Sort a Texas rate table by price and 4Change Energy’s Maxx Saver plans land near the top — 7.4¢ a kilowatt-hour in Dallas, 6.5¢ in Houston, as of August 6, 2026. The plain fixed-rate plans further down the same page charge nearly double. Same wires, same power.
Nobody sells electricity that far under the market. What 4Change actually sells is a dare: clear 1,000 kilowatt-hours every single month and the cheap rate is real. Come in at 999 — once — and a $125 credit vanishes from that bill, in full.
This page is about that dare.
The plan on one screen (from the pricing fact sheets — the EFLs — and 4Change’s posted terms, August 2026):
| Terms | 12, 24, or 36 months (Select: 12 or 24) |
| Base charge | $0 |
| The credit | $125 every month you use 1,000+ kWh (Select: $100) |
| Early exit | $20 × months remaining, after a 60-day guarantee |
| Deposit | Conditional — utility payment history, not your FICO score |
| Renewable content | 9%, or 100% as a paid add-on |
| Gimmick level | High |
What Maxx Saver Value costs right now
Rates checked August 6, 2026, from the plan’s pricing fact sheets for each utility area. Three usage levels, because that’s how every EFL discloses price:
| Area | 500 kWh | 1,000 kWh | 2,000 kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas–Fort Worth (Oncor) | 20.3¢ | 7.4¢ | 13.4¢ |
| Houston (CenterPoint) | 19.5¢ | 6.5¢ | 12.6¢ |
| Corpus Christi (AEP Central) | 20.3¢ | 7.5¢ | 13.6¢ |
| Abilene (AEP North) | 21.6¢ | 8.8¢ | 14.9¢ |
The middle column is the ad. The left column is the same plan in a mild month. That plunge — 20.3¢ to 7.4¢ across one Dallas row — is this entire review in two cells. You can pull the current Oncor pricing fact sheet yourself, straight from 4Change’s own EFL generator; it’s the document every number on this page traces back to.
How the 7.4¢ gets manufactured
Here’s the machinery, in plain language. The EFL for Maxx Saver Value lists no base charge, one energy charge per kilowatt-hour, and a $125 credit “per billing cycle of at least 1000 kWh.” Your utility’s delivery charges pass through on top. Maxx Saver Select runs the same play with a $100 credit.
The energy charge moves with the market — the July 2025 Oncor EFL listed 16.9¢; work backward from the August 2026 averages and Oncor’s current delivery charges ($4.06 a month plus about 6¢ per kilowatt-hour) and today’s sits near 13.5¢. Call it roughly 19.5¢ all-in before the credit. That’s our arithmetic; your EFL prints the exact figure.
Now watch the credit do its heavy lifting, in Dallas, August 2026:
- 1,000 kWh: about $199 in charges − $125 credit = $74. The advertised 7.4¢.
- 999 kWh: about $199 in charges − $0 = $199.
One kilowatt-hour — about an hour of a window AC unit — swings your bill by $125. There is no plan feature in Texas with a sharper edge than that.
That’s why the headline rate looks impossible. 4Change folds the credit into the advertised number, so the plan markets at 6.5-8.8¢ depending on your area. Those numbers are real — at 1,000 kWh, and only there. Above it, the flat credit dilutes and your effective rate climbs back toward 13.4¢. Below it, you were never on the cheap plan at all.
Who’s actually funding the credit
A $125 monthly giveaway isn’t charity. It’s actuarial.
4Change — like every company selling bill-credit plans — knows what Texas usage curves look like. Summer and deep winter, most homes blow past 1,000 kWh without trying. But April, May, October, November? Mild weather, windows open, AC resting. Plenty of homes that “always use over 1,000” quietly don’t, four months a year.
Those are the months the plan earns its keep — for 4Change. Every customer who lands at 800 or 950 kWh pays the full rate, no credit, and funds the discounts handed to the customers who cleared the line.
The plan doesn’t need fine-print tricks. The trick is the structure, and it’s fully disclosed on the pricing fact sheet. Legal, documented, and designed so that seasonal usage — which is to say, normal usage — pays more than the ad suggests. It isn’t even exclusive: Frontier Utilities runs the identical $125-at-1,000 structure on its Saver Plus plan. Different company, same actuarial table.
We’ve written up this mechanism in full in our bill-credit trap guide. Maxx Saver is the textbook case.
A year on the cliff: the math
Walk through a plausible year — an illustration built on the August 2026 Dallas numbers above (roughly 19.5¢ all-in before the credit; our arithmetic). Say your home runs 1,400 kWh in the four hot months, 1,100 in four shoulder months, and 900 in the four mild ones. That averages 1,133 kWh — right around the Texas norm of about 1,100 per the federal Energy Information Administration, and comfortably “over 1,000” on paper.
