House Painting Prices from Dublin Painters

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

house painting pricesWe recently we carried out a house painting price survey of some of the painters from Dublin on Tradesmen.ie. We asked our tradesmen for quotes on a semi detached 3 bed house that required painting internally and externally. With regards internal painting the lowest price in our survey was €600 and the highest was €3,500 with the average price being €2,050. With regards the external house painting the lowest price was €350 and the highest €1850 with the average price being €1,100.

The findings from our survey:

Averaged price for external painting of 3 bed semi detached = €1,100

Averaged price for internal painting of 3 bed semi detached = €2,050

Please see replies to our survey below:-

Shaun R: 2.000 inside external 900

Dion I: E850 outside. E1750 inside provided it’s relatively clear of stuff. D

Thomas D : Inside 2200 outside 1800

Andrew S: internal around 2000, exterior around 900 depends on render finish

Arthur G: Inside 700-1500. Exterior 500-1100.

Thomas J: 2k inside. 1,2k outside. standard dulux white.

Brendan W: E1,600 for interior. E400 or E500 for exterior ballpark figure of course.

Kenneth L: 1500e internal. 700e external.

Tony M: Labor inside ceilings walls woodwork two coats of paint 850 euro external are walls and ceils 350 not inc paint

Joe G: 600 inside. outside 550euro

Ciaran B: Inside 1575 outside 850 including labour materials and vat

Adrian M: 1150incl paint.850incl paint

James M: Inside materials and labour 700 – 900. Outside 600 – 800

Chris K: The house inside it will be 750e + extra for paint.outside the house is 450e+ extra for paint

William F: Interior walls ceilings timber work price does not include for stripping of wallpaper price 2250. Exterior walls cills reviles 1850

Gerry C: to paint inside of 3bed between 2.000 to 3.500 depending on finish outside between 600-1200 also depending on finish

Paddy D: Including vat and paint,1750 inside,800 outside

Wayne K: For a standard 3 bedroom house hall stairs landing bathroom plus on suite sitting room kitchen dinning room i would usually quote around 1100 outside walls and window cills around 500to 600

Michael G: To paint inside of 3 bedroom semi d 2 coats on every thing inc all prep = e1,7oo +painting of outside of same 2 coats all round=e1 5 oo .

Damian B: I would have to see job inside all Dulux paints two coats on everything 2800. Outside u would hav to see.

As you can see the prices vary a lot.  Make sure that you are comparing like with like when you are pricing painting.  See does the quote include or exclude paint and see does it include or exclude vat.  See what paint is being used, for example Dulux paint will be more expensive but will be far better quality.  Also, make sure that you only hire a professional painter and that you ask for previous references and insurance details etc..

If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to comment below and if you would like to get up to 4 prices from rated painters in your area please post your job here

Regards Cheryl Chambers

Tradesmen.ie

Posted in Price Comparisons | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Phone System Price Comparison

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

Office Phone SystemRecently we asked some phone installers on our website for prices on office phone systems in Ireland.  We ask them to provide us with a quote for analogue and digital phones for a 5 phone office system and a 20 phone office system.  The 5 phone office system would have 3 lines and 5 extensions and the 20 phone office system would have 6 lines and 20 extensions.  Here are the prices that we got back below:

Jim J: the price depends on the type of phones the customer wants i wil give u a price for both 3 lines 5 extensions (analogue phones) 800 plus vat 3 lines and 5 extensions (key phones) 1050 plus vat 6 lines and 20 extensions (analogue phones) 1800 plus vat 6 lines and 20 extensions (key phones) 2800 plus vat the difference between the analogue phones and the key phones are the analogue phones would be similiar to your home phone and the key phones have hold buttons and visual indications when calls are in process.
Paul R:prices for phone systems as follows – 5 phone system analogue €1100, digital €2550. 20 phone system analogue €2250, digital €4250
Ian C: €2000 & €5500 respectively, for 5 or 20 handset systems, good system with voicemail, SIP trunks, VoIP channels.  As the system extensions increase the cost of the handsets is what makes the difference in price. We can do basic digital systems for approx. 30% less than the iPECS but we find customers add the features back onto the basic systems and it ends up costing more in the long run.
So as you can see there is quite a difference in the cost of phone systems for the office but be careful to compare like with like and be sure to find out if cabling is included in the price.
Paul T:a basic analogue 5 phone system is about €1100 + vat and a 20 phone system is about €4000 + vat this does not include cabling.

