January 2012:

What are the Cheapest Options For Gas and Electricity

If you are “dual fuel” -  electricity and gas the cheapest  overall option will depend on your actual usage – but based on a fairly high usage  of 14219 Kwh of  Gas and 5600 kwH of Electricity a year – we have calculated the lowest   annual costs from the combinations of various providers…

The cheapest option is to use  Airtricity ( Direct Debit & Online Billing)  for Electricity and  using Flogas for your Gas (Pay by DD) . This would work out at a total of  €1784  for the year.
BUt – the Airtricity price involves you signing a 2 year contract with a €70 fee to break out of it – if that sounds a bit risky then the  next best option is probably  to go for a combination of Electricity from Bord Gais (DD and eBilling too)  with gas from Flogas (dd) – the overall total for both fuel bills would then come to €1796 a year

If you want to get both fuels from the same energy provider – then the cheapest bundle is from Airtricity –   but it also has a 2 year contract and  works out at a total of  €1819  a year for the usage shown above.
If you don’t like the idea of being tied to Airtricity for 2 years – then the next best priced dual fuel bundle is from Bord Gais  – which would work out  at €1902 – which is   €83 more than the cheapest option from Airtricity.

Avoid :  The most expensive dual fuel option from one provider  is the Airtricity bundle  – (Not DD and postal bills) costing  €2055  for the usage shown.

The most expensive combination is to have Gas from Bord Gais  at their standard rates and Electricity from ESB  at standard rates – that works out at €2071 a year – which is  €289 per year  more expensive than the cheapest option in this example.

Electricity Only Comparison

If you only have Electricity  – then the lowest price is  from Airtricity (But On a 2 year contract) . The cheapest  non-contract electricity price is from Bord Gais.
See  more details here on our page :   Electricity Price Comparsion

Figures  were calculated  January 2012  using published tariffs and standing charges on suppliers websites and including the PSO Levy on Electricity  and Carbon Tax on Gas.
The prices given are for new customers. It may be possible that your current energy supplier  tarrif is cheaper than the ones mentioned here – especially if you signed up to a deal within the last 12 months.

You could also  save more money on your electricity bills by doing things like switching to these Low Energy Bulbs (Savings as much as 90%  compared to Halogen 50 watt!)

Lowest Gas Prices in Ireland  (For New customers)

Bord Gais  has three competitors for the supply of Natural Gas in Ireland – Flogas and Airtricity and  ESB (Electric Ireland)

Airtricity, ESB and Flogas can set their own gas prices  – while Bord Gais are still bound by the Regulator and cannot change prices without agreement from them.
All the gas suppliers in Ireland increased their prices from October 1st 2011
Shown below are annual figures for GAS ONLY based on the cheapest tariffs from each provider – and the most expensive for comparison. (Assuming 20000 kwH per year)

Figures  correct as at   January 31st 2012
( including VAT ,  standing charges and carbon tax) Rounded to the nearest Euro

As you can see from the comparison above -  a Bord Gais  customer using  20000 kwH of gas a year would save  €162 a year on gas if they switched to  Flogas and paid by Direct Debit.
This represents a 13% reduction in gas bills .

Note:  It is possible that gas customers who changed suppliers in the past year will be still on special lower tarrifs or fixed rates. The figures shown above are the prices charged for new customers.

NB – 20000 kw/h  gas usage anually would be typical for  a 3 or 4 bedroomed detached house that uses gas for both heating and hot water.
See our page on Cheapest Electricity in Ireland here

If you have an older gas boiler – you could cut your bills even  more by upgrading to a new efficient condensing boiler. There are grants available to help – and you could cut your gas usage and bills by as much as 23% . In the example above – with usage of 20,000kwh – a new boiler could reduce gas bills by €245 a year.

See more here about Grants for new Gas Boilers and more here about  Financing of New Boilers

A recent comparison of car insurance premiums in Ireland was published by the Financial Regulator in November 2011.
Many people are renewing car insurance in January – so we thought it would be a good time to analyze the results.

The comparison showed once again that the price of car insurance premiums can differ by large amounts and households can save significant amounts by shopping around.
If you get a renewal notice – don’t just accept it – get a few more quotes.

