Switching Gas / Elec What to look out for

@Bronco Lane , The easiest/best way to compare offers is to know and use your annual usage in kWh's. The unit price and standing charge is irrelevant when you know how much you use. It's your annual cost that matters. 2,400kWh appears low but depends on your living arrangements.

When searching, you should:
  • Check both 24h and day/night rates if you have a night meter
  • If you use gas, dual fuel offers generally work out better so check these also
  • Include cashback in your results as it impacts the annual cost
  • Say 'no' to only show tariffs available for sign up...occasionally some tariffs appear greyed out that you can sign up to directly
  • When you have the best offer it can sometimes be worth checking directly on the providers own website
  • Finally, switch every 12 months to stay on the lowest rates
As for Glow Power, have been with them about 10 months and no problems. Fairly basic online portal but they were the cheapest offer for me at the time. Will still be switching at the end of the 12 months
 
My electric contract was up on March 3rd. Thinking of switching to Energia which appears the cheapest (rural Metre). My unit consumption is between 5000 and 6000 per year. Can anyone confirm if you get all these units at this price or is there a cut off point as suggested by electric Ireland my current provider. Awaiting an e mail back from Energia but thought you guys might know the answer.
 
There is no cut-off price. EI are expensive without a large discount so get out of there.
 
elcato said:
There is no cut-off price. EI are expensive without a large discount so get out of there.
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EI have the highest cash back and EI do not play the same "percentage game" as their competitors.

What Energia and others do is:
- Offer a discount of X percentage to their standard rates to new customers.
- Hike the standard rates during the contract (and unlike telecoms you can exit penalty free) by a greater percentage than EI.
- Increase the discount percentage to new customers (meaning their new customer rates are competitive).
- Repeat and repeat.

Hence, the rates you sign up at are not necessary reflective of the offer for the duration of the contract.

If you are a low to medium user, EI give you up to 350 EUR cashback which is often better than lower rates and mid contract hikes that go with it.

After 12 months, cancel your EI contract and get someone else in the household to sign up as a new customer and get the cashback again.
 
CiaranT said:
After 12 months, cancel your EI contract and get someone else in the household to sign up as a new customer and get the cashback again.
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Be careful in signing control of the account over to anyone else because as we all know these days we are not allowed wipe our nose because of either GDPR or Data Protection. Speak to the account holder only, blah, blah, blah :)
 
CiaranT said:
What Energia and others do is:
- Offer a discount of X percentage to their standard rates to new customers.
- Hike the standard rates during the contract (and unlike telecoms you can exit penalty free) by a greater percentage than EI.
- Increase the discount percentage to new customers (meaning their new customer rates are competitive).
- Repeat and repeat.

Hence, the rates you sign up at are not necessary reflective of the offer for the duration of the contract.
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Yes, I am with Energia.

Their "standard" rates are crazy, but I get 35% / 41% off.

At the end of 12 months, the discount disappears.

They offer me a smaller discount.

I leave, and switch

Their loyalty team rings me and offers the higher discounts.

I return.
 
Protocol said:
I leave, and switch

Their loyalty team rings me and offers the higher discounts.
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My contract was up a couple of weeks ago with Energia. I made the phone call to see could they do something to hold me as a customer. They offered a discount off their standard rates but nothing to match what I could get from a few other companies.

I am in the process of switching at the moment. No phone call from Energia, yet, to hold on to me as a customer by sweetening the pot.

I would have stayed with them except that their fixed annual charge is so high.
 
I switched to Electric Ireland paying by Direct Debit therefore no deposit required. EI issued a letter saying I would be paying deposit unless signed up to DD,which I had already done. I phoned them to point this out they acknowledged error and confirmed no deposit required. But deposit still taken. Several weeks before EI can refund me. I must now fill out form and send to bank to obtain refund. EI said being forwarded to Credit Control. Just beware.
 
My contract with SSE Airtricity is just up and I'm looking around. Does anyone factor in the environmental impact, i.e. I know the electricity or gas I get from any supplier is just what's on the grid, but SSE Airtricity generate/ produce a unit from renewables for every unit they sell. Is this priced at a "green" premium?
 
If it makes you feel better, then, yes go ahead and pay a small premium for "green" energy.

We will all be paying more in the future, in any case, to pay for the investment required in the grid to enable renewable energies to be shifted from source to use instead of building generating stations close to large centres of population/use
 
I switched my Electricity to GlowPower. My first bill and it is an estimated reading but nearly double what I have been paying. I hope that this settles down over a few months.
 
No need to let it settle, just submit your customer readings on the online portal and the bill will be corrected or the next bill will be lower/accurate to reflect your actual usage
 
I have tried to contact Glowpower through their webpage but I keep getting the message Error 404, page could not be found, when I submit my comment, despite this is a comment form on their own webpage?
 
Odea said:
I have tried to contact Glowpower through their webpage
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Looking at their web site, they are/were aware of an ongoing issue with submitting online readings - but that was supposed to be resolved in Feb 2020. Could be that their FAQ just hasn't been updated in a while, but as you are reporting "Error 404" for their comment page - doesn't instill much confidence in their online presence.

@Odea Have you tried contacting them via the web address?

Meters are only read 4 times per year. How does Glowpower bill monthly?

We rely on estimates of your meter to bill you monthly. Whenever an actual reading comes we will use this to bill you. If you are unhappy with the readings that your bill is based upon you can read your meter at anytime and submit your readings to us with the following options –
  • Via you’re my account log in – Currently this is unavailable due to technical difficulties. This method will be available by mid Feb 2020 for customers to log into.
  • By calling our service team during business hours
  • By emailing us at customerservice@glowpower.ie
 
SoylentGreen said:
My contract was up a couple of weeks ago with Energia. I made the phone call to see could they do something to hold me as a customer. They offered a discount off their standard rates but nothing to match what I could get from a few other companies.

I am in the process of switching at the moment. No phone call from Energia, yet, to hold on to me as a customer by sweetening the pot.

I would have stayed with them except that their fixed annual charge is so high.
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Hi, Contract also up with Energia. They offered 20%, then a further 5%, ie 25%. But 1% is dual fuel, 8% DD, and 4% online billing. So they are
really offering only 12% to renew. Online they show something called Affinity Code Discount 24%, in addition to the other discounts listed, not sure what it means or for whom it is intended.
 
My years contract with Electric Ireland is up today.I received an email about a month ago advising me that my current discounts would continue,and I didn't have to do anything.
It was only yesterday that I remembered the €250 cashback,which made their offer competitive last year.Obviously this wasn't offered again.
 
Watch out for termination fees. For the last two years I have switched on the day my contract was up and on both occasions I was hit with a termination fee. This fee was removed after I questioned it and both companies said it was apparently a technical glitch. Maybe it was an accident but after two years in a row I am a little suspicious.
 
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