I hope this article was of some benefit to you and please feel free to post your comments or questions below.  If you don’t want to spend time looking up lots of websites, filling in forms and making calls just click here to get up to 4 quotes fast from rated phone installers.

Cheers
Oliver Dempsey
Tradesmen.ie


Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Tradesmen.ie on Ireland AM – TV3

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

Hi Folks,

We were delighted to be asked for an interview on TV3 this week. Ireland AM were doing interviews with companies who were exhibiting at this years Ideal Home Show.

Click here to view our interview with Ireland AM.

Tradesmen.ie on Ireland Am - TV3

All the best,

Tradesmen.ie

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ideal Home Show Free tickets RDS Dublin 2011

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

brian kirwan, The Apprentice TV3We have free etickets for the Ideal Home Show to give away to readers of our blog. The Ideal Home Show will have approximately 30,000 visitors and is the biggest event of its kind of the year.  It runs from October 28th – October 31st at the RDS so please try and get along to the show and find out all of the latest ideas on furniture & decor, kitchens, bathrooms, interiors, DIY, lifestyle and home accessories.

Please visit the Tradesmen.ie Zone stands N60 to N65. Our own stand is N64 and we’d be delighted to see you there over the weekend. We will be available to answer any questions that you have on how to get the best use of our site and how to obtain the most competitive quotes from skilled tradesmen. We will also have free promotion codes to double our monthly prize for those of you who hire a tradesman from Tradesmen.ie and post feedback. On Friday October 28th we will have Brian Kirwan, finalist from ‘the Apprentice’ series on TV3 on our stand so if you would like to get a photo with this up and coming celebrity please come along to our stand on the Friday:)

You can download your complimentary eticket here

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Gas Boiler Service Price Survey Ireland October 2011

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

gas boiler price surveyHi folks,

recently we carried out a gas boiler price survey of some of the gas fitters on Tradesmen.ie.  The lowest price in our survey was €60 but most prices varied between €80 and €100 for a gas boiler service.   We also asked them how long it should take for a gas boiler service.  It seems to average about an hour to do a service as per the RGI guidelines.   So be sure that your boiler gets the proper service that it needs and be sure that your gas fitter is a registered RGI contractor as it is illegal for non-registered gas contractors to work with gas or gas appliances.  Please see replies to our survey below:-

Barry C: Our full service takes close to one hour to carry out as per manufacturers guide lines and costs 100 euro.

Raymond G: 80 euros

Christy W: Bord Gais charge 99 euro.I charge 75euro

Graham B: 80euro with rgi cert.

Barry R: Boiler service 60-100 euro depending on boiler 1-1 1/2 hours full gas pipe work check

Dereck K: we normally do a full gas safety check, even though people ask for a service. call out n/side 20.00 sth/side 30.00 then 40.00 per hour. normally total service/ safety check cost is n/side 60.00., this check determines what else is then required, if full strip additional 20. therefore at best 60.00 at worst 80.00 normally takes 1.hr 30 mins.any time less then you are really not getting a proper service. its just somebody hovering and shining your boiler.

