Energia will have Cheapest Gas and Electricity [updated 29 march]

Ogham · 06-12-2013 11:01AM #1

Early in 2014 it looks like we will have another energy supplier - Energia. It looks like they will undercut all the other providers (for now) - see http://www.moneyguideireland.com/energia-residential-gas-and-electricity-prices.html

TheDriver · 06-12-2013 11:24AM

Like all the other suppliers, I wonder what the catches are i.e. service charges etc. I have found that all the promised savings never seem to materialise plus their customer service has been poor enough at work so I wonder would you end up in an airtricity style of arrangement.....Skeptical

Ogham · 06-12-2013 11:28AM

That link has the figures worked out .

paddyp · 06-12-2013 11:53AM

TheDriver wrote: »

Like all the other suppliers, I wonder what the catches are i.e. service charges etc. I have found that all the promised savings never seem to materialise plus their customer service has been poor enough at work so I wonder would you end up in an airtricity style of arrangement.....Skeptical

I have found airtricity excellent to deal with, had to call them about 5 times staff were good, ordered a new meter was fitted in 2 days by esb. Our special price ran out in october I just called their customer options team and they added it on again for another year with no contract. Cant complain.

Full rates here apparently:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=183947

CreepingDeath · 06-12-2013 11:58AM

Ogham wrote: »

Early in 2014 it looks like we will have another energy supplier - Energia. It looks like they will undercut all the other providers (for now) - see http://www.moneyguideireland.com/energia-residential-gas-and-electricity-prices.html

Like all new comers to a market, they'll have cheap prices to start with to grab market share... then slowly raise the prices up as time goes on.

L1011 · 06-12-2013 12:06PM

I'd rather saw my leg off than deal with any of the alternative energy suppliers (other than Flogas) from my experience with them. Energia do have the experience of the NI consumer market behind them, but then again, Airtricity have Scottish & Southern behind them...

listermint · 06-12-2013 12:09PM

As with insurance, surely it pays dividends to migrate between all of them depending on their offers ....

I dont really get the whole stick for life with one supplier out of some faux loyalty thing. Do whats best for your pocket.

whiskeyman · 06-12-2013 12:58PM

^^
This.
same apparently goes for a lot of services, whether it be utility, communications / TV / insurance etc...
Once your contract is nearly up, get quotes from other suppliers and ring current supplier saying your moving unless you offer better.

stimpson · 06-12-2013 01:45PM

Which reminds me - I've been with Bord Gais for electricity for a year now. Time to look around again.

irishpancake · 06-12-2013 01:47PM

MYOB wrote: »

I'd rather saw my leg off than deal with any of the alternative energy suppliers (other than Flogas) from my experience with them. Energia do have the experience of the NI consumer market behind them, but then again, Airtricity have Scottish & Southern behind them...

I dealt with all of them, Electric Ireland, Bord Gais, Airtricity...never had a problem with switching back and forth, and will do it again now with Energia.

There should be no billing problems, and no definitely no physical interruption of supply.

DMcL1971 · 06-12-2013 01:52PM

Shop around every year. I was told that those Energia rates will definitely go back up after year one. In fact I was told there is no discount (not even DD or paper bill) in year 2. Though I find that hard to believe.

ted1 · 06-12-2013 01:56PM

As they havn't launched yet and prices could change. Surely this isn't a bargain alert

irishpancake · 06-12-2013 02:00PM

ted1 wrote: »

As they havn't launched yet and prices could change. Surely this isn't a bargain alert

Potential Bargain Alert??

Unless the other suppliers react, in which case, the alert has worked!!

emo72 · 06-12-2013 02:03PM

There never seems to be price reductions with utility companies. So much for competition driving prices down.

ted1 · 06-12-2013 02:10PM

irishpancake wrote: »

Potential Bargain Alert??

Unless the other suppliers react, in which case, the alert has worked!!

You can't sign up, so its a not a current bargain the OP has suffered premature bargain alertication

JohnnyChimpo · 06-12-2013 02:14PM

Is the annual standing charge an upfront payment or is it rolled into the bills across the year?

oldyouth · 06-12-2013 02:18PM

Be careful of early exit charges when switching providers. I got badly stung on a business account due to the agent for Company X misleading me over them. Luckily, he had done the same to a number of people, so they accepted our word are credited me

DMcL1971 · 06-12-2013 02:27PM

emo72 wrote: »

There never seems to be price reductions with utility companies. So much for competition driving prices down.

The problem is that most of the alternative suppliers we talk about are not actually providing you with a different product. They are only re-selling the product of the original supplier which they are paying wholesale rates for. For instance, if you move your landline phone to another provider, you are not getting a different physical service. It is the same Eircom phone line, telephone exchange and network. You are just receiving your bill and customer service from another company. They pay Eircom the wholesale rate for the calls and charge you an amount greater than the wholesale rate but cheaper than the Eircom retail rate.

The same is true for energy suppliers. Everyone is reselling gas services provided by Bord Gais or electricity services provided by ESB. Therefore the only room for competition is in playing with the small gap between wholesale costs and retail rates.

The only place there should be real competition is in the mobile market because there are separate physical networks with different running costs. So there should be different prices between Vodafone and O2 and Three. However the virtual mobile operators are only piggybacking on the other networks.

DMcL1971 · 06-12-2013 02:28PM

JohnnyChimpo wrote: »

Is the annual standing charge an upfront payment or is it rolled into the bills across the year?

