Key Post Is there a gas and electricity supplier which rewards loyal customers?

Brendan Burgess

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Back in Sept 2015 I switched from ESB and Bord Gais to Energia.

The one year discount ended, and, of course, I did nothing about it.

I am now paying
16.65 for electricity
5.17 for gas

I can switch and pay
12.96 for electricity
4.34 for gas

These are after the discounts for the first year.

But I would like to move to a supplier which gives a discount for loyal customers instead of for new customers, so I don't have to think of switching every year.

Edit: I see that I asked the same question back in 2015
Does any supplier treat existing customers fairly?

Brendan
 
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I rang Energia renewals and they did not understand my request at all. They offered me a discount for the next year but I would revert to the standard charge after the year is up.

Brendan
 
I'm with Electric Ireland and Flogas. When my contract is up, I ring and tell them them I'm moving to another supplier - this gets them to give me the new customer rate again for another year.

But, I agree, it is a pain. Presumably, enough of their customers can't be bothered and so end up paying the full rate after 12 months. Thus there is no incentive for them to give loyal customers their best rate.
 
OK, it looks like Electric Ireland is the only company which does not have a one year discount.

https://www.electricireland.ie/swit...s?priceType=D&pricePlanId=35#smartheatingtabs

If you get your gas and electricity from them, they charge 13.84 for electricity and 4.376 for gas.

It's not a one year special, it's their price for those who pay by direct debit and who accept paperless billing.

Existing customers can avail of this as well.

They also pay new customers €175 to switch, so it seems like the best deal.

I can switch to them and then, more or less, forget about it. If they put up the charges, I can switch.

Update: I switched to Electric Ireland.

The €175 is a credit against my electricity bill. I don't have to apply for a cash back.
It's a one year contract.
I can change my mind within 14 days free of charge.
I can cancel at any time by paying €100. (€50 per utility)

Brendan
 
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Electric Ireland is linked with Supervalu, so if you take the time to set things up, you get Supervalu points for paying your Electric Ireland bill, and can reduce your EI bill by using Supervalu rewards. It makes no sense to me, but is worth a bit extra off the electricity bill.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
But I would like to move to a supplier which gives a discount for loyal customers instead of for new customers, so I don't have to think of switching every year.
Click to expand...

Energia do give discounts to renewing customers. However the only discount I'm interested in is the one that results in Energia matching the best offer that www.bonkers.ie throws up ! My contract with Energia for electricity is up shortly and I'm waiting on their loyalty department to get back to me to give me their best offer. Last year they matched the best deal that Bonkers came up with..
 
I'm with Energia, they would not match what SSE were giving so I went through the process of swiching, when Energia received notification of my moving they made contact, gave me a good deal and €150 credit so I stayed with them.

I was expecting the €150 credit in my May bill, instead they debited me the €150, not great, they now owe me €300.
 
Did you try Airtricity ??
Not sure if its the cheapest but I get 20% off elec €12.52 and 16% off gas €4.03 on a 12 month contract
Just takes one phone call every year and I get my bolier serviced for free
 
I got a phone call from Bord Gas recently. It was in my head to switch as I had note in my calendar to say renewal date was approaching.

Without me asking they offered me a 7% discount, 4000 clubcard points (which I use to pay a bit of my bill anyway) + €70 credit to my gas or electricity. I thought that was good service and it saved me from having to price around so I took the offer. Now I've moved my reminder in my calendar on 2 years.

One mitigating factor that might have made them call me was that I'm a switcher. I've switched from Bord Gas to Electric Ireland and back again. If they profiled me they probably expected me to switch again. And they'd have been correct.
 
Well I rang aertricity and told them I was going to move and they rang back with a bit better deal but not as good as the switch i.e. 2 to 3 cents dearer than Energia. I told them it wasn't good enough and switched.
 
Hello,

Firstly, with regards to the post from Gervan above - I think Tesco points can be earned from Bord Gais and there is also a mechanism for applying Tesco vouchers against your bill (at a multiple of 2 x face value of the voucher, if memory serves me correctly).

