Gimmick Watch · Case file № 9 · Bill credit · Three brands
Smart Choice 12 Reviewed Just Energy "Smart Choice": one pricing spreadsheet — sold under three brand names.
Just Energy calls it Smart Choice. Amigo Energy calls it Power Perks. Tara Energy calls it Value Choice. On the state's own shopping site, the prices in all three listings are identical — down to the cancellation fee. Comparing them is comparing a plan to itself.
The pitch
Three storefronts on the same street
Comparison shopping rests on one assumption: different brands compete. Pull the state's Power to Choose listings for downtown Dallas (ZIP 75201, fetched August 6, 2026) and that assumption develops a hole. Three different brands — Just Energy, Amigo Energy, Tara Energy — each list a 12-month bill-credit plan, each under a different friendly name.
The prices: 23.8¢ / 10.9¢ / 17.0¢ at 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kWh. All three. To the digit. Same "$125 bill credit when monthly usage is ≥ 1000 kWh." Same "Cancellation Fee: $175.00." Same 22% renewable content. Run the same pull for downtown Houston (ZIP 77002) and all three list 21.5¢ / 8.5¢ / 14.5¢ — again to the digit. The only fields that differ, anywhere: the plan's name and the phone number that answers.
To be clear about what we can and can't prove: the three websites name three legal entities with three PUCT license numbers, and none of their footers mentions the others. So we won't assert common ownership. We don't need to. A shopper comparing "three options" that price identically to the tenth of a cent is comparing one spreadsheet to itself — whoever maintains it.
The receipts
The storefront on the left. The state's database on the right.
Every price and quoted line comes from the PUCT's powertochoose.org plan listings — ZIP 75201 (Oncor) and ZIP 77002 (CenterPoint), fetched August 6, 2026.
What the storefront sells
Just Energy sells “Smart Choice - 12”: a 12-month fixed plan listed at 10.9¢ per kWh in Dallas.
What the database lists
The full Power to Choose row: 23.8¢ at 500 kWh, 10.9¢ at 1,000, 17.0¢ at 2,000. Special terms: “$125 bill credit when monthly usage is ≥ 1000 kWh.” Pricing details: “Cancellation Fee: $175.00.” The 10.9¢ exists at exactly one usage level; the credit is the entire difference.
Verdict 1/4 The flagship. Remember these numbers.
What the storefront sells
Amigo Energy sells “Power Perks - 12” — a different brand, a different name, a perkier pitch.
What the database lists
Same database, same ZIP: 23.8¢ / 10.9¢ / 17.0¢. Same “$125 bill credit when monthly usage is ≥ 1000 kWh.” Same “Cancellation Fee: $175.00.” Same 12-month fixed term, same “22% Renewable” content. The prices, credit language, fee, term, and renewable content are identical to Just Energy’s; what changes is storefront dressing — the name, the logo, the links, the hotline, the star ratings.
Verdict 2/4 The same plan, wearing its second costume.
What the storefront sells
Tara Energy sells “Value Choice - 12” — a third brand, a third name, a thriftier pitch.
What the database lists
Same database, same ZIP, third copy: 23.8¢ / 10.9¢ / 17.0¢, “$125 bill credit when monthly usage is ≥ 1000 kWh,” “Cancellation Fee: $175.00,” 22% renewable. Houston tells the identical story — in ZIP 77002 all three brands list 21.5¢ / 8.5¢ / 14.5¢, digit for digit, same credit, same fee.
Verdict 3/4 Costume three. One spreadsheet, three storefronts.
What the storefront sells
The same three brands also list “Days” plans advertising free daytime electricity, every day.
What the database lists
The special terms, verbatim from the listings: “FREE electricity from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM daily. A one-month GoodBundle setup and carbon offset purchase of $49.99 is required to enroll.” Just Energy’s “Sustainable Days Bundle - 5,” Tara’s “Balanced Days Bundle - 5,” and Amigo’s “Sustainable Simply Days - 5” all carry the identical line — you pay $49.99 at the door to start receiving “free.”
