Electric Ireland estimated bills

We’ve just had a shocker of a bill.

The previous one was estimated… and it appears to have been based on the assumption that we left the country and disconnected everything before we left.

Looking at last year, the meters were all read for the corresponding periods last year. So no excuse for billing us 1/3rd of last years actual usage.

In the annual scheme of things it’s not a big deal. Although it did coincided with a member of the household being off work (unpaid) due to illness so we had the heating on full for ages. Double whammy

We don’t get notification of them needing a reading. The meters are all in the car park downstairs under the apartment building.

I will call them and ask why they can’t estimate based on last year but has anyone else dealt with this?

Can you ask them to notify you of when they need a reading?

I’m guessing we got a bill with estimated on it and I should have read the meter and updated them. But give the timing I probably didn’t pay much attention, the aforementioned illness was distracting. Is that the best way to avoid this? We’d still have had a small bill a couple of weeks in advance of the DD, not sure they allow time for you to send in a reading and them to issue a new bill.

I found the estimated bills were also VERY low and I was being landed with a big bill with little time to prepare every now and again.
In order to minimise the issue, I've setup standing orders which go out of my account each month. i had a look at yearly costs for previous year and divided by 12 to get approx monthly amount for each SO. My accounts are nearly almost in credit but if a big bill comes in and there's not enough credit, the direct debit will kick in.. but it's not as big of an amount.
For electricity its a smart meter but for gas I've submitted the reading now and again if meter wasn't read in a while but again like yourself I tend to not think of it. I found having standing orders made the real difference as I could budget for that amount each month.
Hope you get sorted.

Annieindublin said:

I’m guessing we got a bill with estimated on it and I should have read the meter and updated them. But give the timing I probably didn’t pay much attention, the aforementioned illness was distracting. Is that the best way to avoid this?

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Yes. You can't blame Electric Ireland for this.

If you have problems paying the full bill in one go then they will probably make arrangements for you to pay it over a longer period of time if necessary.
If missed meter readings is a regular occurrence then just submit readings yourself - e.g. every month or two or whatever your billing cycle is, maybe a few days before the bill is normally generated.

Annieindublin said:

Is that the best way to avoid this?

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What do you mean by 'avoid'? You've used the units so you have to pay for it.

If you call them they will probably be able to help you pay it off over the cheaper summer months and even put you on a level pay plan if you want to avoid high seasonal bills

But ultimately you benefitted from the cheaper estimated bill, it's not like you are out of pocket

Can you get onto your managment company about getting meters upgraded to smart meters ( you can still be on a non smart plan with a smart meter)
At least with this you can get an accurate bill once a month? I get monthly ESB bills on the 28th of every month and I do my gas meter reading on the same date.

That’s an excellent suggestion @Sarah Ryan I’ll ask the management company.

And I think a SO is also a good idea to smooth out payments as my pay check doesn’t vary much over the year


I didn’t mean to imply that I didn’t want to pay or that I was unable to do so. No idea where that came from. Nor was I blaming EI except I do think if you are estimating a bill surely looking at the previous year makes sense? €500 one year v €1.500 the same period the previous year… the lower amount being thr estimate.

I would ordinarily have noticed the email and maybe checked and called them but as i mentioned we were dealing with serious illness so I was distracted. And we had to have the heating on perhaps more than usual. Nothing to do with EI of course it was just what happened this year.

The pattern of reading and estimating seems random there were 2 estimates in the past 5 bills but only 1 in the 12 months before that. So clearly access to read the meters isn’t an issue.

Annieindublin said:

The pattern of reading and estimating seems random there were 2 estimates in the past 5 bills but only 1 in the 12 months before that.

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A meter reader will call to you up to four times a year to read your meter, there is a planned estimate twice a year.

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I thought an estimated bill was based on the previous bill, doubt they go back to same time last year to pick the figure. Either way doesn't help you but the estimated one might be more comparable to the one that came directly before.

I always submitted a reading to Electric Ireland and any provider I was with regularly myself, there was always an option, sometimes even when you go into your account online there will be a reminder to do it. Stick it in your diary/phone or whatever and submit couple of weeks before due date. Obviously smart meter will solve this, I had one installed recently, haven't had my first bill from that yet.

If the meters are located in a basement garage, then it may not be possible for smart meters to transmit readings to ESB networks. Although I'm sure that they have some way around this.

Monbretia said:

I always submitted a reading to Electric Ireland and any provider I was with regularly myself, there was always an option

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Even if there wasn't then you can submit meter readings via ESB Networks:

The previous bill was even smaller… no consistency and of course heating is seasonal. We have electric heating like a lot of apartments.

They will put in place an arrears plan no problem.

Utilities arrears are remarkably high in Ireland, in part due to the very gentle approach of the providers.

Marsupial said:

If the meters are located in a basement garage, then it may not be possible for smart meters to transmit readings to ESB networks. Although I'm sure that they have some way around this.

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This. My apartment got smart meters in the underground carpark a good while ago and when I rang up ESB about it they said they can't get the readings due to the signal or whatever. Wild.

Annieindublin said:

We don’t get notification of them needing a reading. The meters are all in the car park downstairs under the apartment building.

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You are billed every two months - it isn't rocket science to setup a reminder for yourself to read the meter and send in a bill

Amazingly we used to get a note in the door saying we tried to read the meter. So we didn’t need to set up a reminder.

People are amazingly rude

Annieindublin said:

People are amazingly rude

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Annieindublin said:

Amazingly we used to get a note in the door saying we tried to read the meter. So we didn’t need to set up a reminder.

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I think it's more that many regular posters here - and I include myself - are rather surprised that a regular AAM user like you has found yourself in this situation. Anyway, as you wrote yourself, it's not a big issue in the scheme of things, so it's probably best just to put it down to experience and be sure to take ownership of your meter readings from now on. And I hope that the illness that you mentioned above has now cleared up.

Unfortunately the illness isn’t going anywhere but thanks

As you said chalk it up to experience

I’m going to set up a SO as was helpfully suggested and ask about smart meters

Annieindublin said:

I’m going to set up a SO as was helpfully suggested and ask about smart meters

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You're not going to log a meter reading every 1-2 months too? That would significantly mitigate any estimated bill discrepancies compared to actual usage.