Every fixed-rate plan in Texas has a price for leaving early, printed on its Electricity Facts Label as the early termination fee. People treat it as a wall. It is a number, and like any number it can be smaller than the number on the other side: what a cheaper plan would save you between now and the day your contract ends. This guide gives you this month’s fees, the two cases where you owe nothing, and the arithmetic.
What providers charge this month
Fees come in two shapes. A flat fee is one amount whenever you leave. A per-month fee is an amount for every month left in the contract, so it shrinks as you go, and on a long contract it can start large: $20 a month with 30 months left is $600.
On the 1,476 plans of 12 months or longer whose labels we have read the fee from, 12 charge nothing to leave early; 1,123 charge a flat fee, from $49.00 to $395.00, with a median of $175.00; 341 charge per month left, from $10.00 to $20.00 a month. Longer contracts tend to carry the bigger fees, and per-month fees are more common on them. The exact fee for any plan is on its label, linked from every plan on Plans we track.
When you owe nothing
The last 14 days. Texas rules say a provider can’t charge the fee when your switch takes effect in the last 14 days of the contract. Shop before then; set the start date inside the window.
Moving out. No fee when you move and give the provider reasonable proof, such as a forwarding address or a lease. You may also be able to take the plan with you if the new address is in the same delivery area.
A brand-new contract. When you switch providers, you have three federal business days from receiving the terms to cancel without penalty (the right doesn’t apply to a move-in). That protects you from a plan you regret the next morning, not from one you regret in month four.
A month-to-month plan. Holdover and variable plans have no term, so there is nothing to terminate early and no fee. If your contract has already expired, you are free to go today.
The arithmetic
Two numbers decide it. The first is the fee. The second is what the cheaper plan saves you per month, multiplied by the months left on your contract, because that is the only period in which staying put would have cost you anything: once the contract ends you could switch for free anyway.
Saving until your end date = (what you pay per month now − what you’d pay on the new plan) × months left. If that is bigger than the fee, switch now. If it isn’t, wait for the 14-day window.
The catch is the first number. “What you’d pay on the new plan” is not its advertised price; it’s the new plan priced on your own months, with its credits, tiers and base charge, and the months left on your contract are specific months, maybe the four hottest of the year. A plan that saves $30 a month in summer may save $8 in spring. Price it on the right months.
A worked example, with this month’s prices
Take a typical Dallas–Fort Worth home using 1,000 kWh a month, on a middling plan. This month the middle of our ranking of 388 full-year plans costs about $1,883 a year, and the cheapest, True Value 12, about $1,445: a gap of $438 a year, roughly $37 a month averaged across the year.
- Eight months left and a $175.00 fee: the saving is about $292, so switching now wins by $117.
- Three months left and the same fee: the saving is about $110, so waiting for the 14-day window wins.
The example uses an average month. If the months left are June to September, the saving is larger than the average suggests; if they are February to May, smaller. A home on the most expensive plan we track, or on a holdover rate, has a gap several times this size, and the fee stops mattering.
Three things people get wrong
- Counting the whole year of savings. Only the months until your end date count. After that you could have switched for free.
- Using the advertised price. A 7¢ bill-credit plan can cost more than your current 13¢ plan over a real year. Price the new plan on your months first.
- Forgetting the fee is prorated on some plans. A per-month fee with two months left is two months’ worth, not the headline figure.
What we do with your end date
Tell WattaWatt your contract end date and fee on the confirm screen, and the results compare two totals for every plan: switching now (the new plan from next month, plus the fee) against waiting (your current price until the end date, then the new plan). It says which is lower and by how much, on your own months. Timing rules are in when to switch.