Consumers urged to switch energy and insurance companies as prices rise

A new campaign is looking for thousands of consumers to switch energy and insurance companies so they can get discounts on household bills.

The campaign comes as some energy suppliers have announced a series of gas and electricity hikes from November.

Last week, SSE Airtricity confirmed a 5.6% hike in prices which would see around €50 a year being added to customer bills.

Hours later, Bord Gáis Energy announced its gas prices would increase by 3.4%, while its electricity prices will go up by 5.9%. The price rises will add around €82 to the bill of an average customer who has both fuels with the supplier.

Both suppliers said the hikes are due to increases in the wholesale cost of energy and higher costs associated with distributing energy on the gas and electricity networks. As these issues affect all energy suppliers, it is expected that more price rises are on the way.

However, the Big Cost of Living Switch aims to use the bargaining power of 20,000 customers to force discounts from the main energy and insurance suppliers.

The campaign said Ireland is now the second most expensive country in the EU, with goods and services costing 25% above the EU average.

The public service levy on energy bills has also increased by €25 to €104.50 per year.

One Big Switch co-founder Oliver Tattan said switching from standard electricity and gas offers can save people up to about €300, and recent research has shown that switching home insurers can save some people nearly €300.

“While there’s some degree of economic recovery in Ireland, average earnings are increasing at somewhere between a quarter and third of the rate they did the last time employment was this high,” he said.

“People still need to save where they can, and the best way to do this is shopping around for your big-ticket items; insurance and energy. A whopping 86% of people didn’t switch their energy last year,” he said.