Early termination fees

A flat fee — a single dollar amount, commonly somewhere between $100 and $300, charged whenever you end the contract early regardless of when.

A per-month fee — an amount multiplied by the number of months remaining, so leaving early in a long contract costs a great deal and leaving near the end costs little.

Both are stated on the Electricity Facts Label and on the terms of service. This site shows the fee on every plan card where the retailer publishes it as a dollar amount, and says "see documents" rather than guessing where they express it another way.

In Texas, a fixed-rate contract generally cannot charge an early termination fee if you are ending service because you are moving out of the service area — but the exact conditions, and the proof required, are set out in your terms of service rather than being universal. Read that clause before assuming it covers you.

There is also a cancellation window shortly after enrolment during which you can back out without a fee. The length and the terms are in your contract documents.

And it does not apply at the end of the term. A contract that runs to its expiry date ends with no fee at all — the trap there is the rate you roll onto afterwards, not a charge for leaving.

The arithmetic is simple and worth doing properly. Work out what you would pay for the remainder of your current term, work out what you would pay on the new plan for the same period, and add the fee to the second figure. If the second total is still lower, switching pays.

Frequently it does not, especially with more than half the term remaining. Knowing that with a calculation rather than a guess is the point — and it is why the fee is on every plan page here rather than buried in a document.