Does anyone really save money from switching electricity provider?

Ubbquittious

There are tons of power companies now but many of them generate a grand total of zero watt hours per annum and are just an office with a web-based reseller portal opened on a few PC's.

They're staffed by a few people answering calls, maybe some web developers if they havn't outsourced that and headed up by some smirking golf-playing exec who waltzed in from abroad promising to change the power industry in Ireland over a few expensive cocktails in the Shelbourne with a few lads who bring home a few 100k a year from the ESB.

Since many of these parasites are only resellers we now see the perverse situation where they are all trying to leap-frog each other in price now that the wholesale price has gone up. A similar situation occured with all the so-called different broadband providers who are all piggybacking off Telecom Eireann's VDSL network.

This has left me wondering is there anyone who has made long term savings by switching provider the minute the prices go up and how many times a year do you need to switch to stay ahead of the game?

Inb4 "I run the gas off the electricity and the electricity off the gas and save 200 quid"

stimpson

Go on bonkers.ie once a year. They calculate your usage and compare providers.

I find that a call to my provider asking if I’m out of contract will result in them beating the best offer on bonkers. One thing about bonkers is they can’t calculate cash back deals etc. By law so you might take that into account.

Del2005

stimpson wrote: »

Go on bonkers.ie once a year. They calculate your usage and compare providers.

I find that a call to my provider asking if I’m out of contract will result in them beating the best offer on bonkers. One thing about bonkers is they can’t calculate cash back deals etc. By law so you might take that into account.

Yes you have to change every year to save.

On contacting your current provider. I never do that because after the years discount expires they put you on the top tariff unless you change companies then they'll call and offer a great deal, WTF don't you offer me that great deal when I'm your customer not after I've left. Similar for car insurance why send me out a quote of €xx and then after I've got a better deal say oh that original quote was just to screw you we can actually do your insurance for €x, well offer me your best first or Feck off.

raxy

I switched my gas to electric ireland. Along with a checper rate I got €175 credit applied to my account. Considering my usage amounted to €500 for the year before thats over a 35% saving. I switched electricity to bord gais & got a 24% saving on their rate. I could also have taken a smaller reduction & got €100 credit applied to the account but the 24% saving worked out better over the year based on my usage.
It can be a bit complicated judging on the best options because of the number of different tariffs available, even within the same supplier, nut it is definitely worth your while switching.
As stimpson said go to bonkers & see what that gives but bear in mind bonkers do not take extras such as free credit into account. They also don't include any 2nd year savings in their calculations. If you want the best savings it'll take a bit of work on your part.
You also can't take the reductions a supplier gives as being better than the other without calculating yourself. I think the 24% reduction with bord gais equated to a 9% discount from energia

stimpson

Del2005 wrote: »

Yes you have to change every year to save.

On contacting your current provider. I never do that because after the years discount expires they put you on the top tariff unless you change companies then they'll call and offer a great deal, WTF don't you offer me that great deal when I'm your customer not after I've left. Similar for car insurance why send me out a quote of €xx and then after I've got a better deal say oh that original quote was just to screw you we can actually do your insurance for €x, well offer me your best first or Feck off.

Energia offered to match the discount on bonkers. I asked them to best it and got another 2% off. I don’t get wound up about it. It’s only business. Except Greyhound Waste. They are ignorant cnuts.

raxy

stimpson wrote: »

Energia offered to match the discount on bonkers. I asked them to best it and got another 2% off. I don’t get wound up about it. It’s only business. Except Greyhound Waste. They are ignorant cnuts.

Hmm they didn't offer that to me. When we told them we were switching they offered 7.5% discount which we said not thanks to. They didn't offer any more, maybe next time I should push them.

RhubarbCrumble

I switch every year. Have just changed again although I have to say that Bord Gais are a pain in the ass to deal with. I don't care though. It's only for a year.

SeaFields

As above electric Ireland credited our account when we agreed to stay with them and as far as I remember gave a discount percentage too.

We switched to Bord Gais level pay a few years ago and it's great. No huge bills in winter anymore. They ring up and offer a discount and cash back every year and I am OK with that.
If another provider did level pay, I would consider moving.

Ubbquittious

I wonder how does.one go about setting up an ESB reseller power company. It would be great to make free money by reselling power the ESB makes through their own network and to their own former customers.

Where is the barrier to entry placed to make sure me or my neighbour cant get this reseller agreement but the fat fella in the suit who swoops in from abroad can?