Who Is The Cheapest Electricity Supplier

Gooser14

I am coming to the end of my 12 month contract with IBERDROLA and am looking to see what are the best deals available at the moment. I am rural user with a day/night meter with an approximate usage of 9000 units (Day 6100 Night 2900).

My research suggests that the best deals for me are Bord Gais Energy at Eur 1533.03 p.a. or Energia at Eur 1534.38 p.a. including Eur 35 bonus payment (both direct from the suppliers rather than via Switcher or Bonkers).

Who is your current supplier and what deals are you on?

L1011

It depends on your usage and other people's figures won't be of any use to you

Whatever the comparison sites say is cheapest for your usage is going to be the cheapest for you at this moment

Gooser14

L1011 wrote: »

It depends on your usage and other people's figures won't be of any use to you

Whatever the comparison sites say is cheapest for your usage is going to be the cheapest for you at this moment

On the contrary, I can get a better deal by going direct to the suppliers rather than through the comparison sites.

Rachiee

I don't think it depends on your usage its the unit price that makes it lower whatever your usage, if you have electric and gas, electric Ireland do a 10% discount on each.

L1011

Gooser14 wrote: »

On the contrary, I can get a better deal by going direct to the suppliers rather than through the comparison sites.

...which the comparison sites still tell you about, as they are required to by the CER. It just won't have a sign up button


Your question is impossible for anyone to answer without you giving exact usage details and comparing against all rates. Which is what a comparison site does and is not something someone else is going to do manually for you.

Gooser14

L1011 wrote: »

...which the comparison sites still tell you about, as they are required to by the CER. It just won't have a sign up button


Your question is impossible for anyone to answer without you giving exact usage details and comparing against all rates. Which is what a comparison site does and is not something someone else is going to do manually for you.

The following are the figures based on the following consumption:

Day: 6100 units
Night: 2900 units

Bord Gais Energy Discounted at 36% Unit Price (incl VAT)

Day: 15.19c
Night: 7.52c
Standing Charge: Eur 299.88 p.a.
PSO Levy: Eur 88.80 p.a.

Annual Cost: Eur 1533.03

Energia Discounted at 41% Unit Price (incl VAT)

Day: 15.55c
Night: 7.46c
Sign Up Bonus: Eur 35
Standing Charge: Eur 315.73 p.a.
PSO Levy: Eur 88.80 p.a.

Annual Cost: Eur 1534.38

Gooser14

Rachiee wrote: »

I don't think it depends on your usage its the unit price that makes it lower whatever your usage, if you have electric and gas, electric Ireland do a 10% discount on each.

The best deal applicable to me with Electric Ireland is 5.5% discount & Eur 210 welcome bonus. This would work out at Eur 1686.19 on my consumption of 6100 day units & 2900 nigh units.

Wheety

I signed up to Electric Ireland through bonkers and received a €350 welcome bonus. Sometimes it's cheaper to go direct and sometimes it's not. When bonkers told me Electric Ireland was cheapest for dual fuel, I checked Electric Ireland's site and at the time I could get the same deal, unit price, welcome bonus etc. so I signed up through bonkers as I use them most years and they deserve any payment they might receive. Otherwise I'd have to do the comparisons myself if they weren't around.

Muahahaha

One thing to check with a new supplier before signing up is to ask when their unit rates were last increased in price. While there are no guarantees on unit costs staying the same at least if you know they recently increased them then you're less likely to face an increase yourself. It can be pretty frustrating to sign into a 12 month contract at X price per unit and then only 8 weeks later you get an email to say they are putting up the unit prices.

In my last 12 month contract I had two price increases in that time which was new for me, have only ever got one in 12 months before.

Gooser14

Muahahaha wrote:

In my last 12 month contract I had two price increases in that time which was new for me, have only ever got one in 12 months before.

Which supplier was that?

Muahahaha

Gooser14 wrote: »

Which supplier was that?

Glow Power. The first increase was a small 0.5 cents on the cost of a unit of electricity so it wasnt that much. The second one however doubled the standing charge from 26 cents a day to 52 cents a day so that was noticeable as my standing charge went from 7.80 per month to 15.60 a month.

I stuck with them for another year as despite the increases they were still the cheapest in the market for my type of electricity usage which is low. Some companies have really lumped on the standing charges, its not unusual to see charges of almost 300 a year on some contracts.

Gooser14

Muahahaha wrote:

I stuck with them for another year as despite the increases they were still the cheapest in the market for my type of electricity usage which is low. Some companies have really lumped on the standing charges, its not unusual to see charges of almost 300 a year on some contracts.

Muahahaha]Glow Power. The first increase was a small 0.5 cents on the cost of a unit of electricity so it wasnt that much. The second one however doubled the standing charge from 26 cents a day to 52 cents a day so that was noticeable as my standing charge went from 7.80 per month to 15.60 a month.

Thanks for your reply. I switched from Iberdrola to Bord Gais Energy on Friday on completion of contract. Price wise BGE is marginally better than Energia for my usage.

Muahahaha

Gooser14 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I switched from Iberdrola to Bord Gais Energy on Friday on completion of contract. Price wise BGE is marginally better than Energia for my usage.

yeah I ran the figures for my usage (3,000 units a year with a 80:20 day/night ratio) and Energia came out second best to Glow but only by something really small, about a 5 euro in the difference. Its remarkable how they all have varying rates of standing charges and unit prices but when you run the figures to get an annual total estimate they bunch up to be within about 20 euro of each other.

I think the best strategy anyway is to always switch or at least ask your current provider for a discount to renew the contract. Without doing that you are paying more for your electricity than is necessary.