Many Irish consumers will be hit with multiple price increases over the next week with those most impacted likely to be worse off by up to €1,000 over the course of the next 12 months when all the bills are totted up.
Hundreds of thousands of people are facing higher costs for health insurance, energy, television, broadband and mobile phones with the hikes starting from the beginning of April.
A family with private health cover with Laya Healthcare, or Level Health who get their domestic energy from SSE Airtricity, their mobile phones from Eir, Vodafone or Three and their television service from Sky could see their bills jump by €1,000 or even more than that.
From April 1st, Laya, the second largest health insurer in the State with more than 500,000 customers, is increasing its prices by an average of 6.6 per cent.
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The picture is bleaker still as the increase comes on top of a similar price hike the company imposed last October. It means many customers renewing from Tuesday will have to contend with price hikes of more than 10 per cent when compared with their last renewal.
That will see the annual cost of many typical family policies go up by in the region of €500.
Level Health, the newest health insurer in the market is also increasing the price of the four plans it offers by an average of 6 per cent from April 7th.
Both the VHI and Irish Life Health have already raised their prices by similar margins this year.
From April 2nd, hundreds of thousands of SSE Airtricity customers will see their bills rise with one of its typical electricity customer’s bills climbing by 10.5 per cent while gas bills will rise by 8.4 per cent.
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The increases will see the average electricity bill rise by about €172 per year, while a typical gas bill will go up by €113.
Dual fuel household bills will increase by 9.5 per cent on average, equivalent to around €285 per year. Heavy users are likely to pay substantially more than that.
Telecoms operators, Eir, Vodafone and Three Mobile are also increasing their prices as part of a pricing policy which sees them imposing higher charges every April.
The impact will vary depend on the package customers are on but the monthly cost of both broadband and mobile phones are likely to jump by around €5 each which will add an additional €120 on to many customers household bills or closer to €300 if there are four mobile phone user in a household.
For its part Sky is increasing its annual charges by just under €100 for many customers
“This is the third April in a row that many of the main telecommunications providers will hike their prices,” noted Daragh Cassidy of price comparison and switching website bonkers.ie. “It means some customers will be paying around 20 per cent to 25 per cent more for their broadband and TV than they were only three years ago.
“Although providers are increasing their prices each year for their existing customers, the deals they’re offering new customers have remained relatively steady in price in recent years. This means there really is a lot of money to be saved by switching. More so than ever,” he added.
He said a person who is out of contract could be paying €80 a month or more for 500Mb fibre broadband but could get it for less than half the price for a year by switching.
“And with some providers you can switch to a 24-month discounted contract, so the potential savings are even greater.”
According to Mr Cassidy, mobile customers “should consider moving to a SIM-only deal if they are out of contract. Some SIM-only plans offer pretty much unlimited calls, texts and 5G data from as little as €12.99 a month.”
It is not only in the telecommunications space where savings can be made.
Dermot Goode of health insurance brokers totalhealthcover.ie said many hundreds of thousands of consumers are spending more than they need to on health insurance and are often getting less cover than they think.
He said as many as 50 per cent of those who start making even basic inquiries will get a better deal from the insurance company they are currently with and can often make even more savings by moving provider.
And when it comes to energy, it is easier to make substantial savings.
According to Mr Cassidy there is “good competition among energy suppliers in Ireland for new customers and many are offering big discounts for a year to those who switch.”
He stressed how “quick and easy it is to switch and it can all be done online in the space of a few minutes. You don’t even have to contact your existing supplier to let them know you’re leaving.”
