Alarm monitoring- cheapest Dublin?

I just received my annual bill from my alarm company. For a 1 year period:

Monitoring: 136.50
Annual Maintenance: 136.50

Total incl Vat.. €320.09

Seems very steep?? Anyone recommend a cheaper supplier for a 3 bed semi on Dublin Southside??

Cheers

I opted out of this… the system I installed calls me, the wife and the brother (can call up to seven persons…even the local Garda!)

The reason I decided against paying €350 per year for a monitoring service was due to the fact that they guaranteed a response within 30mins!!! 25 minutes too late if you ask me.

The system I have installed calls and texts the zone that is activated, this allows me to identify “false alarms” ie if I see zone 1 “front Door” and zone 2 “hallway” activated that tells me I have someone in the house…. Alternatively if I just see zone 2 “hallway” activated and no other zone within the house this is probably a false alarm!

Why pay the annual maintenance of €136....is that some sort of extended warrany / rip-off??

We paid €213.66 this year, when we were broken into, alarm control contacted us within 3/4 mins, which was after they interfered with our external alarm box and before they got through the door. As a result the burglars were only IN the house for about 3/4 mins and left empty handed as we were away and some of our family members who live on same road went to house straight away and burglars were gone. We knew how long they were in the house and how many were in the group by the movements recorded with the sensor in the downstairs hall and upstairs hallway.

We were glad to be connected to a monitoring service.

DamoH said:

I opted out of this… the system I installed calls me, the wife and the brother (can call up to seven persons…even the local

Click to expand...

What system was this Damoh? Do you have a link or a brandname?

I actually got a guy to install it for me (Meath). It’s a GSP system, thus it uses a mobile sim instead of a landline. You can get the landline option to do the same…I actually thinks its cheaper.

I will get the manufacturers name from the unit,,, but the unit he picked me matched my needs i.e. 3 keypads… 5 external doors …. 25 windows…5 PIR’s…etc thus you may not need a system to cover all these zones.

These type of systems are on the market for a while (most alarm fitters sell them…the honest ones anyway…)

damoH would be interested to know the price and name of your system? sounds like more what we are looking for also

Autually at work at the moment...i will get the brand and revert monday!
it cost me €1300 and the house was prewired.

Spec:
2 garage doors
5 external doors
25 windows (tamper sensors)
5 PIR's
3 Key pads
2 alarms boxes (each end of hosue gable)

The name of the alarm is "Secure Watch" from HKC... there is also an option to conect the system to a PC.

Just bumping this thread...
We are currently with Phonewatch and are coming to the end of a 3 year free service/monitoring deal with them. We can stay with them and pay €25.50 per month monitoring and maintenance or we can switch. Has anyone any advice on similar providers?

Hello,

We are with Eircom Phonewatch and after paying them what felt like far too much for a number of years, we applied some pressure on them, only to discover there is a cheaper rate you can pay for monitored service with them.

In short, Phonewatch will charge you approx €200 pa (which you can pay by direct debit, monthly, hence spreading the cost of your bill evenly over the year) without the inclusion of two "free" service inspections per year. ....In other words, they are charging a substantial premium above the cost of annual monitoring, for nothing - given you have to call them, to get them to schedule the "free" service inspections, you've apparently paid for etc. Rip off !!!!

In my personal view and based on my own experiences, you don't need to get your monitoring equipment checked or serviced twice a year, or anything even close to this ... the batteries in the sensors need to be replaced about once every seven years. Otherwise, you should have plain sailing, unless there's a specific fault in your equipment.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Mr. Earl.

Hi Mr Earl,
Just got quote from Phonewatch for monitoring only - €195 per annum. Will get a full service next month before our freebie runs out and then switch to monitoring only.