Is Stream Energy a Scam? Another MLM Pyramid Scheme or Money Powerhouse?

Stream Energy Review

The overview and rankings

What to look for in a MLM:

What is Stream Energy?

Stream Energy is a Multi-Level-Marketing company that sells energy services to consumers. It was founded by Chris Domhoff in 2004.

They are also known as Ignite or Ignite Energy.

However, they have rebranded their name and are currently using Steam Energy as their main and official name.

Their headquarters is in McKinney, Texas, and they also have their branches in Maryland, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.

They only serve states that have deregulated electricity and gas providers, which means that they can somehow help people spend less on their utility bills.

Here is an 8-minute overview video about Stream Energy...

What makes them different from other MLM companies is that they don’t create their own products.

Instead, they purchase energy at wholesale and discounted prices and allow their sales representatives to sell them.

Is Stream Energy a pyramid scheme?

No, Stream Energy isn’t a pyramid scheme because their members can still make money by selling their energy and power products and services without having to recruit anyone.

But a better question to this is… Is Stream Energy a pyramid scheme in disguise?

What is a pyramid scheme?

Companies that promise members payment for recruiting people into the company instead of having to sell actual products and services.

A lot of countries have already banned these because not everyone can make money inside a company that is only paying their members to recruit.

Check out this  Wikipedia diagram to see why this is the case...

The members that are making the most money inside companies like these just recruit people to join and experience this seemingly blissful business opportunity.

But based on what you can see in the diagram, it’s very clear that not all can make money inside systems like these as you’ll eventually be running out of people to recruit.

Here is a 5-minute video that’ll help you spot these so-called pyramid schemes in disguise.

Success is rare with Stream Energy

It is very hard to achieve success in an MLM company such as Stream Energy.

Did you know that 92.90% of Stream Energy members lose money? What’s more is that around between 72.5% and 99.9% of all MLM representatives lose money...

The reason for this is that MLM companies have a sales quota which encourages and forces members to sell a certain number of products just to stay active, and in turn, receive commissions every month.

If they are unable to do that, then they have to buy the products for themselves, thus losing thousands of dollars from their own selves before recruiting a single member.

We’ll be digging more into the Stream Energy income disclosure later...

How does Stream Energy Work?

The company sells energy services in the form of electricity and gas through an MLM business model. It's very similar to Numis Energy and Ambit Energy. . It's very similar to Numis Energy and Ambit Energy. .

They do that by also offering everyday people the chance to work form their own homes by selling their products and receiving commissions.

It looks like a win win…

But the thing is, Stream Energy saves millions of dollars in what is supposed to be their marketing campaign because they instead let their members do all the advertising and marketing jobs by themselves.

Before we see if that is really what’s happening, let’s know more about...

Stream Energy services

If you’re really interested in joining an MLM and risking things up, then it’s vital that you know more about their products.

This way,  you can somehow increase the chances of you earning some bucks.

Stream Energy sells energy and power products and services to residences and businesses. They give customers numerous choices on how they want to approach their electricity and gas bills.

The company divides their energy service offerings into 3 areas:

• Electricity - A package that powers your home or business with electricity.
• Natural Gas - A package that provides natural gas fuel for your vehicles or for your cooking needs.
• Renewable - A package that provides renewable energy in the form of solar power for your house.

They also have 2 energy plans:

• Energy for Your Home -This lets you choose your preferred electricity plan based on your lifestyle and budget. Electricity cap and consumption differs based on your chosen package.
• Energy for Your Business - This grants you between 2 months to 5 years of constant electricity provision, which is ideal for businesses.

Here are their most popular energy plans:

• Constellation Energy - $0.085/kWh and good for 1 year
• TXU Energy - $0.099/kWh and good for 1 year
• TriEagle Energy - $0.106/kWh and good for 1 year
• First Choice Power - $0.107/kWh and good for 3 years

But it’s not just them who are offering services like this!

Note that there are a lot of other MLM companies that are also offering very similar set of services. These are:

• Ambit Energy
• Numis Network
  
• ACN

What’s funny about them is that they all claim that there’s a special reason they’re standing out. When in reality, they all just offer the same opportunities for customers...

Can you make money with Stream Energy?

Sadly, it is hard to make money from Stream Energy.

There might be a few people who have the natural talent to sell energy services such as electricity to homes and businesses, but that’s just very rare.

People would even just not think of getting an independent electricity provider because they’re more likely to just choose the ones provided by the local government…

What’s more is that the people who somehow make some money are just very good at sales and they treat their work as a full-time job.

How to make money with Stream Energy?

For you to make money from Stream Energy,  you need to join their Monthly Energy Income program.

Once you’re in, you’ll then enroll customers and maintain their energy accounts.

Doing so means that you earn commissions from the wholesale prices you give them, while also getting bonuses.

