Personal Finance: Bord Gáis Hikes Prices For 700k Customers

0:00The last word on today is them. Charlie West on personal finance, literature, the Irish independent. I was going to ask you to give the bad news first, but I think it's all bad news we have today. I have no good news, Matt, sorry. Right, so let's talk about board gosh energy, increasing its prices by how much and for when? Yeah, you're talking here, 715,000 customers. I mean, board gosh still is the biggest gas supplier, town gas in the country, that 300,000 gas suppliers. From October the 9th, that's budget week, the gas price and the electricity price and the standing charges for both are going up. We're talking here about it, it's almost 9%, 8.8% on the electricity unit price that you're talking here with the addition of the standing charge increase about an extra 177. So nearly 180 euros extra over a full year, that'll mean on the gas side, you're talking here, 9.3 when you add in the standing charge change,

1:01that's about 140 euros extra over a year. For a dual fuel customers, you could be talking about 9.1 more than 300 euros over a full year from October the 9th. And that's the typical bill, a lot of people will be higher than that. Oh yeah, that's just looked at gone to the regulators website, they've picked out the typical use, it doesn't reflect every household obviously. And this is the seven to energy company to increase prices, we've seen electric Ireland, we've seen you know energy, we've seen the electric arm is big one, flow gas, energy, they've all gone already, SSC are atricity last week as well, on around the budget week as well, SSC, the electricity will go up about 8.9% on the gas, 9.3 on, sorry, no, energy on gas, 8.9 on electricity. So they're big increases mad. Yeah, so Charlie, SSC are atricity are putting their prices up on the 5th of October, you're saying what date for borderline?

2:019th for it, yeah. And what comes in between that, the budget on the 6th of October? Yeah, imagine the government must be live it because if they're coming along and they're offering income tax improvements in the budget, a lot of people are going to point out, yeah, that's all well and good, but I'll be spending a good chunk of it on my increased electricity in gas bills. Just be swallowed up. Matt, I haven't mentioned here as well, that around October as well, we're going to see an increase in the network charges is going up by an extra 41 euros and top of the about 500 euros such a pay in those. And remember as well, we have the most expensive electricity in Europe. So, you know, this is going to be really tough. It comes if you're using home heating oil. Sorry, this is it. Listener says, why isn't nobody talking about oil? My oil price is increased by 64% since February. If it was electric or gas, it would make headlines. Well, I am talking about it, Matt, yeah, that is up a thousand euro fill, you know, well, a lot of people can't afford to do that at the moment, but a full tank is going to cost you an extra 500 euros,

3:02550 euros compared with last year, this time last year, an extra 550 euros. These are lacking great increases. You know, Charlie, I think unfortunately, I think this is going to get worse that these price increases could go up again a few months later. And the reason I'm saying that today, the price of oil has gone the barrel of crude oil, the Brent barrel, has gone back over a hundred dollars. But more importantly, the refined oil, the stuff that we put petrol and diesel we use for home heating, for caracene, for flights, all the rest of it, is at its highest level this year. It's back up at the high level that it actually reached after America and Israel started their crazy war against Iran. There is no sign of the straight of a mousse been opened up. It looks like we're going to have to live with permanently higher prices for oil. And that means that this idea, you know, that you can't go past two euro for a liter of petrol or diesel at the petrol pumps. You know what?

4:02I think what people were regarding is the ceiling might become a floor. Well, Matt, you're absolutely right. The oil price is over a hundred dollars, 104 dollars when I looked there for Brent crude, Goldman Sachs predicting it would go to 120 dollars a barrel. The other problem is it's all very well. You may be able to buy plenty of crude oil, but can you get it refined? Because the refineries have been damaged. They're not working to maximums, a hell of a lot of them out of whack out of commission. And can you get it transported into Europe? So there's a difficulty. Also, wholesale gas prices are at a three year high. So yes, it was considered the last time we saw diesel go to two euros, it was kind of a tipping point and inflection point if you like, or kind of a watershed. We had yesterday, me and Paul Martin, the T-Shock saying, this could be the new norm. Now that is infuriated people. People are really annoyed about it, but what's to happen here? I mean, I think one thing will happen to won't be able to go back on this phased, you know, going back to getting rid of this 30 cent

5:05coating exo-issue, and 27 cents on petrol. They may have to even look at reducing the vap, the 23% fat rate on petrol and diesel. That makes up about 27.5 cents, you know, of the price you're paying, every time you put a liter into your car. I say the chances that the carbon tax going up is planned in October as well, or rapidly diminishing. They are, you know, and that would hit electricity. And on a budget night, they tend to announce a carbon tax increase on petrol and diesel tends to take effect immediately. Mind you, that's not a huge one. It's two cents or three cents still. It's just a cumulative impact of so many different things coming together here, man. Okay. There's seven different things, big things that are going to hit the household budget. Well, just before you're telling me what they are, listeners saying, Kellmann, Conqueror, Conqueror, Wicklow, 204 for literate diesel today. We've another listener from Limerick saying it was 206, sorry, 205.9 for a literate diesel in Limerick today. So the two-year-old Mark has breached even after