In the survey – the high cost of insurance for learner drivers was highlighted – with prices as high as €2550 a year for a provisional licence holder.
Some insurers didn’t even quote for learners.

Getting young drivers named on a parents policy can reduce costs a bit – but they can still be pretty expensive (€1490 a year for a father and his 20 year old son )

The biggest price difference in the comparison survey was for a 20 year old student driving a 2003 Seat Ibiza  who had  recently obtained a  full licence.
The lowest quote for fully comprehensive insurance in this case was for €1250 from AXA. The most expensive quote was €2424 from RSA – a difference of  €1174 a year (almost double).

Overall – the comparison survey obtained 28 quotes each from 8  insurance companies.  They covered both comprehensive and third party insurance for males and females.
Axa Insurance and RSA came out best – both had  the lowest price in 8  of  the 28 scenarios .
Quinn was next best – with the lowest quote in 7 cases.
Aviva had the lowest price in 5 cases and FBD for just 1 (same price as AXA )
Zurich, Allianz and Chartis Direct didn’t provide the cheapest quote for any of the scenarios in the survey.

Chartis Direct performed the worst in the comparison – they provided the most expensive quotes in 10 cases  and refused to quote on 16 cases!
Zurich  insurance also did badly with the highest price in 8 cases.

The survey only used direct insurers. You may well get even cheaper prices from online Brokers such as AA Insurance - they will get quotes from several insurance providers.

Ref – http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/costcomparisons

Everyone needs somewhere to live – people get married , split up, have bigger families and they need somewhere to live . If you need a home – then now  is not a bad time to buy.

For first time buyers – the  falls in Irish house prices over the last few years must be a relief now that the silly prices have dropped back to more realistic values. If you can get a mortgage you will be able to get a bigger, better  house for your money than you would  have got 2 or 3 years ago.

Generally -  a time of  falling prices  is not the best time to buy, because the property could be  cheaper in a few months. But – when you need somewhere to live and with sellers getting increasingly desperate to cut their losses -  now might be a good time to strike a deal, so long as you can take a medium to long term view.

Paying rent while you wait for prices to drop further is an option – but once you find a house you really want  then the draw can be bigger than the chance of saving a few hundred euro.

Try and buy a home that will be big enough to last you a good few years – with some room for family growth and in a location that you are sure you will want to stay in. There are some very good value properties out there.  See these Five Bedroomed Bungalows Under €175k.  You probably couldn’t build them for that price.

If house prices do fall -  any negative equity only becomes a problem if you want to sell. If you don’t need to sell – then the value of your house never becomes an issue.

Mortgage rates were at their lowest for a couple of years – then we had a couple of ECB rate rises – followed by a  recent cut  with  possibly more ECB  interest rate cuts on the way.  If you can get a low fixed rate mortgage now  – take it. You will need at least a 10% to 15% deposit though.

Rental prices :  -In many  places the cost of renting is now more per month than the mortgage repayments on a similar property. More people are renting and in many cities there is a shortage of quality rental homes. Rental prices are rising as there is more demand for properties.
There are some sound arguments for renting – such as flexibility and mobility-    but buying can give you more security and the ability to make a house into a home.

Rental for  the long term will mean making payments to a landlord until you die – whilst a mortgage will usually be paid off by the time you retire – leaving you with a rent free home for the rest of your life or an asset to sell or pass on to your family.

Another slight advantage of buying a home in 2012  is that  mortgage interest tax relief (TRS) for first time buyers will be abolished. Mortgages taken out on or after 1 January 2013 will not qualify for any  mortgage interest relief. On a Mortgage of €150,000 – that relief is worth  about €6500 in the first 5 years .

For homeowners thinking of trading up – house price falls are not all bad news either. As your house price falls  – so does the price of the bigger houses you are hoping to buy. If you are not in negative equity – price falls should be good news for trader uppers.

