Which electricity supplier?

Dardania

bonkers.ie is a great website to compare costs for you

Spirit of 67

Bonkers is brilliant , Broadband and other price comparisons as well , thanks .

shugy

Air tricty I find ok

Spirit of 67

shugy wrote: »

Air tricty I find ok

Hard to know what to make of that one , bit vague !

L1011

Eirtricity would have to be cheapest by a huge amount for me to even consider them. Reputation for severe billing issues, scummy, lying (I had one try pretend to be a meter reader!) door to door sales 'staff' - pay per sale people with a contractor, and so on.

filbert the fox

lindascribbler wrote: »

A doorstep saleswoman gave me a great spiel the other evening about a 14% reduction in my bills immediately if I change to Airtricity.
Anyone out there switch & did it save in the long run?

you just informed us of everything we need to know.....

If I have the misfortune of actually answering the door to a caller like this I just say I never buy anything at the door & ask them to direct me to the website where I can get this offer...... not one has done so yet.

flutered

always with electric irl, would pinnergy pre pay be dearer or cheaper, please do not mention direct debit

racso1975

Dearer but you don't develop debt so may be easier to manage. Get you last bill that was read and not estimated and go onto bonkers.ie and compare prices that are best for you. Remember to look at standing charges if your usage is not large.

ted1

flutered wrote: »

always with electric irl, would pinnergy pre pay be dearer or cheaper, please do not mention direct debit

Pre pay is the dearest way to purchase energy

What's wrong with Direct Debits?

Goldstein

I analysed them all forensically about 6 months ago and there was around €30 between the most expensive and the cheapest over 1 year and €46 over 2 years i.e. almost no difference between ESB, Bord Gais, Airtricity and Energia when you factored everything in. Granted this was based on slightly lower usage compared to an average family home but it's still an incredibly small difference if they were really competing with each other. A cheap rate usually meant a high standing charge and vice-versa. Or a cheap electricity rate would mean a more expensive gas rate. Between standing charges, VAT and the PSO levy it's hard to find any real savings in tariffs - best thing you can do is reduce and even then because of the factors just mentioned you don't make a huge difference.

soc

http://www.bonkers.ie/compare-gas-electricity-prices/electricity

Put your usage in there (even a guestimate) & see for yourself how PrePay compares to other providers.
Can this be moved to Bargain Requests please?

Goldstein

Goldstein wrote: »

I analysed them all forensically about 6 months ago and there was around €30 between the most expensive and the cheapest over 1 year and €46 over 2 years i.e. almost no difference between ESB, Bord Gais, Airtricity and Energia when you factored everything in. Granted this was based on slightly lower usage compared to an average family home but it's still an incredibly small difference if they were really competing with each other. A cheap rate usually meant a high standing charge and vice-versa. Or a cheap electricity rate would mean a more expensive gas rate. Between standing charges, VAT and the PSO levy it's hard to find any real savings in tariffs - best thing you can do is reduce and even then because of the factors just mentioned you don't make a huge difference.

So if the cash difference between the various offerings isn't huge, is there one company that is renowned for good quality service?

If the trade off for saving a tenner is spending two hours holding the phone to try to get them to do something and failing... then its a very expensive saving...

mel123

So what would people recommend for me please:

Im moving in to a new house, and I was going to go with bord gais but because I don't have a previous account with them, they want a 500€ deposit, which I don't have (they refund it after 6 months or something) unless I sign up bill pay and direct debit. I don't want to do this because they said they will estimate my bills on the last 12 months and there was a family living in the house so I assume they will be high enough.
Seeing as there is not much difference in price, im looking for a good supplier hassle free, I don't want them messing me around with bills and direct debits and bad customer service. Who is my next best option?

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

So if the cash difference between the various offerings isn't huge, is there one company that is renowned for good quality service?

If the trade off for saving a tenner is spending two hours holding the phone to try to get them to do something and failing... then its a very expensive saving...

Historically, ESB/Electric Ireland lead the way for customer service but I'm not sure about now. Airtricity are the worst of the post-pay providers.

mel123 wrote: »

So what would people recommend for me please:

Im moving in to a new house, and I was going to go with bord gais but because I don't have a previous account with them, they want a 500€ deposit, which I don't have (they refund it after 6 months or something) unless I sign up bill pay and direct debit. I don't want to do this because they said they will estimate my bills on the last 12 months and there was a family living in the house so I assume they will be high enough.
Seeing as there is not much difference in price, im looking for a good supplier hassle free, I don't want them messing me around with bills and direct debits and bad customer service. Who is my next best option?