David M: 85 euro and about an hour

Graham D: I charge 70 euros and it takes me anything from an hour and a quarter to 2 hours to complete

Conleth M: e70

Barry D: Service, roughly 1hr, give r take 10mins. We charge E65.00

Zbigniew S: service gas boiler 80 euro

Feargal B: 75 euro

Michael T: Around 80 euro

If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to comment below and if you would like to get up to 4 prices on gas or oil boiler service in your area please post your job here

Regards Oliver Dempsey

Tradesmen.ie

Posted in Price Comparisons | 1 Comment

Attic Conversion Prices Dublin Ireland

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

attic conversion prices dublin irelandHi folks,
we did a quick survey of attic conversion prices with some of our tradesmen in Dublin today.  The question was how much would it cost to add an extra bedroom in the attic.  Here is a sample of the replies below:-

Chris M: Approx 35 k depending on specs.
Cathal S: On average about 12000 to 16000 + vat
Jason W: Around e11,500-e12,500
Derek K: approx cost including heating + wiring done properly to proper speck 12500 + vat
Nicky C: Could be up to 5.000 with the bath, or can exceed
Graham B: Its about 10 to 12 grand but really depends on a survey. Could go up or down
Keith D: 9,900 approx at the moment, regards keith
Kevin B: Average around e12,000 I suppose
Joseph C: Twelve thousand in and around
Stephen L: 15-20K thousand depending on spec
Bob M: it depends on what finishes are required but approx 10k including materials
Jacek K: 12 k
Eddie T: probably around e16,000
Nicky B: About e8000 but would depend on the type of roof, apex or hipped
Aaron G: Between 18k and 21k depending on the stair location which sometimes can mean relocation hotpresses, pipework and electrics.
James B: It would start at around 10k for a basic open plan and it works on from there
Liam D: Estimated e7000 average
Thomas J: 18K
Aidan B: 20k average

As you can see there is a wide variation.  I hope this helps some of you who are considering an attic conversion sometime in the future whether you want to make more room for the children or you want to make money by letting out an extra room.  If you decide to go ahead with it be sure to post your attic conversion job here and get up to 4 quotes from rated tradesmen.

Cheers
Oliver Dempsey

Here are some other articles that you might be interested in below:-

http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2012/04/certifying-my-building-or-renovation

http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2012/04/house-extension-prices-dublin-ireland

http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2012/04/do-i-need-planning-permission

Posted in Price Comparisons | 5 Comments

Electricity Price Comparison Ireland October 2011

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

Electricity PricesFor the last few months we have being carrying out a price comparison between
the 3 elecricity supply companies. The ESB is the last to announce a price increase
from October 1st 2011. At the time of writing they had not published their rates
but their announcement included the following text, “All customers, irrespective
of their price plan, will see their bills increase by approximately 12%… All
customers will receive a detailed explanation of how the price increase affects
them with their bills in October and November.” On this basis we have revised
our price comparison below by adding 12% to all of the previous ESB prices and
displayed them below to give you a glimse of what it will look like on October
1st. As in previous months have we based our calculations on the standard rate
for each supplier. There are many different prices and although we show only 2
categories in our comparison, the differences were very much the same for all
categories.

Electricty Price in cent Price in cent
Residential per KwH inc VAT per KwH inc VAT
Standard Saving Plans
Per Units
Board Gais 17.92 15.41
ESB Electric 17.92 16.35
Airtricity 17.97 15.45

Table 1 Comparison of price including vat per KwH for standard rate and
savings plans.

Using 600 units
Urban
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 107.52 € 19.22 € 126.74
ESB Electric € 107.52 € 19.21 € 126.74
Airtricity € 107.82 € 21.80 € 129.62
Using 600 units
Rural
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 107.52 € 25.63 € 133.15
ESB Electric € 107.52 € 25.63 € 133.15
Airtricity € 107.82 € 28.22 € 136.04
Using 1200 units
Urban
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 215.04 € 19.22 € 234.26
ESB Electric € 215.04 € 19.21 € 234.25
Airtricity € 215.64 € 21.80 € 237.44
Using 1200 units
Rural
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 215.04 € 25.63 € 240.67
ESB Electric € 215.04 € 25.63 € 240.67
Airtricity € 215.64 € 28.22 € 243.86

Table 2 As you can see in Table 2 Board Gais and ESB are identical and
Airtricity is slightly more expensive by by €3 due to it’s higher standing charge
in all the examples above.

