Electricity Providers - Your Thoughts Please?

simple_but_sweet

I had a quick scour round last night and seen that electric ireland seem to be the cheapest for keypad rates @ 14.93 p/unit, we're currently with airtricity and pay 15.27p/unit (i really have to check this, but as its payg it's not listed on any bills or on my online account, and i usually remember around 9pm).
The only issue I have with switching is that electric irelands rates hasn't changed since oct 2012 so surely there's bound to be some change coming soon?

markdebby

I have a direct debit every three months but I transfer what I want each month into their account and by the time the bill is in I have enough to pay. It means I control my monthly payment.

Golden_Anemone

Having got no response to my online request for a callback last month I rang and spoke to Electric Ireland this week and was told they have no current plans to increase their tarriffs in NI so have started the process to move from Budget.

It's a 20 day lead in time though - definitely wasn't that long when I moved from PowerNI to Airtricity or from Airtricity to Budget.

No contract so can move if they do increase rates to be higher than one of the others.

rolo1_2

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

Having got no response to my online request for a callback last month I rang and spoke to Electric Ireland this week and was told they have no current plans to increase their tarriffs in NI so have started the process to move from Budget.

It's a 20 day lead in time though - definitely wasn't that long when I moved from PowerNI to Airtricity or from Airtricity to Budget.

No contract so can move if they do increase rates to be higher than one of the others.

Keep us updated please, as I am also thinking of same switch. Do you know if you can top-up on-line with Electric Ireland?

RTNI

I recently changed to EI from Budget but on the DD method not keypad. No complaints other than it took the DD mandate form a long time to come but it was received back to Dublin with no issues. (See the thread on Electric Ireland)

Also managed to get my refund from Budget Energy with not too much bother and by faster payment to my bank account.

Should say that EI are increasing their prices in RoI: https://www.electricireland.ie/ei/residential/price-plans/1st-january-price-change.jsp

Unit prices increasing by €0.10 in RoI including their VAT.

Golden_Anemone

rolo1 wrote: »

Keep us updated please, as I am also thinking of same switch. Do you know if you can top-up on-line with Electric Ireland?

No idea rolo1 - I'm bill pay.

Golden_Anemone

RTNI wrote: »

I recently changed to EI from Budget but on the DD method not keypad. No complaints other than it took the DD mandate form a long time to come but it was received back to Dublin with no issues. (See the thread on Electric Ireland)

Think that is because of the 20 working day lead-in time. Seems a lot - basically a month.

Also managed to get my refund from Budget Energy with not too much bother and by faster payment to my bank account.

Fingers crossed I am the same. Was £90 in credit at my last bill up to 16th October and their DD is way above my current usage so likely to be more than that.

QUOTE]

RTNI

Mine was 6 weeks to the day from calling them to receiving the DD mandate form. The welcome pack came about 3 weeks after my initial call though.

But all sorted now. GA: Good luck with the refund. I got the email address of a person in BE and pestered them daily with emails till they gave me it back. Pester power worked on that occasion!

bigsy

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

It's a 20 day lead in time though - definitely wasn't that long when I moved from PowerNI to Airtricity or from Airtricity to Budget.

According to the CAB, the switching process takes around 21 days which includes a 14 day 'cooling off' period. This would apply to all the utility providers.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nireland/consumer_ni/consumer_energy_supply_ni/consumer_choosing_and_switching_supplier_e/switching_gas_or_electricity_supplier.htm

My experience with switching to EI was that, although the paperwork took a bit of time to arrive, the switch was completed within 3 weeks.

Golden_Anemone

bigsy wrote: »

According to the CAB, the switching process takes around 21 days which includes a 14 day 'cooling off' period. This would apply to all the utility providers.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nireland/consumer_ni/consumer_energy_supply_ni/consumer_choosing_and_switching_supplier_e/switching_gas_or_electricity_supplier.htm

My experience with switching to EI was that, although the paperwork took a bit of time to arrive, the switch was completed within 3 weeks.

Thanks for that and fingers crossed. Don't want to pay Budget any more than necessary. The EI person definitely said 20 working days though. Odd.