For example - someone has a 200k mortgage outstanding on a house  that was valued at 250k in 2009. They were looking at moving to a bigger house priced at 320k in 2009
In 2011 a 20% drop in both the house prices means the house they want is now priced at €256k while their own house is now valued at €200k.
In 2009 they would have to have taken out a new mortgage of  €270k  to  buy the second house. Now  in 2011 – with the price falls – they would only need a new mortgage of  €256k  . So they would be better off by €14k (This example doesn’t take into account the capital paid off the mortgage since 2009) .The fall in stamp duty also means additional savings of around €8k compared to 2009.

Pay as You Go Mobile broadband is very popular amongst  students, tenants and people who  can’t or don’t want to sign up to a 12 month bill pay contract.
It can also be useful if you have broadband at home – but also want internet access when you are on the move too.

Pre Pay Mobile Broadband Prices Compared

There are several  pre-pay  mobile broadband packages on the Irish market – with options to pay for as little as one day’s access or as much as 30 days.
The data allowances  can be fairly low – so we have worked out the mobile broadband deal with lowest price per Gb

Three do a pay as you go deal costing €35 for 30 days broadband with a data limit of  20Gb.  This works out at €1.75 per Gb. Visit 3 Here

This 20GB allowance from Three is the highest of all the prepay mobile broadband providers -  the largest allowance from the other providers is 7.5GB

The next lowest price per Gb is from Meteor and eMobile -  they both charge €19.99 for 30 days access and a 7.5Gb allowance. That works out at €2.67 per Gb.

If you are not too worried about data limits or allowances – and you just want to be able to get  access to the internet every day for small things like email and browsing – then the cost per day is probably the thing to compare.

The lowest cost per day for prepay mobile internet is €0.50 – again from Three.  This is their 30 days internet  for €15 with a 1gb allowance.
(1gb is about equivalent to 1000 emails or 10 hours constant web surfing )

Most of the other suppliers charge €20  or €19.99  for 30 days access – which works out at €0.67 per day. The best of these is Meteor and eMobile – with their 7.5Gb allowance.

Vodafone and O2 have a lower 5Gb data allowance.  See all O2 options here
See Vodafone options here

Modem Prices - All the providers charge for the mobile broadband modems (dongles) – with similar prices  – basic models start at  between €19 and €39 . Faster modems will cost a bit more.

Pricing checked November  2011

These has been a massive increase in the use of smartphones in Ireland such as the Iphone , Blackberry and a wide range of Android phones such as the HTC and the Samsung Galaxy .
These smartphones are used for much more than simply talking or texting – you can check emails ,  go on Facebook or Twitter , use one of the thousands of apps or just browse the internet.
Of course – there are charges for all the data you download to your smartphone – and these charges can soon mount up if you are not careful or choose a bad price plan for your needs.

Data and Internet charges on Pay as You Go mobile  packages in Ireland vary quite a bit across the different network providers. Many younger users will not be able to sign up for bill pay bundles and will have to choose from one of  the prepay options. We have done  a quickl price comparison – concentrating on data and internet charges.

Three Ireland are offering  a  great pre-pay deal with “unlimited”  data usage when you top up by €20 a month (  There is a fair usage limit of  15Gb a month)  . This offer also includes free any network texts, and free Three to Three calls ,  Free calls to other networks at weekends ,  €10 free credit when you tansfer your number and   free credit of  €5 each month for 10 months – when you top-up by €20.   ! You can order this deal online at the 3 Ireland website

Meteor : The first  50MB  of data in any day costs 99c – then it’s 2c for every MB you use over  your 50Mb daily allowance. Meteor are running an offer of “free” internet if you top up by €30 Euro a month. (Capped at 1Gb)   The offer includes  free any network texts (max 5000).  It  is not available with their excellent Free Anytime any Network Talk offer
  See more at Meteor

O2 charge €9.99 a month for mobile internet usage – which  is for 700Mb per month. Or  you can opt to pay 99c per day for up to 50Mb. (No charge if you don’t use any data)

On Emobile  – if you top up by €15 a week  ( €60 every 4 weeks!) you will get  250MB of data per week (1Gb per 4 weeks)   200 minutes of calls and, 200 texts to any network (per week)

Vodafone charge €0.99 per day for a  50MB daily allowance. Then it’s  €1 per MB
They are doing an offer of free texts  internet if you top up by €30 a month (max 250 Mb) .