At 600 Units At 600 Units
Urban Total Rural Total
Board Gais € 126.74 € 133.15
ESB Electric € 126.74 € 133.15
Airtricity € 129.62 € 136.04
At 1200 Units At 1200 Units
Urban Total Rural Total
Board Gais € 234.26 € 240.67
ESB Electric € 234.25 € 240.67
Airtricity € 237.44 € 243.86

Table 3 Table 3 is a summary of the information in Table 1 and Table
2. Again it shows that Airtricity is the most expensive in our October 2011
comparison but only by €3 or a 2 month period or €1.50 per month. The price
of Board Gais and the ESB will be identical if this 12% increase applies across
the board on all ESB tarrifs. With the current price difference between suppliers
it would not be worth your while to switch from any of them at present. However,
no matter which provider you are with that you should switch to direct debit
and online billing (ebill) to avail of the maximum savings from all suppliers.
On the examples above you can save up to €180 per annum by switching to direct
debit and online billing so make sure to make that switch if you haven’t done so already.  If anyone has any comments
or questions or if you disagree with anything I have said please feel free to
submit it below. To bookmark this page press CTRL+D in Internet Explorer or
Firefox and I’ll update this if prices change at any stage. Please tweet or
share this article if you found it useful.

You can see our article on how to save electricity costs using insulation and other smart energy ideas here.

See you soon!
Cheers
Oliver Dempsey
Tradesmen.ie


References Data for this article was obtained from the following official websites:-
https://www.esbelectricireland.ie/switchchange/allPricePlansElec.htm#five
(ESB increase announcement here)

http://www.airtricity.com/ie/home/products/current-offers/airtricity-standard-electricity/

http://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/help-and-questions/home/electricity/price-change/?flash=1

E&OE. Oliver Dempsey and Tradesmen.ie are not affiliated with any of these
companies. Prices were taken from the supplier websites on 26 September 2011.

Posted in Price Comparisons, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Insulation in the Home – Tips and Hints, Irish Grants available

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

attic insulation over floorboardsWell they’re forecasting a warm week in Ireland this week, not quite and Indian Summer but warm nonetheless.  However the Winter is on it’s way and it is time to think about how to stay warm and reduce energy costs.  I was at the Self Build Show in City West in Dublin recently where I watched an expert giving a presentation on insulation and energy saving.  I took some notes and have listed them below with some other suggestions as well.  My favourite is the curtain idea, effective but cheap:), See below:-

Draught proofing

Draughts are responsible for 20-30% of heat lost in the home, heating bills can be reduced by up to 80% when draught proofing measures are implemented in older homes that were built more than 10 years ago.  But don’t forget that draught proofing is no use if you leave your doors and windows open so close those windows and doors and keep in the heat.  You can see one of our earlier blogs which covers different types of draught proofing here:- http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2011/01/a-series-on-energy-saving-measures-in-the-home/

Windows

Windows let out the most heat and even the older double glazed windows let out 6 times as much heat as the walls.  The ideal thing would be to install a good double glazed window with a double seal around the edges or even the lastest passive windows that keep in almost all of the heat.  You can get a number of quotes for windows here on our website and beside where it says ‘Tradesman Required’ select ‘Window Installer’.  If you can’t afford new windows then at least buy good heavy curtains.  The heavier the curtain the more heat it will keep in.  And when you close the curtain tuck it in behind the radiator so that the heat from the radiator comes out into the room and not behind the curtain and out the window.  The speaker at the show mentioned that one lady in Galway bought Velcro for her curtains and when she closes them she pats them around the edges to completely seal the curtain to the wall and prevent any heat from leaking out whatsoever (clever:))

Pipes and Water Cylinders

This is an obvious one but still worth mentioning all the same.  Many home owners have been caught out in the last couple of years with pipes freezing and then bursting when they thaw out.  Burst pipes are not only expensive when it happens but the damage spilled water can create is far more harmful, with leaking or burst pipes causing damage to walls, ceilings, furniture and flooring.  You can see a previous  blog we did on insulating pipes here, http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2011/01/preventing-freezing-pipes/

