Switching electric/gas providers (see first post for links)

Nasty sting in the tail here.

Thousands face ‘extortionate’ energy price rises after shock Iberdrola exit - Independent.ie

That's ridiculous, I'm not surprised though

No legal expert either. What was the cancellation fee under the contract you signed with Iberdrola. Usually it is €50 and the refund of any cash back given as part of the deal. The 90 days moratorium seems odd but it may be a thing under the transfer of customer rules. It might be worth you while talking to the Bord Gais cancellation department if you can get hold of one of them. I have always found you get better deals from those guys than the sales guys they seem to have more scope to offer deals to keep customers.

Iberdrola didn't announce they were leaving until May 31st so basically their customer had only 4 working days to shop around. Surely you would think it should be about 14 days. Where was Charlie Weston etc. that this one seemingly slipped under everyone's radar.

The following note is on bonkers.ie

Since 8th June, Iberdrola electricity customers have been automatically transferred to Electric Ireland, who will contact you shortly.

Unfortunately it is now not possible to change your supplier until the 1st September, at which point you can switch to a different supplier of your choice, without paying an early exit fee, if you wish to do so.

This process has been implemented by the energy regulator, the CRU.

EI's tarrif is about €320 per year dearer than the cheapest for electricity only.

Regulator is probably an incorrect term given the role seems only concerned with how the energy market functions in a somewhat competitive way with no attention given to customer grievance and redress. Given how much the cost of energy is impacting on all of us maybe it's an ombudsman type role that is needed.

I'd wager if anyone had the time to contest it legally they'd probably win.

Im out of contract for electricity this week was on a 20% off electricity only plan with bord gais,

The customer retention team had been ringing me for 2 weeks on a dublin number i kept letting it ring out .

so today i rang it back to see what they had to offer was planing on going to electric ireland with 30% off

She offered me same deal as was currently on 20%

I said i see you have a deal of 39% off for new customers.

She said to me i supose if you dont ask you wont get and agreed to give me the 39% discount

Very happy with that i am paying less now than before the last increases came in

Bord gais

offer link below

https://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/campaigns/best-electricity

Went with bord gais just to use my tesco clubcard vouchers as they are stopping them from 31st July ! Will convert them all and pay the bill..no other good use as cant goto zoo evry three months😂

I have done with Virgin etc. Because of privacy, they can't say "oh you already have an account".

Same way if you enquired about you're partners account they'd claim privacy and tell you nothing.

They

They would be the same for sure but then if my wife uses her maiden name have the company any way of knowing that I haven't simply moved house etc?

Yeah last time with Bord Gais and no issue, my wife surname is different to mine on it though so maybe go that way.

Have been told by one of their door salesman that they are going to clamp down on this but not sure, will be trying in Aug if we decide to go with BG again.

Disney+ was a one off offer that's finished. Milano's, the Zoo and ferry travel are the only remaining deals.

SSE Airtricity looking like the cheapest dual fual just now. Any thoughts on them?

Coming off the 31/40% deal with Bord Gais and they've offered me the same again to stay. Is there a handy way to compare that tariff to the Airtricity one? The comparison sites don't have that tariff available anymore to compare it.

Is it really worth switching, given that you’re tied into a twelve month contract based on a snapshot of pricing? They can bump their prices a week after you sign up, and you’ve no option really.

yeah if one provider puts prices up they all will soon after. The only thing we can do is switch and make sure we are not on their standard rate which is the most expensive of all rates.

My own 12 month contract with Energia is up next month and Id like to stay with them as their website & app are user friendly. But Im 99% sure they wont allow me to keep the 41% discount off their standard rate so I'll be forced into switching. I wish they took the more pragmatic approach like Sky/Virgin do and just allow you to keep your rate if you say you are leaving. But the call centre staff at the power companies dont seem to have any room to maneuver to retain customers who say they are moving elsewhere. They dont seem to be allowed to let you stay on the discounted rate at the end of the 12 month contract so they cant do anything about customers moving to another company.

At least the switch itself can be done within under 5 minutes once you have your MPRN from your bill or meter

Cash back of 2% to a particular ptsb current account also along with 15% discount for Easons which I used recently on school books. Also some discount on W5 Belfast Dublin Zoo and something like €10 off hotel rooms. Rewards seem to be geared towards people with families for the most part. I think there some deal on coffee also and some for the SSE Arena Belfast.

Were you still getting the 41% discounted rate on Energia for the second contract? If so I'd likely go with that if its available on Bonkers or direct

Yes - the same 41% discount rate, think there was a 135 euro cashback as well!

I'm currently with Bord Gais and out of contract. Asked about the 39% discount for new customers and said wouldn't offer it. Asked the guy could he check and he laughed and said he wouldn't be checking.

Called EI and got a super bored guy who said the rates were on the website and that's it.

Is it the heat or am I just **** at this?

If you switch before you’re out of contact you’ll be hit with the early exit fee so I move the morning after my contract end date!

Nice one, I'll be ringing Energia when my contract is almost up to see if I can get that same deal. 135 euro would definitely take the sting out of the first bill too.

I think all the energy companies are due to go for another price hike in Sept/Oct so the main thing is getting a good discounted rate now and Energias 41% off the unit rate seems to be as good as it gets in the current market.

I wasn't aware of it at the time, my latest bill came in a few weeks ago and there was a line "Cashback Amount" for about 60 Euro or so. When I checked my Bonkers confirmation order I see "Cashback Amount" for 135, I'm assuming they have split this into two, we'll see on the next bill.

Yep, but it's the date you actually switched that counts for the contract duration, and once it's all sorted you will be billed from that date by your new supplier and that will be the date of your final bill from the old supplier, so that's the date to remember.

More like continue disgracing themselves at the party!

My electricity costs are already up from 17c to 33c per kWh since last August, badly need to switch!

Insane