Take note that you can only earn bonuses from the sales that your downlines make, and not just by recruiting them. That’s how they avoid being called a pyramid scheme! It sure is a smart move...

So, before digging deeper into their compensation plan, let’s know...

How much does it cost to join Stream Energy?

You need to pay $299 to join Stream Energy as one of their independent business associates.

Aside from that, you also must pay $29 monthly for the website fees and maintain at least 4 EP monthly.

But what’s EP?

Stream Energy monthly cost

EP stands for Energy Points.

Basically, you need to maintain 4 EPs every month.

This means that you need to sell at least $100 worth of energy services monthly for you to stay active and earn commissions.

The costs for 1 year are...

• $299
• $29 x 12 = $348
• $100 x 12 = $1,200

Minimum costs for year 1 = $1,847

And that’s before adding up all additional expenses just like travel, training, marketing, and miscellaneous fees.

Stream Energy compensation plan

What most MLMs do is that they make their compensation plans very confusing, just like in the case of Stream Energy.

But you don’t have to fret about that as I will be doing my best to explain this in the simplest way possible for you to understand it...

There are 3 main ways that you can make money from Stream Energy:

• Quick Start Bonus - Earn $100 when you sell energy services worth 4 EPs.
• Business Builder Bonus - Earn $100 for every new member you recruit into the company.

• Residual Income - Earn $50 to $100 for every EP you make depending on your rank.

Yes, I know. You’re still confused with all that! Well, that’s completely normal because MLMs just love to use fancy terms and weird names to make it seem like they are offering many ways to earn money.

The fact is, there are just 2 things to do:

• Sell their services
• Recruit members

Check out this 8-minute video about their compensation plan.

Or maybe, you’d like to check out the Stream Energy compensation plan here.

Is Stream Energy a scam?

Stream Energy is not a scam. The company sells legit energy products and services to entire homes and businesses.

Aside from that, they also pay their members exactly as they say.

However, many of their sales representatives are disappointed to know that they’re losing way too much money instead of making some bucks.

This is why some may call Stream Energy a scam...

The remainder of this review is going to reveal the surprising truths about this company so that you can come up with an informed decision if it is worth the try or not...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

What I like about Stream Energy

Key Terms:

• Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from recruiting others into the company rather than providing a product
• Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
• Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 Positive product reviews

One thing I like about Stream Energy is that there are a number of positive reviews I found in the internet, proving that they’re selling useful and justifiably priced products.

Here is one of them:

Aside from that, I also like that...

#2 High income potential from industry

The energy industry, which Stream Energy is a part of, is a $500 billion dollar industry.

This is different from the usual MLMs that sell health and wellness or beauty products.

They are just wants and luxuries, meanwhile, energy services are a commodity and necessity. This means that you can theoretically sell this to many people.

In my own opinion, Stream Energy has a foundation that has unlimited earning potential in the near future.

What I don't like about Stream Energy

#1 Hidden monthly expenses

Joining Stream Energy means that you need to sell at least $100 worth of energy products and services every month for you to stay active.

This doesn’t make sense to me because why do you need to maintain a quota if what you’ve signed up for is just to become one of their sales representatives.

The $100 worth of Stream Energy provisions is equivalent to 4 EP pr Energy Points. If you can’t sell this amount, then you must pay for it.

Here’s the truth that most people don’t know… Stream Energy’s biggest client base is their sales agents who just continuously buy their stuff hoping that they’ll be their own boss soon.

#2 Is Stream Energy a pyramid scheme in disguise?

If you must spend $100 monthly just to be active, then what you need to do is to recruit people so you can somehow pass the buck to them.

Here is a diagram to illustrate it more clearly...

You can then guarantee that they need to maintain 4 EPs which is worth $100 monthly for them to stay active and earn commissions.

That doesn’t sound right to me...

#3 Only 1 in 1316 members earn over $30k a year

To make matters worse, 96.6% of their sales representatives are earning just a meager $1,540 every year and spending an average of $953 annually.

In simpler words, this shows that only 1 in 1316 members earn over $30k a year.

#4 Downward trend

The final deal breaker for me is what I found in Google Trends…

As you can see, there’s less people searching for Stream Energy. The trend is going down, which means that fewer people are interested.

You’re going to have a hard time selling their stuff if there’s not many people who are interested or at least searching for it.

My opinion - Stream Energy

Stream Energy offers a way for people to lower down their electricity and utility bills with the help of their more affordable energy services.

But if you were to ask me about the business opportunity presented here?...

The only legit way you can make good money is if you recruit as many people as you can and encourage all of them to sell the company’s stuff just to stay active.

What will happen to these members is that they are just going to lose hundreds, if not thousands of dollars from the company.

That isn’t an ethical business model to me...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

• You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
• You never need to sell to friends and family
• It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.