6:06the reduction in the ex-sizes and not the start of returning them to previous ones. I do know what Mark could go up another 10 cents a liter. Unfortunately, you could go up another 10 cents a liter. People will not be able to afford this. We're coming into the winter. We're coming into school runs and people happen to drive kids in rural areas to matches and stuff. You know, on people who need cars, at the same time, what did they do? I'm putting up the price of public transport. That's what's particularly annoying people. Yes, okay. Public transports happen to pay more for diesel and there's a big subcity there, but it just seems bonkers. It just seems you're not thinking in a holistic kind of round way about things. If diesel and petrol prices are going so high, we even with a massive subcity there in terms of reduction in ex-scizd and then you put up transfer prices as well. We'd have the red of a minister with us on the program after five o'clock tomorrow, Darrell Brian, to discuss that and a lot of things. So tell us your seven deadly sins. Yeah, well, you have petrol and diesel. As I mentioned, public transport 15% from January, infuriating for people, mortgage rates,

7:07the European Central Bank going to go tomorrow. The last mortgage rate in June, it wasn't passed on with the main stream landers. This one is not on, there are unlikely to absorb this one. So you could see new fixed rates becoming more expensive. So if you're rolling off a fixed rate already, or about to take out a mortgage, could become more expensive. We are at the moment at very low rates, around 3%, you can get rates as low as 3%. If you're coming near a fixed rate, do something about it now, talk to the bank about what you should do. Heating oil, as we said, 550 euros for a thousand liters more than last year, health insurance. We're seeing numbers of people with health insurance, actually some people ditching it because it's become, they're maxed out in terms of affordability. It's become a real issue for people, particularly the younger people who you need in the system, who keep the costs down. You're gonna end up with a lot of older people who make the claims and you're into a debt spiral in terms of pricing then, electricity and gas as you mentioned, and of course groceries, the staples. These are things that every household can't avoid. You just can't avoid petrol, diesel,

8:07groceries, electricity, health insurance, heating oil, mortgages, public transport. So, you know, we're being hit every which way in terms of our pocket at the moment. It's become, to a situation where it's becoming unbearable for people, they're absolutely being hit too hard. And this budget doesn't deliver it in terms of decent package for people. I think there will be war. Okay, I'm getting more on the country, people sending in diesel. Bill and the Blath down in County Cork, 2, 2 11.9, release for diesel. Listeners says Michael Collins would have been saved because nobody could afford to drive down there. All right, we have another one in the Fettered in County, Tipperary. These are photographs coming into me. It's 2 or 9.9 for a liter of diesel. I think we can go higher than that, looking at some of the things coming in. Well, one in the County Cilcani, 2 or 5.8 in Donnie Galletown, this would over two euro for a week now. Oh, Bal and Anne, Tipperary, 2 12 since Monday.

9:09Oh my god. 2 12, okay. Same in the place called Coins Cross, I don't know where that is. Then we have another listener who's saying 500 liters of kerosene and port leach costs 760 euro. Another listener, 2 or 8 in Kielrush today for Trump, was Kielrush in County Claire. 2 or 6 in Kielegard. Yeah, look, this is a nationwide thing. That 2 euro level is being breached. It's been heavily breached. And was the Tipperary in point the last time in April, that prompted the protest, that got all the trucks out on the roads, blocking the roads, blocking the airport. Will it happen again? I don't know, the government is under some pressure for a budget now in the first week of October. They are constantly in budget again. They're absolutely no matter what the fiscal council says. They are absolutely going to have to deliver a package to people because there's anger out there. The social media reaction to this stuff, people are going absolutely bananas about this stuff. They're really annoyed. A lot of people pinto their collar, just feel that they can't take it anymore.

10:11It's not necessarily fault in the government. It's Trump, of course, but they're just annoyed with the government anyway. Okay, let's just as my VHChile has gone up nearly 15 euro a month, coming to a timer, I may have to ditch it, coupled with the latest energy prices. It is simply affordable. And all of a sudden, these high energy prices have been in the post for so long. There should be the tipping point for people to get off burning fossil fuels, but the government's behave as usual, and the whole cycle would be repeated ad nauseam. I wish we had competent leaders, says Brian. Charlie Weston from the Irish Independent, thank you. The last word on today FM.