Bord Gáis discounts to go in shake-up

THE 600,000 customers of Bord Gáis will be switched to the firm’s standard rate payment scheme from next month in a move that effectively abolishes discount rates.

Under a shake-up in the way householders are billed, Bord Gáis is scrapping its six tariffs from the end of this month and replacing them with three new ones from October 1.

Currently, pensioners as well as households with very high or very low usage enjoy discounts on the standard Bord Gáis rates paid by most households.

But the three new price bands no longer include such discount schemes.

Instead, the three new tariffs are set up in a such a way that customers will pay broadly the same over the year, irrespective of which scheme they choose.

For instance, the average household with gas for cooking and heating is estimated to burn about 19,000 kilowatt-hour (kWh) units per year.

Currently, they pay €1,086 a year on standard rates but if they have opted for Bord Gáis’s high-user scheme the bill is €1,023, a discount of €63 a year or 5.8%.

Under the new tariffs coming in from next month the standard bill would be €1,029, while the cheapest deal would be €1,024, a “saving” of just €5.

The new tariffs — including a winter saver — are structured so the bills people get every two months can vary but the overall annual amount is almost identical.

Under the shake-up the standing charge for standard rate customers is falling from €308.58 a year to €56.75 but the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of gas is rising slightly.

Yesterday Bord Gáis said the shake-up of tariffs was designed to allow customers to make savings more easily.

“Previously customers had to pay a €308 standing charge before they had used any gas at all,” said spokeswoman Kathleen O’Sullivan.

“Instead these new tariffs are simpler and designed to give customers more control over the amount of their bill.”

Ms O’Sullivan said Bord Gáis would be including information leaflets in forthcoming bills to tell customers about the changes and to encourage them to switch to the best new tariff for them.

An Irish Examiner analysis of the new tariffs reveals those with higher than average consumption of 15,000 to 19,000 kWh will see their gas bills fall only marginally from next month.

This is despite the plummeting price of gas on world markets and indications that consumers were in line for a hefty decrease in their bills.

But in a rare piece of good news for consumers, those who burn less then average amounts of gas have the most to gain under the new tariffs.

A consumer burning 3,500 kWh a year currently pays about €400 annually on the reducing rate tariff for very low users.

But under the new tariffs they could pay €231 on the winter-saver scheme, €236 on standard rates or €240 on the no-standing-charge tariff — meaning yearly savings of between €160 and €169 or about 40%.