Alarm Monitoring.

I hope this is the right forum for this question.

Does it make sense to pay for the monitoring of your house alarm? Insurance companies give discounts but the monitoring fees, which seem to be from 240 euros and up, outweigh the discounts.

Or have I missed something?

I'd say it depends on your security requirements (i.e. what's at stake, how often are you going to be away from the property for extended periods, etc.).

I've heard a couple of people in the business describe it as 'money for old rope'...

Monitoring starts at about 150 - 180. If the discount covered the cost of the monitoring everbody would be doing it.
It sounds like you want a text or voice dialer, one off payment and no recurring fees

DrMoriarty said:

how often are you going to be away from the property for extended periods, etc.).

Click to expand...

As long as your extended periods are less than 30 days or something according to some insurers. They won't cover you otherwise.

I honestly believe alarm monitoring is a complete waste of money. I was a key holder for a friend who also happened to be a bank manager, who lived in the country and was fairly isolated. The alarm went off about once or twice a year, always when my friend was away. The alarm company rang us to go check if there was any activity around the house and to repart back to them before they would ring the guards. One weekend when we were also away the alarm company continuously rang my house for 3 days filling my answer phone with messages to check for "activity", the final message on day 3 was to say they had called the guards. Now if this is the best they can do for a bank manager who for all they know could be hostage for 3 days! I have never bothered with one as I recon the saving far surpasses any discount the insurance company would ever offer.

I recently got Eircom phonewatch. I pay about €20 a month after installation cost of ~€2k. I think the monitoring is excellent, it gives me peace of mind especially when I have two young kids. I had one false alarm while I was at work. Phonewatch called me. I told them it was probably a false alarm (I vaguely remembered not locking the front door fully before heading to work...duh!). Anyhow, Phonewatch insisted on calling the guards. They were at my house the same time as me, 15 minutes.

Nobody takes notice of alarms that go off in houses and cars these days. My next door neighbour could be getting burgled and I wouldn't even look out the window. At least with monitoring you know that someone is watching.

Why not get an alarm with a dialler (as I'm in the middle of sourcing) so that you can get it to call you and some other numbers when the alarm goes off, or text if you like? This costs way way less than 2 grand, and no subscription costs.

If you want to go fancier you can get a system that will let you even listen in over the phone to hear whats going on, turn off the alarm and reset it, all from your own phone, and again, and hell, if you want to add some home automation stuff this gear will let you turn on your heating, and turn lights on or off (great security feature), again for under a grand. Good luck to those who want to pay Eircom, but to me this is a no brainer.

I agree completely with Pnagle - I've also got Eircom phonewatch - great peace of mind - costs approx €240 pa.

OhPinchy, you mention there is an alarm out there that will allow you to remotely dial in to turn on heating / lights etc along with the normal alarm features. Can you recommend a company for this? We are away quite a bit and it would be very useful. Thanks.
Also the dialer option - how much would this cost? I assume when it calls the list of mobile phones these charges are billed back to you by credit card? or do they appear on your landline bill.

Hi Ecca,

I'm new to this subject myself, and have used this post from wexfordman as a starting point - this should point you in the right direction.

The dialler is using your landline or VoIP phone, so the calls appear on the relevant phone bill.