Secondly, I have never been able to persuade an existing gas or electricity provider to match the best deal advertised on Bonkers.ie. The closest I have ever come to it, was when I found Flogas were offering the cheapest rate on Bonkers.ie last year, having previously provided the cheapest rate a year earlier - but that was pure coincidence.

While I would tend to go for the cheapest gas or electricity provider as a rule, I had a very bad experience with Airtricity several years ago (unreliable billing), so I would be very slow to to go back to them, unless I got ample reassurance from others that they were now reliable. Suffice to say, there are occasions when the cheapest option may not be the best option.
 
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As with qwerty5, Bord Gais rang me at the end of my first 12 months to offer me the same discount again for a further 12 months - I didn't have to contact them to initiate that. I was happy to take up their offer but I will be checking in again in 12 months for the best price around.
 
Ceist Beag said:
Bord Gais rang me at the end of my first 12 months to offer me the same discount again for a further 12 months - I didn't have to contact them to initiate that.
Click to expand...

That is very interesting. And a great initiative.

I see from my post in August 2015:

"I had phoned Bord Gais earlier to get my gas usage. After a few choices, I got to speak to someone who was helpful, but made no attempt to retain my business."

Brendan
 
Brendan, I received an email from electric Ireland with different prices to what you quoted above.

24 hour meter 15.13 cent per unit
Day / Night meters 16.15 cent / 7.98 cent per unit
Gas unit rate 4.78 cent per unit

€175 credit will also be applied to my electricity account.
 
15.13 is their standard price and I am getting an 8.5% discount for email bills and direct debit.

It's the same for gas. You are not getting that discount.

Have you agreed to pay by DD and get email bills?

Brendan
 
I was with electric ireland and paying the standard rate despite paying by DD and getting email bills. Even with their 8.5% discount energia works out a lot cheaper (we don't have gas so elec only) so I have just switched.

10 minutes well spent assuming there are no hiccups!

Thanks for making me think.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
15.13 is their standard price and I am getting an 8.5% discount for email bills and direct debit.

It's the same for gas. You are not getting that discount.

Have you agreed to pay by DD and get email bills?

Brendan
Click to expand...

Yes I have agreed to do direct debit and email bills same as i do preseñtly for Bord Gais.
 
I got a text from Energia offering me

STAY and SAVE with Energia! Get €150 free credit plus 16% off electricity and 15% off gas when you call us to stay with us. To avail of this, call us within 48 hours.

So
I am now paying
16.65 for electricity -16% = €13.98
5.17 for gas -15% = €4.40

Compared with charge 13.84 for electricity and 4.376 for gas from Electric Ireland.

And if I forget to chase up on it after a year, I will continue to get the lower prices from Electric Ireland.


Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I got a text from Energia offering me

STAY and SAVE with Energia! Get €150 free credit plus 16% off electricity and 15% off gas when you call us to stay with us. To avail of this, call us within 48 hours.
Click to expand...
Pretty much what I got from Airtricity. They tell you they're giving you a special discount in the hope you don't notice that it's still more than the cheaper option from bonkers, Bonkers !
 
I am not happy with Electric Ireland so far.

1) I got 4 letters in the post from them telling me that they had set up direct debits.

2) Despite setting up for e-billing, they sent me a paper bill

3) They did not apply the €250 credit to my bill

4) It turns out that they never sent me a welcome pack with a copy of my contract - either by email or by post. ( Luckily enough I had made a note of what was agreed in this thread.)

When I called them, they answered promptly enough, but

5) Despite having to input my account number before they answered, the guy asked me for my number again, because the system is "buggy" and doesn't usually have it.

6) He was helpful in attitude, but couldn't help me and had to put me through to sales.

7) She was helpful - and applied the credit , but didn't know if they could resend the welcome pack.

OK, it's only taken me 15 minutes to sort it out, assuming that they do sort it out properly. But it's irritating. And it's one of the reasons for not switching. It does cause hassle if it's not done right.

Brendan
 
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