Verdict 4/4 Fifty dollars, cover charge, for the free stuff.
The math
A cliff that's bad at both ends
Most bill-credit cliffs punish one direction: use too little and you miss the credit. This one also punishes the other direction, and the state's three price points show why. The credit is a flat $125 — so the more you use past 1,000 kWh, the less each kilowatt-hour gets back:
| Monthly usage | State-listed average (Oncor) | What the flat $125 is worth per kWh |
|---|---|---|
| 500 kWh | 23.8¢/kWh | $0 — below the 1,000 line |
| 1,000 kWh | 10.9¢/kWh | 12.50¢/kWh |
| 2,000 kWh | 17.0¢/kWh | 6.25¢/kWh |
Averages are the Power to Choose listing's own numbers (ZIP 75201, fetched August 6, 2026); the credit-per-kWh column is arithmetic — $125 divided by the month's usage.
Work backward from the state's numbers and the underlying price appears. At 1,000 kWh the listed average is 10.9¢ — a $109 bill. Add back the $125 credit and the plan charged about $234, or 23.4¢ per kWh, before handing some back. At 2,000 kWh: 17.0¢ listed, a $340 bill, plus the $125 credit is $465 — about 23.3¢. The everyday rate underneath this plan is roughly 23½¢ at any usage level. The credit is the only thing that ever makes it look cheap, and it only manages that trick in the neighborhood of exactly 1,000 kWh.
So the plan loses at 500 kWh (23.8¢, no credit), wins near 1,000 (10.9¢), and loses again by 2,000 (17.0¢) — a valley one usage level wide, with the same ~23.4¢ rate charging you on both slopes. And a home that misses 1,000 kWh in a mild month doesn't just lose the discount: by that arithmetic, a 999-kWh month bills around $234 while a 1,000-kWh month bills $109. One kilowatt-hour, roughly $125.
Could it ever make sense?
The honest case: a home whose usage lands at or modestly above 1,000 kWh every single month — never below, never near double — genuinely captures the 10.9¢ (or 8.5¢ in Houston) and beats most of the table below. That home exists. But it has to hold the band all twelve months: one mild April under 1,000 bills at the full ~23¢, and one 2,000-kWh August climbs back to 17¢. Your last twelve bills — not the plan's name, whichever of the three it's wearing — tell you if you're that home.
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 one of these plans is on your screen right now
- Compare the numbers, not the brands. A different logo is not a different price. Before you credit yourself with shopping around, check whether your "options" share the same three EFL numbers — these three do, to the digit.
- Read all three usage columns. The 10.9¢ headline lives at exactly 1,000 kWh. The other two columns — 23.8¢ at 500, 17¢ at 2,000 — are the price of leaving the band in either direction.
- Divide the credit by your usage. A flat $125 is worth 12.5¢/kWh at 1,000 kWh and half that at 2,000. If your home is big, a "big" credit is small for you by construction.
- Price the entry fee on "free" plans. The same brands' free-daytime bundles state, verbatim: "A one-month GoodBundle setup and carbon offset purchase of $49.99 is required to enroll" — on 5-month terms. Fold that $50 into the plan's cost before comparing.
- Note the exit before the entrance. Every listing in this family carries "Cancellation Fee: $175.00." If the plan disappoints in month three, that's the price of the door.
Quick answers
Smart Choice, Power Perks, Value Choice — your questions, answered
Are Just Energy, Amigo Energy, and Tara Energy the same company?
Their websites present three separate storefronts, and the state’s database lists them as three separate retail providers, so we won’t assert ownership the filings don’t state. What the Power to Choose database shows, as of August 6, 2026, is that the three brands list plans with identical economics: the same prices at 500/1,000/2,000 kWh in both Dallas and Houston, the same $125 bill-credit language, the same $175 cancellation fee, the same 22% renewable content — different names on the same numbers.
Is Just Energy Smart Choice 12 a good deal?