Walls, roofs and floors and water cylinder

Heat can also be lost in the home through the floor,  roof and attic and the interior and exterior walls. Appropriate insulation in these areas will help reduce heat loss and ultimately reduce fuel costs.   Lagging your hot water cylinder will keep the water in your cylinder warmer for longer but also watch the amount of water you heat every day. For example if you live in a one bed apartment on your own it is not necessary to heat the full cylinder for one person, just put it on short boost before you go to bed at night if you have night rate electricity.  You can see a previous blog we did on insulation here, http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2011/02/insulation-in-the-home/

Heating systems

At a minimum make sure to have your boiler serviced on a regular basis to ensure that it runs efficiently and safely.  Upgrading old and inefficient heating systems can lower the cost of heating.  Also, heating controls can regulate the temperatures in different rooms and ensure that certain areas of the home are only heated when they are required.  You can get a number of quotes to have your heating system serviced or upgraded here and beside where it says ‘Tradesman Required’ select ‘Heating Contractor’ if it is oil or solid fuel heating or select ‘Gas Fitter’ if it is gas heating.

Irish Grants for Insulation and Energy Efficient works

For small improvements to your home it may not be worth the hassle of going through the grant application process but if you plan on spending a considerable amount of money you should consider applying for a home insulation grant.  You can see the grant application form here, https://hes.seai.ie/MeasureRecommendations/MeasureRecommendations.aspx

You can see a list of what grants are available in Ireland here,

http://www.seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy_homes/homeowner/What_Grants_Are_Available/

To get the grant you must use an SEAI approved contractor for your job.  We have lots of SEAI approved contractors on Tradesmen.ie so if you’re looking for grant post a job at http://www.tradesmen.ie/getquote.asp with the ‘Job Short Description’ of  ‘SEAI approved attic insulation’ or ‘SEAI approved wall insulation’ or whatever the case may be and that will make it clear that you are only looking for SEAI approved contractors to quote for your job.

I hope you found this article useful.  If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please feel free to post them below

Best Regards

Oliver Dempsey
Tradesmen.ie

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Electricity Prices Ireland September 2011

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

Electricity Prices Ireland September 2011(Oct 2011, prices have changed, please see latest electricity price comparison here)

Last month we did a price comparison between the 3 main electricity suppliers in Ireland
and found that ESB Electric Ireland was the cheapest of the 3 suppliers and Board
Gais was the dearest. There was more talk in the news recently about a hike in
electricity prices by Airtricity starting in September so we decided to carry
out another price comparison on electricity prices in Ireland (well we help to
compare prices for tradesmen and mobile phone plans so why not help you save money on electricity as well!:)). Like last month we based our calculations on the standard rate for each supplier. There are many different prices and although we show only 2 categories in our comparison, the differences were very much the same for all categories. Therefore the most expensive provider in the standard category turns out to be the most expensive
in all of the other categories that we investigated as well.

Electricty Price in cent Price in cent
Residential per KwH inc VAT per KwH inc VAT
Standard Saving Plans
Per Units
Board Gais 17.92 15.41
ESB Electric 16.00 14.60
Airtricity 17.97 15.45

Table 1

As you can see in table 1 Airtricity is now the most expensive
on both Standard and Saving plans at almost 2cent per unit higher than ESB Electric.

Using 600 units
Urban
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 107.52 € 19.22 € 126.74
ESB Electric € 96.00 € 17.16 € 113.16
Airtricity € 107.82 € 21.80 € 129.62
Using 600 units
Rural
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 107.52 € 25.63 € 133.15
ESB Electric € 96.00 € 22.88 € 118.88
Airtricity € 107.82 € 28.22 € 136.04
Using 1200 units
Urban
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 215.04 € 19.22 € 234.26
ESB Electric € 192.00 € 17.16 € 209.16
Airtricity € 215.64 € 21.80 € 237.44
Using 1200 units
Rural
Usage Standing Charge Total
Board Gais € 215.04 € 25.63 € 240.67
ESB Electric € 192.00 € 22.88 € 214.88
Airtricity € 215.64 € 28.22 € 243.86

Table 2

As you can see in Table 2 the standing charges are very similar
for all 3 suppliers but Airtricity works out the most expensive in all the examples
above.

