Prepay electricity

archer22

Hi wondering if anybody here that have experience of prepay electricity?..is it a good or bad system overall.I am a low usage electricity user and out of Ireland for several months each year.I have seen the prepay power .ie ads and considering it but would like to hear others experience of this first..Thanks

Ken.

We have prepaypower. We find the amount per month is still the same or there abouts but no hefty bill at the end of every 2 months.

We can see what the money is going on also and try cut down usage of stuff.

archer22

ken wrote: »

We have prepaypower. We find the amount per month is still the same or there abouts but no hefty bill at the end of every 2 month.

We can see what the money is going on also and try cut down usage of stuff.

I am wondering about the standing charges...are they still being applied when there is no electricity being used..as in my case when I am out of country for several months..dont want to for example to come back and put 50 euros credit in it only to find its all used up on standing charges and I still have no power .

Doreen53

I was wondering whether it would be a good idea to change over to Pre-Pay Power.ie. Has anybody else changed over and what do they think?

Ken.

archer22 wrote: »

I am wondering about the standing charges...are they still being applied when there is no electricity being used..as in my case when I am out of country for several months..dont want to for example to come back and put 50 euros credit in it only to find its all used up on standing charges and I still have no power .

They don't work that way. Once your credit is used up you have an emergency €5. Once that runs out your power is off. When you next top up (lets say by €20) the €5 is taken back and you now have €15 and your emergency €5 back in place.

Please be aware that with prepaypower.ie's control panel once credit drops below €3 it emits a very loud beeping noise till you press a button to stop it. As far as I know(and I've been trying for 5 months) their is no way to disable it.

dudara

Moved to Accomodation & Property

dudara

sanna

I got my meter in last wk, so far so good, have been hacked off with incorrect reads and estimated bills for last yr so figured this was best way to go! Now getting gas one in too, relief of 2 less bills is fab!

StillWaters

Looks like it would be worse for you, not only do you have to pay usual levies, you also have to pay a Prepayment service charge of 37.5c per day, that's a fair bit more than other providers low usage standing charge.

emeldc

ken wrote: »

They don't work that way. Once your credit is used up you have an emergency €5. Once that runs out your power is off. When you next top up (lets say by €20) the €5 is taken back and you now have €15 and your emergency €5 back in place.

Please be aware that with prepaypower.ie's control panel once credit drops below €3 it emits a very loud beeping noise till you press a button to stop it. As far as I know(and I've been trying for 5 months) their is no way to disable it.

Not quite correct. If you are away from your house and not using any electricity you are still charged 80cent per day. This is made up with the standard charge (ESB meter rental) and a 37cent charge from 'prepay power' to pay for the use of their meter. In short you pay approx €2.50 extra per week to have a prepay meter on top of the normal ESB charges. In my opinion it's not really worth it unless your bills are quite large. You also can't shop around for a better deal while on a prepay meter.

archer22

emeldc wrote: »

Not quite correct. If you are away from your house and not using any electricity you are still charged 80cent per day. This is made up with the standard charge (ESB meter rental) and a 37cent charge from 'prepay power' to pay for the use of their meter. In short you pay approx €2.50 extra per week to have a prepay meter on top of the normal ESB charges. In my opinion it's not really worth it unless your bills are quite large. You also can't shop around for a better deal while on a prepay meter.

Yeah you keep getting charged even when its not being used and then you must pay that off before you can use it again..I think the best thing about it was the advert :rolleyes:...Seems since electricity was deregulated in Ireland instead of prices dropping a race has begun to see who can charge the most :mad:

the_syco

archer22 wrote: »

Seems since electricity was deregulated in Ireland instead of prices dropping a race has begun to see who can charge the most :mad:

I'm pretty sure it's regulated, as if it wasn't, ESB could drop their prices to wipe out the competition.

ted1

Price of fuel is rising, that's why it's going up.

juan.kerr

I got a flyer in the door for one of these services over the weekend. They had a 'meter charge' of something like 37.5 cents per day and a guarantee that their unit price and standing charge etc would match the Electric Ireland standard rates.

