roughly 19.8¢ per kWh. If you used well over 1,000, the flat $125 spreads thinner: the EFL itself prices 2,000 kWh at 13.4¢.
How does the 4Change $125 bill credit work?
The EFL states it in one line: “Monthly Bill Credit: $125.00 Per billing cycle > 999 kWh.” It’s all or nothing — 1,000 kWh in a cycle earns the full $125, 999 kWh earns $0. There is no partial credit, and a billing cycle is what your meter says between TDU read dates, not a calendar month.
What happens if I use less than 1,000 kWh in a month?
You pay the full undiscounted price on every kWh — about 19.8¢ all-in by the EFL’s own numbers. At 999 kWh that’s a bill of roughly $198; at 1,000 kWh the credit lands and the bill drops to $73. Using one kWh less costs about $125 more. Mild months are the trap: plenty of Texas homes that run 1,200+ kWh in August dip under 1,000 in April, October, and November.
What is 4Change Energy’s cancellation fee?
Per the EFL: “A termination fee of $20 multiplied by the number of months remaining on the term of your contract will apply.” Leave a 12-month term early and it can run as high as about $240, shrinking $20 for each month you’ve served. Texas law waives it if you move and provide proof of your new address.
Is 4Change Energy the same company as TXU?
Same corporate family. The EFL names the seller as Value Based Brands LLC d/b/a 4Change Energy (PUC REP certificate No. 10041), a Vistra-family retail brand — the same family as TXU Energy —. The same company also sells the near-identical Express Energy Flash Value 12, which we cover in its own case file.
How this case was built
Everything above comes from two places: 4Change Energy's own shop at shopping.4changeenergy.com and the plan's own Electricity Facts Label — "4Change Energy Maxx Saver Value 12," Oncor Electric Delivery service area, issued August 06, 2026 (document code ON4CMXSELBC12BA) — both checked August 6, 2026. EFL lines are quoted verbatim; the bill rebuild uses only the EFL's published averages and pricing components. 4Change Energy and Maxx Saver Value are trademarks of their owner; quotes are reproduced for consumer education and commentary. ChooseMyPower is independent and doesn't sell this plan — providers we do list pay the same flat fee, so no plan can buy a kinder read. 4Change sells Maxx Saver in other TDU areas and terms on the same engine; check that EFL's numbers before comparing.
Enri Zhulati
Consumer AdvocateEnri knows the regulations, the fine print, and the tricks some retail electricity providers use. He's spent nearly a decade learning how to spot hidden fees, misleading teaser rates, and contracts that sound good but cost more. He writes the guides that show you what they're hiding — his goal is to help Texans avoid the traps and find plans that actually save money.
Sources
- 4Change Energy Maxx Saver Value 12 — Electricity Facts Label, Oncor Electric Delivery service area, issued August 06, 2026 (document code ON4CMXSELBC12BA)
- shopping.4changeenergy.com plan listings, checked August 6, 2026
- powertochoose.org (PUCT) plan database, ZIP 75201, checked August 6, 2026
- ChooseMyPower — live Texas provider rate data (Oncor area)
Sources are cited for informational purposes. Data may have been updated since publication.
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