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

Was quite shocked to find that gas netwroks ireland charges 200 euro to change from a pay as you go meter to a billed one, but a friend has pay as you go electricity and gas , but is reluctant to change as they dont have a bank account.

taking the 200 into account , according to bonkers can currenlty still save about 500 by switching.

and is paying 7o odd for eir broadband and tv. per month

Yeah, sorry, I had clicked to quote you because I was surprised you were on a 30% discount, I thought 26% was as high as they went but then realised you may be smart or day/night so never posted it.

It's annoying if you scrap a post, it saves the "quote" and reply. I wasn't trying to be smart.

The sheet could be easier to read. For example, the figure €4102.91 for EI does not take into account the €150 welcome bonus so the figure in my eye would be €3951.91 as this is the actual comparison compared to the other entries. The sheet is underestimating costs by about 10%. Personally, I would want the estimated costs in order to get the "true" predicted difference between each companies to make my decision. Other factors may influence my decision if the price difference is negligible. It is so little extra effort for the sheet to be right, I am not sure why someone wouldn't do it.

That's just me. It's not overly important to this thread. No point in me derailing it.

Energia dualfuel 12 month contract finished today, is it best to go with separate provider. Should I wait a week or so before switching to see if any more increases?

Thats pretty ridiculous, the regulator is admitting that accrediting and allowing Bonkers to use their logo on their website helps to instill consumer confidence in them but when pointed out that their search form can exclude the best deals they wash their hands of it. Its so predictable of regulators in this country, they really are next to useless.

Just looking on Bonkers now for my own usage and the cheapest deal Bonkers has is an average annual bill of 1,251. But there are six other deals available in the market that are cheaper than that, the cheapest being 1,130 which is a saving of 121 quid a year over what is being offered. Unless people tick 'No' to that question on the search form they will never see those six cheaper deals and will only see what Bonkers can sell direct themselves. Im not sure what commission Bonkers would be getting from sign ups but its a bit disingenuous to have a feature that excludes deals they cant sell you while also putting themselves out there as CRU approved as a reputable comparison website.

No, you should switch today. You're paying a higher rate for electricity and gas now. I wouldn't imagine there will be any more price increase announcements (FloGas aside maybe) this month. You will always be wondering will there be another price increase tomorrow. If there are increases, you have the 14 day cooling off period to cancel and switch again.

For those going on about Flogas cashback. SSE still offer €250 cashback for electricity. Silly unit prices though 28c night, 44c day

Yeah, it will produce the same results (when you incorporate cashback). Carbon tax and PSO levy will work out the same irrespective of unit price. The only thing different is the expected difference between plans. If there was a small difference between FloGas and Bord Gais where BG are only a little more expensive, I might be inclined to go with them for other reasons. For example, I may take customer service into account or their "rewards" offer may have something I want. I may not make the same decision if the difference was 10% larger.

I think your sheet does what you want. I would personally put in the extra costs, takes 60 seconds. It is a useful sheet tho, I have a version of my own.

Hi Super Spreadsheet Sir,

Could you share the spreadsheet with me please?

Thanks,

Pa.

Keep in mind when using Bonkers/Switcher etc the EAB is based on Current CRU Typical annual consumption values Electricity: 4,200kWh per annum/Gas: 11,000kwh per annum. Our usage is probably less than half this.

Yeah, I have done. With online billing it's easy enough to work out your annual use for those who just use the national average. Makes it look like the savings are more.

That has gone to you PA

The point about the lost time is something I've been quietly fuming about for years

Between all the insurances (health, home, motor [more than one if you run a business]), electricity providers, phone and broadband, banking ....vast chunks of your time are taken from you comparing and ringing around etc etc

All in an attempt to not get ridden as badly as the person that just rolls over in the face of walls of extra admin in an already too busy life....I'm more and more starting to empathise with the lads that decide **** it and decide to spend a couple of years in a remote post office in the North Pole etc etc

Did all the "competition" in the market really improve things or just make the way they milk us more efficient/effective and introduce a new ball of stress and take a huge chunk of what should be downtime off you comparing **** plans with slightly less **** plans for any **** service you can think of...

So i was sitting at work thinking of ways to pay less. Im with sse in a very rural location. No one comes to read our meter.

I submitted a highly inflated meter reading this time.

In effect I have prepaid till Christmas at the current KWH rate .

The new highly inflated price does not come into effect until the 1 October. Next month. Which is 35% more than the current price.

Its going to be a big bill this time, but should be a small bill at Christmas when I really need the money.

It's an illusion of customer choice and an illusion of green energy from the like of SSE airtricity.