Only in a narrow band. The state-listed prices (Oncor area, August 6, 2026): 23.8¢ at 500 kWh, 10.9¢ at 1,000, 17¢ at 2,000. Below 1,000 kWh you get no credit and pay roughly 23–24¢ effective. Well above 1,000 kWh, the flat $125 credit thins out per kilowatt-hour and the price climbs back to 17¢ at 2,000 — worse than many plain fixed plans. The plan only shines for homes that land at or modestly above 1,000 kWh every single month.
How does the Just Energy $125 bill credit work?
Per the plan’s own Power to Choose listing: “$125 bill credit when monthly usage is ≥ 1000 kWh.” It’s all or nothing — a month at 999 kWh gets no credit, a month at 1,000 kWh gets the full $125. And because the credit is a flat dollar amount, its value per kilowatt-hour halves every time your usage doubles: worth 12.5¢/kWh at 1,000 kWh, only 6.25¢/kWh at 2,000.
Is Amigo Power Perks 12 the same as Just Energy Smart Choice 12?
The state’s database prices them identically. In ZIP 75201 (Dallas), Amigo’s Power Perks - 12 and Just Energy’s Smart Choice - 12 both list 23.8¢ / 10.9¢ / 17.0¢ at 500/1,000/2,000 kWh, the same “$125 bill credit when monthly usage is ≥ 1000 kWh,” and the same $175 cancellation fee — as does Tara Energy’s Value Choice - 12. The listings differ only in plan name and customer hotline. Whichever storefront you walk into, the math is the same.
What is Just Energy’s cancellation fee?
For Smart Choice 12, the Power to Choose listing states “Cancellation Fee: $175.00” — and the identical fee appears on Amigo’s Power Perks 12 and Tara’s Value Choice 12. Check the plan’s Terms of Service for any move-out exception before you sign.
Do the Just Energy free-daytime plans really give free electricity?
The daytime hours are real, but the door isn’t free. The special terms on Just Energy’s Sustainable Days Bundle - 5 (and its Amigo and Tara twins), verbatim from Power to Choose: “FREE electricity from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM daily. A one-month GoodBundle setup and carbon offset purchase of $49.99 is required to enroll.” You pay $49.99 up front to start getting the free hours — on a 5-month plan. Price the whole package, entry fee included, before calling anything free.
How this case was built
Every price and quoted line above comes from the PUCT's powertochoose.org plan database — full listings for ZIP 75201 (Oncor / Dallas) and ZIP 77002 (CenterPoint / Houston), fetched August 6, 2026 — plus the three brands' own website footers, checked the same day. Those footers name three legal entities (Just Energy Texas, LP, PUCT #10052; Fulcrum Retail Energy, LLC dba Amigo Energy, PUCT #10081; Tara Energy, PUCT #10051) and do not state common ownership, so this page doesn't either — it shows the identical listings and lets them speak. The underlying-rate arithmetic in the math section is derived from the state's own three price points and labeled as arithmetic. Just Energy, Amigo Energy, Tara Energy, and their plan names are trademarks of their owners; quotes are reproduced for consumer education and commentary. ChooseMyPower is independent — providers we list pay the same flat fee, so no plan can buy a kinder read, and no provider can pay its way out of Gimmick Watch.
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
- Power to Choose (PUCT) plan database — Just Energy “Smart Choice - 12,” Amigo Energy “Power Perks - 12,” Tara Energy “Value Choice - 12,” and the three brands’ “Days Bundle” listings, ZIP 75201 (Oncor) and ZIP 77002 (CenterPoint), fetched August 6, 2026
- justenergy.com, amigoenergy.com, and taraenergy.com site footers (legal entity names and PUCT license numbers), checked August 6, 2026
- powertochoose.org (PUCT), 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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Compare plans, not costumes.
Every plan we list shows its real cost at your usage — TDU charges included, bill credits flagged — so two identical plans can't pose as two choices.
See today's rates at my usageBack to Gimmick Watch — more case files as the ads roll in.