The standing charges are spread across the bills throughout the year.

DMcL1971 · 06-12-2013 02:31PM

ted1 wrote: »

You can't sign up, so its a not a current bargain the OP has suffered premature bargain alertication

Energia are test marketing at the moment. That means they are actually signing up customers. But they have only chosen to advertise this in certain areas. If everything goes alright they plan on doing the full marketing blitz in January.

But I agree it is a bit early to make this a bargain alert as they may well change the rates before January.

ted1 · 06-12-2013 08:18PM

DMcL1971 wrote: »

Energia are test marketing at the moment. That means they are actually signing up customers. But they have only chosen to advertise this in certain areas. If everything goes alright they plan on doing the full marketing blitz in January.

But I agree it is a bit early to make this a bargain alert as they may well change the rates before January.

They may change prices and their competitors may also change there's on e they launch,

Bear in mind board gais are actively looking for a buyer so need to keep their client base up.

Electric Ireland are about to strike and may need to bribe people with lower prices.

Airtricity, I still recommend to avoid.
In the original link the price saving was 14 euro a year on Bg which is about 1% cheaper, hardly a bargain. The original link also uses EIs standard price which no one should be on as you need to move around once your discount is gone

unkel · 06-12-2013 09:27PM

MYOB wrote: »

I'd rather saw my leg off than deal with any of the alternative energy suppliers

Why? The only thing they do is read your meter and send you the bill.

I couldn't give a toss what it says on top of the invoice. I go with the cheapest supplier as soon as my contract is finished

CAVEAT: do not trust anybody comparing prices, the info is often false or incomplete. Do all the calculations yourself! Will take a few hours every year, but well worth it.

L1011 · 06-12-2013 09:34PM

unkel wrote: »

Why? The only thing they do is read your meter and send you the bill.

I couldn't give a toss what it says on top of the invoice. I go with the cheapest supplier as soon as my contract is finished

CAVEAT: do not trust anybody comparing prices, the info is often false or incomplete. Do all the calculations yourself! Will take a few hours every year, but well worth it.

They don't even read the meter - ESB Networks / BGE do that.

The issue is the sending the bill bit. Every single one of them are utterly incompetent with that, and with ceasing contracts, etc.

DMcL1971 · 06-12-2013 09:42PM

From an alternative service provider you receive the exact same product. What is different is the billing, customer service and collections. So though I agree with unkel that price is important. MTOB is also correct in that you might get incorrect bills, or poor customer service or aggressive collections staff.

I try to go with the cheapest unless they have p***ed me off in some way. Then I leave. Vote with your feet as they say. The first thing discussed in the weekly management meeting in these companies his how many new customers did we sign this week. The second is how many customers did we lose.

roboshatner · 06-12-2013 10:06PM

Who is behind them Who owns them ?

Heroditas · 06-12-2013 10:11PM

roboshatner wrote: »

Who is behind them Who owns them ?

Viridian, who also own Power NI, the main domestic supplier in the North.
Viridian were one of the bidders for Bord Gais this year.

_Whimsical_ · 06-12-2013 10:13PM

They are only claiming that they'll be 14 euro a YEAR cheaper than Bord Gais.
90 cheaper than ESB mind you.
Overall I can't see BG losing customers or entering a price war.

ted1 · 06-12-2013 10:25PM

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

They are only claiming that they'll be 14 euro a YEAR cheaper than Bord Gais.
90 cheaper than ESB mind you.
Overall I can't see BG losing customers or entering a price war.

Off electric Ireland's standard rate, which no one should be paying

unkel · 06-12-2013 10:30PM

DMcL1971 wrote: »

What is different is the billing, customer service and collections.

If you pay by direct debit (this is usually the cheapest option - they one I tend to choose) you'll never have to worry about collections

Stinicker · 07-12-2013 01:07AM

emo72 wrote: »

There never seems to be price reductions with utility companies. So much for competition driving prices down.

Competition has increased prices and the overall price was allowed artificially increase to the regulators so as to give the illusion of competition in the market-place. Opening the Energy market was an EU directive and it makes no sense as the Electricity and Piped Gas are natural monopolies as is the Telecoms like Eircom.

There should be no competition in the gas, electricity or telecom market, these should be state owned and state controlled with the prices set low to provide affordable products to the people. Profits derived from such should then be reinvested back into the network and used to ease the taxation burden on the public.

Eircom should be state owned and controlled and the money earned used to roll out FTTH to the entire island. Bord Gais Energy should similarly be investing in profits into expanding the network and new green generating capacity.

The fact is that competition allows these vital utilities to fall into private vulture capitalists hands where offshore foreign owners will set the price and then extort the Irish consumer, corrupt traitor Fianna Fail being totally wholly complicit in this, eg. corrupt Ray Burke signing away Irish Oil and Gas for nothing.

The billions profit generated should not be allowed go abroad and basically Competition exists to rip-off the customer and run down the utility companies into the ground with lack of investment.

Satriale · 07-12-2013 01:09AM

nice one OP. did the numbers and swapped to bord gais this evening after reading this thread. I should have E96 more next year.
I also signed up my email for marketing from energia, so ill swap again when they spam me they are hitting the market. thanks for reminding me to stop being so complacent with that shower.

Energia will have Cheapest Gas and Electricity [updated 29 march]

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