So you are paying ~ EUR 137 per annum for the service before using any electricity.

May make sense for some people.

For me that would be 3 - 4 months electricity cost.

archer22

ted1 wrote: »

Price of fuel is rising, that's why it's going up.

Probably pay rates have more to do with it Electric Ireland average pay Euro 92,000 per annum CEO Euro 318,000 per annum..it has to come from somewhere..no prizes for guessing where.

ted1

archer22 wrote: »

Probably pay rates have more to do with it Electric Ireland average pay Euro 92,000 per annum CEO Euro 318,000 per annum..it has to come from somewhere..no prizes for guessing where.

Think your figures are completely off the wall, one section may have high wages but I can tell you that is not the average for the whole conpany

the_syco

archer22 wrote: »

Probably pay rates have more to do with it Electric Ireland average pay Euro 92,000 per annum CEO Euro 318,000 per annum..it has to come from somewhere..no prizes for guessing where.

EI have to charge X amount, as per regulation. They're not allowed to charge less. And as they're a semi-state company, they cannot make a profit, so they have to give the money to the employees. If they could change their prices, I'd say they'd wipe the competition out virtually overnight!

L1011

the_syco wrote: »

EI have to charge X amount, as per regulation. They're not allowed to charge less. And as they're a semi-state company, they cannot make a profit, so they have to give the money to the employees. If they could change their prices, I'd say they'd wipe the competition out virtually overnight!

EI's consumer rates were deregulated in 2011.

They (ESB Group) return a dividend to the state and have generally spent other profits on projects abroad until now.

xLollyx

Mysef & my boyfriend have recently moved into a 3 bedroomed house.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an estimate as to how much our electricity bills will be per month? I know the house does not have a good energy rating, which is why our rent is a bit lower than usual.

If anyone could give me an estimate it would be great - it's just the two of us.

Ogham

xLollyx wrote: »

Mysef & my boyfriend have recently moved into a 3 bedroomed house.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an estimate as to how much our electricity bills will be per month? I know the house does not have a good energy rating, which is why our rent is a bit lower than usual.

If anyone could give me an estimate it would be great - it's just the two of us.

There's no way of estimating unless we know what type of heating you have , how you heat the hot water, how many times you shower/bath, have you a tumble drier - will you use it, etc etc

xLollyx

But on average? For a typical 3 bedroomed house, with 2 occupants.
It's gone down about €4 since Friday. But the shower/dishwasher/fridge/cooker has not been used in this time. Only kettle (a lot of times for cleaning), TV, Computers have been used.

I'm sure we'll know how much to expect as the weeks go on Will just keep the card topped up in the house in case

hfallada

Esb has to ensure it doesn't have more than 60% of the market. Otherwise the eu has a issue that its distorting competition. But ESB also has high prices cause it has hardly any renewable energy except for ardnacrusha and a few wind turbines.

Also it's rumoured ESBs high price are to encourage foreign firms to enter Ireland

murphaph

xLollyx wrote: »

But on average? For a typical 3 bedroomed house, with 2 occupants.
It's gone down about €4 since Friday. But the shower/dishwasher/fridge/cooker has not been used in this time. Only kettle (a lot of times for cleaning), TV, Computers have been used.

I'm sure we'll know how much to expect as the weeks go on Will just keep the card topped up in the house in case

Kettles are one of the biggest culprits. It takes quite a lot of energy to bring a kettle full of water to the boil, especially when the water is fairly cold going in.

emeldc

xLollyx wrote: »

But on average? For a typical 3 bedroomed house, with 2 occupants.
It's gone down about €4 since Friday. But the shower/dishwasher/fridge/cooker has not been used in this time. Only kettle (a lot of times for cleaning), TV, Computers have been used.

I'm sure we'll know how much to expect as the weeks go on Will just keep the card topped up in the house in case

If it's a 'prepay' meter you're talking about, then €4 sounds about right. Don't forget you still pay about 80c per day in standing charges even with everything switched off.