Against a plain fixed-rate plan averaging 12¢ all-in — our stand-in for a boring flat rate, picked from the cheap end of the flat 12-month plans listed in August 2026:
| Month | Usage | Maxx Saver Value | Plain 12¢ plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot (×4) | 1,400 kWh | $152 | $168 |
| Shoulder (×4) | 1,100 kWh | $94 | $132 |
| Mild (×4) | 900 kWh | $180 | $108 |
| The year | 13,600 kWh | $1,704 | $1,632 |
Eight great months, four punishing ones — and the four punishing ones claw back everything the credit gave you, plus $72 for the trouble. No month on the flat plan ever jumps $100 because the weather turned nice.
On August 2026 Dallas prices, every month above the floor saves you $16 to $46 against a good flat-rate plan; every month below it costs you about $72 extra. Three misses a year and it’s a coin flip. Four, and the flat plan wins. The seasonal home in this table misses four.
Now notice something stranger: on this plan, using more electricity in a mild month saves you money. At 900 kWh you pay about $180. At 1,000 kWh you pay about $74.
The plan literally pays you $106 to waste 100 kilowatt-hours. Any pricing structure where running the AC with the windows open lowers your bill is telling you who it was designed for — and it wasn’t you.
That’s the cliff in four rows. Your real numbers will differ; the shape won’t.
Value vs. Select: $25 apart, same floor
Searching for the difference between Maxx Saver Value and Maxx Saver Select? Here it is, whole: Value credits $125, Select credits $100. Same 1,000 kWh floor. Same $20-per-remaining-month exit fee.
And they have siblings. 4Change rotates a family of credit plans through its lineup — Power Maxx Saver, which moves the floor to 2,000 kWh with a $100 credit for big houses; Charitable Saver, with a smaller credit and a donation angle; Cash Money 12, dangling a Visa reward card while carrying a $9.95 monthly charge the other plans skip (per its August 2026 listing); and names that rotate with the marketing calendar. The label changes. The mechanism — a large credit gated behind a usage floor — doesn’t.
If you’re comparing any two of them, skip the plan names and put the EFLs side by side at your usage. The name tells you nothing. The floor tells you everything.
The TXU family resemblance
Here’s a detail most shoppers miss: 4Change Energy is a Vistra Corp brand — operated by Value Based Brands LLC, the same Fortune 500 parent that owns TXU Energy, TriEagle, Express Energy, and Veteran Energy.
That parentage cuts two ways. The good: your electric company is not going anywhere, and the financial stability is real. The telling: the same corporate family sells TXU’s Free Pass plan — free days priced into the everyday rate — through its premium brand, and the credit cliff through its budget brand. Different costume, same act: lead with something vivid and free, recover it in the structure.
4Change is the cheaper ticket to that show, and for the right home it’s honestly a good ticket. Read our full 4Change Energy review for the company-wide picture — customer service hours, deposits, the charity angle.
Is Maxx Saver ever a good deal?
Genuinely, yes — and it’s worth being precise about for whom.
It fits you if: your home uses 1,000 to 1,500 kWh every month of the year. Not on average — every month. Think a 2,000-plus-square-foot house with central AC and electric heat, or an all-electric home with a pool pump or an EV that never bills under 1,100 even in April. Pull twelve months of usage from your old bills or your online account and check each one. If all twelve clear 1,000, the effective rate on Maxx Saver Value is among the cheapest electricity in Texas, from a company that isn’t going anywhere. The 60-day satisfaction guarantee is real, too — a legitimate escape hatch if the first bill surprises you.
It doesn’t fit you if: you’re in an apartment, a small or efficient house, or any home where spring and fall dip below 1,000 kWh. Averages lie here. A home that averages 1,100 kWh can still miss the floor four months a year, and those four months erase the summer savings. Texas homes average about 1,100 kWh a month — which sounds safe until you remember averages are made of highs and lows.
And watch the exit. After the 60-day window, cancellation runs $20 per month remaining — up to $480 on the 24-month term, $720 on the 36. That’s steep; most companies charge a flat $150-$200. The longer terms multiply your bet on your own usage staying predictable.
What to do instead
Before you take the dare, five steps:
- Pull twelve months of usage. Old bills or your online account. Write down each month’s kilowatt-hours.
- Count the months under 1,000. Zero months? Maxx Saver Value deserves a spot on your shortlist. One or more? The advertised rate was never your rate.
- Read the 500 kWh line on the EFL before the headline number. If the 500 kWh price is more than double the 1,000 kWh price, you’re holding a cliff plan. This one prints 20.3¢ against 7.4¢.
- Compare total yearly cost at your real usage — not advertised rates — on ComparePower. It computes every plan’s true cost from your numbers, credits and cliffs included.
- If you’re down to 4Change versus one rival, start with 4Change vs Gexa or TXU vs 4Change — same parent, different price tags.
A plan with no credit and a boring flat rate never swings $125 on a single kilowatt-hour. Sometimes boring is the discount.
Why this page exists
This page answers: “Is 4Change’s Maxx Saver Value or Maxx Saver Select actually a good deal — and what happens if I miss the 1,000 kWh floor?”
It doesn’t answer: “What’s the cheapest plan in your ZIP code today?” Prices change weekly. For that, compare actual prices on ComparePower.