Bord Gais new pay monthly plan

NIMAN

I got a flyer from Bord Gais the other day, offering a new system where they take your last years bill, divide it by 12 (and add 20%) and allow you to pay the same amount each month. The 20% is to allow for overuse and price increases.

It sounds like a decent enough plan in general, and I was thinking of signing up for it (they offer 5% discount for 1st year), but they make no mention at all about what happens if you use less electricity than the previous year.

Anyone ever found out how they handle that?

.G.

Most likely they'll say nothing and hope you don't notice!

brightspark

According to the sales person I was talking to today, they review it every 6 months, and adjust the monthly figure accordingly.

If you get more than €200 in credit they will refund it, that was putting me off it until I realised I usually have a lot more than that sitting in my current account earning no interest anyway, at least this way it qualifies me for a discount off the electricity.

The plan I was told about has a 10% discount.

monkeysnapper

You also get telco club card points for every 1 euro you pay on bill.

brightspark

And if you sign up before 8th you get a €50 tesco voucher.

Also tesco points vouchers can be used at double their face value against your account.

NIMAN

My flyer said 5% discount for the 1st year, no mention of 10%. Did you get something posted to you, or did you get called on the phone?

No interest in Tesco vouchers, and there was no mention of them in my flyer either.

brightspark

http://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/home/electricity/join/

Saw it online, but the sales person told me anyway.

Used bonkers.ie to decide to use them anyway

NIMAN

Perhaps its 10% if you switch from another provider. I'm already with BG, maybe thats why mine is 5%??

brightspark

NIMAN wrote: »

Perhaps its 10% if you switch from another provider. I'm already with BG, maybe thats why mine is 5%??

Probably, perhaps you need to look at other suppliers instead?

NIMAN

brightspark wrote: »

Probably, perhaps you need to look at other suppliers instead?

I have done, and not really worth my while changing.

Think AirTricity would save me something like €20 or €30 annually, but I wouldn't go through the potential hassle of moving for that. Happy enough with BG for the last few years. And sure if I signed up to the monthly billing, I'd save this anyway.

Femme_Fatale

NIMAN wrote: »

I got a flyer from Bord Gais the other day, offering a new system where they take your last years bill, divide it by 12 (and add 20%) and allow you to pay the same amount each month. The 20% is to allow for overuse and price increases.

It sounds like a decent enough plan in general, and I was thinking of signing up for it (they offer 5% discount for 1st year), but they make no mention at all about what happens if you use less electricity than the previous year.

Anyone ever found out how they handle that?

superg wrote: »

Most likely they'll say nothing and hope you don't notice!

Obviously there'd be credit built up on your account, which you'd see on your statements.

mfceiling

I'm on this. 99 quid a month. Happy enough as it means i don't get a belter of a bill around xmas and the new year.

LisaMarie83

I was on this for a couple of years the first year was fine as I had agreed a price of 60 a month each for my gas and electricity, but after the first year they went up to something like 86 and 90 a month each. If I made an effort to use less electricity and gas i didn't get to see the benefit in my bill, so I switched off it now and am finding it much easier to go online to bord gais every week or so and pay something off my bills, so that when my bill comes around its a lot less than it would have been.

freddyuk

This is not new but standard practice. You sign up to a fixed amount each month based on your annual usage plus increased prices. I cannot see 20% (which would be financial suicide) but 10%. They get your money (always in their favour) so you are giving them them the honour of sitting on your cash because you cannot be bothered to open a savings account "just for your electricity bill". When interest rates start to rise you will be crazy to give them 10-15% interest on you money each year for a few Tesco points which are worth pennies. You can sit on your own money and take the interest yourself. Free Tesco points are meaningless in the scheme of things and any discounts are fleeting and swallowed up by the credit you are giving to BG. You must be barmy to think this is a great idea. It is designed to keep BG in credit with many of their customers thus saving them the bother of running a tight fiscal policy to benefit of all their customers. All the benefits will go BG.

LisaMarie83

I was on this for a couple of years the first year was fine as I had agreed a price of 60 a month each for my gas and electricity, but after the first year they went up to something like 86 and 90 a month each. If I made an effort to use less electricity and gas i didn't get to see the benefit in my bill, so I switched off it now and am finding it much easier to go online to bord gais every week or so and pay something off my bills, so that when my bill comes around its a lot less than it would have been.