At 600 Units At 600 Units
Urban Total Rural Total
Board Gais € 126.74 € 133.15
ESB Electric € 113.16 € 118.88
Airtricity € 129.62 € 136.04
At 1200 Units At 1200 Units
Urban Total Rural Total
Board Gais € 234.26 € 240.67
ESB Electric € 209.16 € 214.88
Airtricity € 237.44 € 243.86

Table 3 Table 3 is a summary of the information in Table 1 and Table
2. Again it shows that Airtricity is the most expensive in our September 2011
comparison costing up to €27 more than ESB Electric for 1200 units of electricity
for 2 months which works out at about €162 per annum. You will save €27 if you
swich to ESB Electric this month but I’m sure ESB Electric will put up their prices
next month. There is only €3 of a difference between Board Gais and Airtricity
for 600 units or 1200units. There seems to be little effort made on behalf of
either of them to be competitive. It is important to make the point that nomatter
which provider you are with that you should switch to direct debit and online
billing (ebill) to avail of the maximum savings from all suppliers. For example
you can save up to 14% with ESB Electric where prices fall from 16cent incl VAT
to 14.60cent incl VAT with online billing and direct debit. On the examples above
you can save up to €180 per annum by switching to direct debit and online billing
so don’t delay switch today:)

If anyone has any comments or questions or if you disagree with anything I have said please feel free to submit it below.   To bookmark this page press CTRL+D in Internet Explorer or Firefox and I’ll do another price comparison next month.  Please tweet or share this article if you found it useful.

See you soon!

Cheers
Oliver Dempsey

Tradesmen.ie

References

Data for this article was obtained from the following official websites:-
https://www.esbelectricireland.ie/switchchange/allPricePlansElec.htm#five

http://www.airtricity.com/ie/home/products/current-offers/electricity/home-electricity-saver/

http://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/help-and-questions/home/electricity/price-change/?flash=1

E&OE.  Oliver Dempsey and Tradesmen.ie are not affiliated with any of these companies.  Prices were taken from the supplier websites on 23 August 2011.

Posted in Price Comparisons | 3 Comments

Compare Mobile Plans Ireland – August 2011 Part II

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Oliver Dempsey

Compare Mobile Plans Ireland August 2011This month we’re helping you save money on your mobile phone bill. In today’s earlier article I compared mobile price plans for Irish Pay as You Go plans.  In this article I will have a look at some of the bill pay plans.  You can see the earlier ‘Pay as You Go’ comparison here

€20 Bill Pay

The secret to comparing the offerings here is to understand the individual costs of calls, texts and Internet.  If you look at any of the networks in Ireland they will charge about 9-13cents for texts outside of the bundle and 20 – 30cents for calls outside of the bundle and approximately €5 per 250MBs outside of the bundle.  In order to calculate here I took the ratio of the cost of 1 text message versus 1 call minute versus 10MBs of data and the ratio that I came up with is as follows:- 1:2.5:1.

Mobile Minutes:Texts:Internet Cost Ratio

I based this on the fact that texts outside of bundles are commonly priced at 10cent per text and calls outside of the bundle are commonly charged at 25 – 30 cent per minute.  You can get 1GB Internet as an add on for about €10 so €10/1000MBs = 1cent/MB or 10cent for 10MB.  Therefore 1text=10cent:1minute=25cent:10MBs=10cent.  If you divide across by 10 you get 1:2.5:1.  I then used this ratio to compare price plans and take out or leave in certain components of the price plan based on this ratio.

