Electricity + gas deals?

natali1982

Hi guys,

What's the best deal on electricity+gas at the moment?

Which provider would u recommend?

Its a new development, so gas and electricity are already connected and live.

Th3B1tcH

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

johnnyskeleton

My advice is to avoid airtricity as they are very shoddy on the customer service front and impossible to contact. Theres more to utilities than the cheapest quote (not even sure if they are) and ive been with bord gais for the last 4 years with no problems and theres always someobe to answer the phone on a query.

Woshy

When I did my research 3 months ago Energia had the best deal if you signed up for both gas and electricity. There was also a €50 cash back offer for signing up online, I'm not sure how long that was running for though

KCross

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

My advice is to avoid airtricity as they are very shoddy on the customer service front and impossible to contact. Theres more to utilities than the cheapest quote (not even sure if they are) and ive been with bord gais for the last 4 years with no problems and theres always someobe to answer the phone on a query.

I'm with Airtricity for a while now(10yrs+). No issues. They have a easy to use app for looking at your bill and submitting meter readings etc.

I'm interested as to what customer service issue can you have with your electricity provider?

All they are are money collecters really. They get the reading, send you the bill and you pay... thats all they do.

If you have a service issue like an outage due to a storm its not the provider that fixes it... its the ESB Networks folks.... so, what type of issue(s) would you have that would require customer service on any kind of regular basis that would influence you picking one company over another? Just interested to know your experience, not saying there isnt a reason.

For me, I pick the cheapest... I think they all provide the same service so cheaper the better.... i compare the prices in the market at the end of my contract and if I see a cheaper one I ring Airtricity and say "so and so is cheaper" and they match it and on we go for another 12-18 months. I did just that in Dec and I'm paying 17.88c/8.85c for day/night rate.

Taking my usage and adding in differences in standing charge it is the cheapest available. You need to know your usage to figure it out. Dont just look at the rates.... do the math.

If I have to spend 10 mins on hold while I make that call I'm OK with that once a year if it saves me €150!

OldMrBrennan83

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hfallada

KCross wrote: »

I'm with Airtricity for a while now(10yrs+). No issues. They have a easy to use app for looking at your bill and submitting meter readings etc.

I'm interested as to what customer service issue can you have with your electricity provider?

All they are are money collecters really. They get the reading, send you the bill and you pay... thats all they do.

I have very few positive things to say about Airtricity too. Their estimated bills are horrific.I know they are estimates, but they are never close to the actual usage. ESB and Bord Gais estimated them better.

I had houses where they didnt send a bill out for 4 months in the middle of the winter. When the bill came it was €2.5k for one of the houses. They wanted it to be paid within their normal payment period and werent sorry at all with the fact they had not sent a bill for 4 months.

Also you cant pay their bills with a telephone automated payment service like every other major utility company. You can either pay with card online or in the post office. But you cant pay over the phone 24/7

zagmund

Seriously, I don't know what the anti-Airtricity vibe is around here. There seems to be a constant stream of folks saying their customer service is terrible, but the post above is the first time anyone has come up with specifics. To be honest, even those specifics aren't examples of terrible customer service in my books.

Not being able to pay by phone 24 hours a day . . . really, this isn't the end of the world. You can pay online 24 hours a day.

You can be pretty sure that the other providers would behave similarly if/when they sent out a large bill after a period. Just search boards.ie, askaboutmoney.com, the consumer sections of the newpapers and you will find people giving out that (say) "Vodafone/Energia/Bord Gais/<someone else> forgot to bill me and now want 5 months bills in one month". Of course there shouldn't be a problem in the first place and bills should come out on schedule. That's a problem alright, but not unique to Airtricity.

Estimates are just that. I've had crummy estimates from other providers too. These guys may be worse than others (for all I know), but they all over-estimate figures. Unless something else is wrong through you should at least get a note in the door from the meter reader asking you to submit your own reading to avoid an estimate.

I haven't been an Airtricity customer for a few years at this stage, but when I was with them they did what they were contracted to do, at the rate they were contracted to do it. I've had fights with other providers, and I'm sure I would have a fight with Airtricity given enough time, but for the moment I haven't heard anything concrete about the problems people have had.

For those who are worried about the actual supply - as someone pointed out earlier the various providers don't actually supply a unique product like, say the bin companies who have their own bins, their own lorries, coming to your door, etc . . . ESB Networks (or whatever they are called these days) provide the cabling to your door, they provide the distribution network that gets the power from the generating stations to your door, etc . . . It's not like you *only* get electrons supplied by Airtricity or Energia or one of the other customers. In other words, the supply from one company is exactly the same as the supply from another company.

z

KCross

hfallada wrote: »

I have very few positive things to say about Airtricity too. Their estimated bills are horrific.I know they are estimates, but they are never close to the actual usage. ESB and Bord Gais estimated them better.

I had houses where they didnt send a bill out for 4 months in the middle of the winter. When the bill came it was €2.5k for one of the houses. They wanted it to be paid within their normal payment period and werent sorry at all with the fact they had not sent a bill for 4 months.

Also you cant pay their bills with a telephone automated payment service like every other major utility company. You can either pay with card online or in the post office. But you cant pay over the phone 24/7

OK, issues around the paying of a bill... sure there could be issues there I suppose.
I havent had any issues in that regard as I submit a meter reading myself each time so they only ever bill me for what I have exactly used and its a direct debit payment... but I wont argue that they messed you up.

Also, bill estimates generally only start to become accurate when you have submitted readings for at least a 12month period.... otherwise they have no way of knowing what your "usual" usage for that time of year is... you need to build up history first.

Having said that....a bill for €2.5k for 4 months was steep even for 4 months!!! I use alot of electricity but it wouldnt be that for a fuill year, not to mind 4 months! Someone must have been growing something in the attic!

KCross

Patww79 wrote: »

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The "uninterrupted service" doesnt really matter for picking your provider. The elec providers dont deal with service interruptions. Thats the job of ESB Networks, regardless of who your provider is.

OldMrBrennan83

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natali1982

Patww79 wrote: »

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How long are you with Airtricity now? Both E & G?

cerastes

Patww79 wrote: »

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No its not, the price difference may be marginal, if the customer service is terrible and you cant get through or spend more on phone calls ringing their low call number, then no, it may not work out the cheapest or the best.

hfallada wrote: »

I have very few positive things to say about Airtricity too. Their estimated bills are horrific.I know they are estimates, but they are never close to the actual usage. ESB and Bord Gais estimated them better.

I had houses where they didnt send a bill out for 4 months in the middle of the winter. When the bill came it was €2.5k for one of the houses. They wanted it to be paid within their normal payment period and werent sorry at all with the fact they had not sent a bill for 4 months.

Also you cant pay their bills with a telephone automated payment service like every other major utility company. You can either pay with card online or in the post office. But you cant pay over the phone 24/7

Couldnt even get a basic run down of the costs of a bill off them, just your bill is X.

torrevieja

any new offers?