Electric Ireland - Price increase from 1/1/2023

Money_Grabber13579

jnm21 said:

Money_Grabber13579 said:

jnm21 said:

I'm also waiting for my switch to SSE Airtricity to happen - signed up on the 16th, but heard nothing since.  @Money_Grabber13579 when did you apply (you should have got a welcome email the same day)?

I think that the above quote from @Mnoee might mean; we are reducing our price by X pence in January, but the saving will go back to the government by way of reducing their subsidy by X pence - the price you pay will not change.  I think that this is the case with PowerNI, who explained it better.

I signed up on 29th Dec so a bit later than you. I did get the confirmation email and think I saw something about it possibly taking effect from 8 January. Haven’t had any further info though.

I don’t think SSE are changing their standard rate at the moment (unlike Power NI who are reducing theirs) so the reduction in EPG discount would seem to mean SSE’s price will increase overall. Still think it’s cheaper than everyone else though.

Thanks - I missed your reply - was not impressed with the process - they say they will text after 14 days, but you can call them too - waste of a lot of time - until you get the text, no point calling - mine took 25 days - they had the audacity to threaten me that if I cancelled after the 14 days, they would charge £40, which considering it was because they did not text after 14 days as promised, I literally laughed at them & told them I would love to hear a judge listening to their incompetence!

Seems that a 4 week wait is not unheard of & not switching until after the cooling off period is the norm/regulator approved - a complete joke where consumer law is designed to let consumers evaluate products & services - would be like a mail order company not shipping for 14 days & saying nope, cooling off expired, no returns.

I assume your switch did eventually complete? I think mine was eventually effective from around 17th Jan so took around about 3 weeks from the date I applied.

guiriman

Email from Electric Ireland today:

I am writing to apologise that Electric Ireland did not formally communicate with you in early December 2022 to inform you of (1) an Electric Ireland tariff change and (2) UK Government Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) support rate reduction, both of which took effect on 1st January 2023.  A copy of the letter you should have received is below.

 

As a goodwill gesture, we will credit £25 to your electricity account during March. This will automatically be applied to your account and you do not need to contact us.

 

If you are in a contract with Electric Ireland, you are free to switch to another supplier for 21 days from 22nd February 2023 and you will not incur any charges.

 

We are sorry that this has happened and thank you for your continued custom.

belfastgirl23

Sorry just coming in on the end of this conversation. I switched to Electric Ireland in December cos their price per KWH was so low, then got the info on the price increase. I’d never switched supplier before and am kind of dismayed by this. I just checked the consumer council website and got this info:

Current rates:

Electric Ireland 28.34 per unit

Budget Energy 20.625

SSE Airtricity 20.88

Electric Ireland say I can switch again without penalty but does anyone know if they can reclaim the £100 switching bonus I got?  And more than that, is it worth switching again or do all the companies do this kind of sharp practice, dropping the price to sign you up then hiking it again? The thought of having to move every three months is more than I can manage!

guiriman

They can't reclaim the £100 bonus as this was based on you switching. I was in the same position and have now switched to SSE, I'm assuming I got the £100 plus the £25 mentioned above but have no way to check as my online account never worked and they only replied to my email about it (sent early December) three weeks ago, by which stage I've switched.

If you're going to switch make sure you're still within the period where you don't incur charges to do so. Personally, I've generally found SSE to be the cheapest but keep having to switch away after a year and then switch back again a year later