Tesco Mobile  have an an add on of 1Gb over  30 days for €6.99 or you can buy 24 hrs access for 79c (capped at 50Mb)

Figures checked October  2011

The latest price comparison on house insurance in Ireland by the financial regulator was carried out in February 2011  . The survey of house insurance quotes did not include brokers.

The Regulator requested  quotes from 9 insurance companies on 8 different  properties.  As usual the survey  shows that you can save substantial amounts on  insurance costs by shopping around.

In one example – there was difference in price of almost 100%  between the highest and lowest quote  . The  4 bedroom semi-detached house in Westport, Co. Mayo.  with a rebuilding cost of  €160,000 and  contents worth €80,000..
The lowest  quote for house insurance (buildings and contents) was from  Allianz at €370 a year. The most expensive  quote was for €730 at Chartis Direct . (Almost double the price !)

The same Westport house without a smoke alarm or burglar alarm resulted in insurance quotes ranging from €883 to €452.  The Allianz price increased from €370 to €452 – an increase of €82 a year.

Insurance quotes on a 4-bedroom detached house in Co. Kilkenny with a  rebuilding cost of €210,000 and the contents  worth €70,000.  -  ranged from €276 at Aviva to  €695 at Chartis .

Out of the 8 insurance quotes  Getcover were cheapest for 3 of them,  Allianz and Aviva were cheapest for for 2 of them and  Quinn direct was the cheapest in just one

Over the long term – property prices have usually risen in the past  and may well do so in the future. In the current declining property market would you be worse off or better off renting a house rather than buying?

Here are some figures for buying versus renting based on different scenarios over a 5 year period. The interest rates quoted are based on fixed  rate mortgages and savings  available in January 2011.

Ownership Costs
On a house priced  at €230,000 – the cost of purchase would include extras – Stamp Duty of €2300 , Legal and other fees of €2500.
With a 25% deposit of  €57500 that would leave a  mortgage loan of  €172500.
This mortgage would mean monthly repayments of  €958.81 on a 5  year fixed rate mortgage at 4.5% over 25 years . Total payments over 5 years of  €57528.
Of these mortgage repayments – €36583 would be interest and €20945 would be paid off the capital. This would leave an outstanding loan of  €151555 after 5 years

We have assumed annual costs for maintenance and repairs and building insurance for the owner  of 1% or €11500 over 5 years.

Total cost of ownership over 5 Years = €131328

Cost of Renting
Rental charges on the same property based on a 5% gross return would be €950 a month 0r €57000 over 5 years.
You would still have your €57500 deposit – which at 3.6% a year on deposit would earn €10791 interest over 5 years.

Net cost of renting over 5 years = €57000 – €10971 = €46209

Scenario 1 – House prices remain the same over 5 years:
Tthe Equity in the house would be €78445 (The difference between the value (€230,00) and the outstanding mortgage (€151555).
If we  deduct this  from the cost of ownership – that leaves the net cost of ownership as  €52833.

In this scenario the cost of renting is lower than the cost of buying by €6674

Scenario 2 – House Prices Fall by 10% over the 5 years
The value of the house would be €207,000 after 5 years and the outstanding mortgage  would be €151555  – leaving  equity of €55445. The net cost of ownership in this case works out at   €75883 over the 5 years .
If we also assume a drop in rent of 2% a year – bringing the total rent over 5 years to €54720 – after taking into account the interest on the savings – this  ends up working out at €31954 cheaper when renting compared to buying.

Scenario 3 -  House Price rises by 10% over 5 years
The house would be worth €253000 after 5 years . The equity would now be €101455 meaning a net cost of ownership of €29883.
Assuming rent rises in line with property prices – the total rent over 5 years would be €52980.  Deducting the interest made from the  €57500 deposit left in savings – we arrive at a net cost of rental of  €48489
In this scenario – renting would leave the tenant worse off by €18605 after 5 years.

Of course – even higher price increases will make buying even better  – but hopefully it has been a useful exercise in showing that sometimes renting a property can work out better than buying .
This comparison could  of course be affected by things like mortgage relief , rent supplement and other things that we have not considered. Please feel free to comment .