As a rough rule of thumb you can work out that the bill pay bundles will give you text messages for 4 cent per text, voice for 10 cent per minute and 250MBs for about €2.50.  However you can get texts for as little as 2cent per text and voice for as little as 6cent per minute so keep a close eye on the figures below to see what I mean;)

O2

O2 have a bill pay plan Called Simplicity (looks like a 30 day contract) for €20 per month which gives 150 free calls and 150 free texts and it’s 30cent per minute to call over and above your free minutes and 13cent to text over and above your free texts.

Meteor

Meteor have a sim only bill pay plan called Bill Pay Smart Lite for €25 per month which gives 200 free calls and 200 free texts and 1GB Internet included.  It’s 25 cent per minute to call over and above your free minutes and 10 cent to text over and above your free texts.

Vodafone

Vodafone have a sim only bill pay plan called Simply 100 (30 day contract) for €20 per month which gives 100 free calls and 100 free texts and it’s 30cent per minute to call over and above your free minutes and 11 cent to text over and above your free texts.  This plan includes free anytime calls and texts to the Vodafone network.

Tesco Mobile

I couldn’t see any bill pay options for Tesco Mobile

Three Mobile

Three don’t have a €20 bill pay plan (I will cover their €30 offering in the next article)

Comparing Call and Text Charges on €20 per month Bill Pay

Let’s see what the call charges are above based on our ratio of Call Charges per minute versus Text Charges per text versus Internet Charges per 4MB of 1:2.5:1

O2 Charges

With O2 we can break down the €20 as 150 minutes at 8.5 cents per minute = €12.75 and 150 text messages at 3.4cents each = €5.10 and 250MBs at €2.15.

Meteor Charges

With Meteor we can break down the €25 as 200 minutes at 6.1 cents per minute = €12.20 and 200 text messages at 2.4cents each = €4.80 and 1GBs at €8.

Vodafone Charges

With Vodafone if you make and equal number of calls and texts and you make 49% of calls and texts to Vodafone users and 51% of calls and texts to other networks then the following will happen:-  You will get 100 minutes of chargeable calls and 96 minutes of free calls.  This is a total of  196 minutes of calls at 7.28 cent per minute = €14.28.  You will get 100 chargeable text messages and 96 free text messages so this works out at a total of 196 text messages at 2.9 cent per text = €5.72.  You can see how I calculated ratio of calls made to the Vodafone network based on Mobile Market Share here

Summary Bill Pay €20

Well if you’re making use of the Internet and you make an equal number of calls and texts then Meteor wins this one.  In fact if you even took the Internet on the Meteor plan to be only worth €5 (it’s worth a lot more) then you are still getting more minutes and more texts with the Meteor plan than the Vodafone plan.  If don’t need the Internet then Vodafone is the one to go for.  Meteor’s call charges are only 6.1 cents per minute compared with O2’s 8.5cent per minute and Vodafone’s 7.28 cent per minute.  Meteor text messages are only 2.4cent each compared with O2’s 3.4cent per text and Vodafone’s 2.9 cent per text.  If you use anything like these numbers of texts or minutes per month log onto the Internet as quickly as possible and order the Meteor Bill Pay Smart Lite plan and save yourself a lot of money.

If anyone has any comments or questions or if you disagree with anything I have said please feel free to submit it below.  To bookmark this page press CTRL+D in Internet Explorer or Firefox and I’ll add more price plan comparisons over the coming week.  Please tweet or share this article if you found it useful.

See you soon!

Cheers

Oliver Dempsey

Tradesmen.ie

References

I got the data for the above article on the following pages:-

http://www.o2online.ie/o2/shop/plans/

http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/paymonthly/simply/100

http://www.meteor.ie/plans/bill_pay/lite_sim_card/#plans-tab

http://www.tescomobile.ie/OurPricePlans.aspx

http://www.three.ie/products_services/priceplans/billpay/flex_plans.html

Please note that Oliver Dempsey and Tradesmen.ie are not affiliated with any of these companies.

Posted in Price Comparisons | 1 Comment