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

My 87yr old mothers BG dual fuel contract has now expired and BG are now offering 0% discount to recontract. The best options appear to be Flogas & SSE. I had her mostly up to speed using the BG app (2.7 rating on Google Playstore) but I haven't used the SSE app (only 1.6 on Playstore). Is it really that bad?

Flogas don't have an app but appear to offer paper or paperless billing with no discount for the latter. Does anyone know what their customer portal webpage is like compared to the apps.

I think the Flogas web portal sucks, I like to pay a bit every week or so and trying to do that is a disaster half the time

Cheap electricity is worth the hardship

thanks for that. That flogas plan and the SSE plan are almost identical when you look at the cost per year on 4200 units. One way or the other i will have to pay the 50 euro for breaking the present contract so I think its probably best to just move to SSE.

Any thoughts on fixed v variable rates when signing up to a new contract at the moment.

Just be conscious that the SSE break fee is €100 not €50. FloGas won't switch you if you're still in contract.

I personally prefer fixed. I know my price for the year, I don't need to worry about price increases and I can predict my bills for the winter and hence plan for them.

My personal opinion is that I don't expect large reductions this winter. A minor reduction is possible but the fixed rate is already lower than the current variable.

Their web portal is shite and difficult to navigate imo. It's not user friendly at all.

However, she could be setup with paper billing and direct debit? Would be relatively straight forward once setup. She may never need to interact with it but would still know what's going on.

If you need her to add money every month tho, it's annoying to use.

If you only need her to submit meter readings, it's not too bad but you'd be better off teaching her to do it on the ESB site. Supplier independent.

No, they just use the code that's on your bill, MCC 02 etc and give you a plan that's compatible with your meter status.

Just completed the application to switch from BG to the Flogas Affinity offer after phoning BG. They said the banner for offers on my BG account page had disappeared as I was no longer in contract but the originally offered discounts of 24% off electricity & 20% off gas still stood.

Sadly they couldn't offer better than that so Flogas's rates are the better option at this moment.

Only when I moved to a different provider, when I moved to a cheaper fixed plan within the Flogas system they didn't charge me. I thought I made it clear in my post what I had done 🫣

Hello, my missus has tasked me with finding a new supplier after a bit of a run in with Electric Ireland's customer service. We're well out of contract.

Living rurally, am I right on saying Flogas are the best?

We have one, old school meter. No day/night option. No smart meter and would prefer not to have to get one.

Any advice?

FloGas the cheapest right now. It's a fixed rate so price changes won't affect you. Some people (myself) think that's a good thing. Others think variable is better right now (granted, not anyone on this thread that I'm aware of).

I've heard stories the other way i.e. dramatic increase due to a miscalibrated meter.

Theres no harm in having a smart meter. Handy to have. Albeit, I don't have one. Wasn't arsed making an appointment as the meters inside my house.

Weird, i asked them about changing plan last month and they put me on hold to check and said I'd have to pay the contract exit fee because I'm outside the cooling period.

Maybe they've changed things but they definitely didn't charge me the 50, that was in April. As has been advised here several times, don't ring them just use the online form.

I haven't renewed with them but I recently switched to them & had no problem staying on my Day/Night MCC02 Plan. I can't see why it should be different when renewing with them. I would be asking them to put that in writing & asking for a copy of their T&C's where that policy is stated.