You will not get any provider that will let you go with no direct debit and no deposit.

For no level pay - any of them except BGE, but its still direct debit or deposit.

mel123

Thank you, sorry I didn't mean I wouldn't do direct debit, I just don't want to do the level pay.

Anyone any thoughts on Nest offered by Electric Ireland?
It looks like you don't get any direct debit discounts or loyalty discounts on this because I assume your getting the device for free, would I be correct does anyone know?

irishchris

I am thinking of switching to energia for my electricity this month. Currently with electric ireland but bigger discount with energia.
Anyone in here have experience of using them?
Also I play electric ireland 20€ per week by standing order so that my bill is always in credit.is this possible with energia?
Does anyone have the Iban and bic for energia if it is

dudara

Not a Consumer Issue, so moving to Accommodation & Property. The A&P charter now applies.

dudara

Michael D Not Higgins

Energia have a thing called Fixpay which is what you want for the same billed amount. It works on a monthly rather than weekly basis.

I've never dealt with them myself so don't have any experience I can offer in their customer service, prices, etc.

the groutch

irishchris wrote: »

I am thinking of switching to energia for my electricity this month. Currently with electric ireland but bigger discount with energia.

just be aware that a higher % discount doesn't make them automatically cheaper.
they could well be more expensive pre-discount than EI based on your usage.

you should go to bonkers.ie to get an estimate of how much you're actually going to save or not by switching over.

ceekay74

I switch supplier nearly every year after using bonkers.ie, at this stage I've probably been a customer of all the energy suppliers.

If all the suppliers were going to cost the same amount over the year, I'd go with energia. Better customer service and a better website.

Spocker

Energia don't allow payments via Bank Transfer, you have to use a card, via their online facility: https://fastpay.energia.ie/

irishchris

Spocker wrote: »

Energia don't allow payments via Bank Transfer, you have to use a card, via their online facility: https://fastpay.energia.ie/

That's brilliant as is exactly the type of thing I was hoping for. Cheers

irishchris

the groutch wrote: »

just be aware that a higher % discount doesn't make them automatically cheaper.
they could well be more expensive pre-discount than EI based on your usage.

you should go to bonkers.ie to get an estimate of how much you're actually going to save or not by switching over.

Thanks had used bonkers last week and based on my usage it should save me roughly 150€ per annum compared to my existing deal with electric ireland

seligehgit

Hi

Just looking for opinions re this company..Unbeatable on bonkers.ie

12.67 cents per kwhr
annual standing charge 158.05 euro

I have only alternated between Electric Ireland/ESB and Bord Gais thus far.

Ta

Selig

L1011

Its an electricity firm. Make sure readings/estimates are right and they're pretty much all identical. With one exception - SSE are useless for everything from customer care to accounts.

If its cheapest, just go for it.

dudara

Moved to accommodation & Property

dudara

whiskeyman

L1011 wrote: »

Its an electricity firm. Make sure readings/estimates are right and they're pretty much all identical. With one exception - SSE are useless for everything from customer care to accounts.

If its cheapest, just go for it.

I've had no problems with SSE.
Was with Elec Ireland & Bord Gas, then moved to SSE for both. Intend to move once discounts are up however.

Key is to keep switching once your intro rates are over.
If you submit meter reads regularly and have a basic knowledge of how it all works, you really shouldn't incur any issues with any of the suppliers.

Parchment

We will be moving to a new house soon from a small apartment and i cant gauge our usage at all. I think i will just go with the cheapest for the first year and then see where we go from there.

m'lady

We've also never had any problems with Airtricity and are with them nearly 5 years, I find their customer service excellent, and any issues resolved very quickly. When the discounts were up, they just signed us up again.

whiskeyman

Parchment wrote: »

We will be moving to a new house soon from a small apartment and i cant gauge our usage at all. I think i will just go with the cheapest for the first year and then see where we go from there.

Be sure to take meter readings each month and submit them to your new supplier... this will ensure you get billed on actual reads and not estimates (reads generated by the companies billing system). This will prevent 'shock' bills should they be under estimating.
You'll need to gauge your usage over time, especailly depending on the quality of the heating system / appliances and use of same.
Get into good habits and routines now and it'll be a lot easier.
Best of luck!