Yuno heats up gas market

The launch of low-cost energy provider Yuno on the gas market last Monday was overshadowed by Budget 2025.

Yet it has put the Budget energy credits package of €250 in the shade – by offering to save four times as much!

Yuno claims switchers who move to it can save €914.

But you could save even more, depending on who you are with (See table which compares pricing with Prepay Power).

Yuno shook up the electricity market since its launch just a year ago.

Hopes are high that it will do the same for gas customers as it launched the cheapest deal around.

Last year, it undercut rivals again and again in the electricity market, to spark a price war that drove down everyone’s bills.

The company claims it now has the cheapest fixed rate prices for both gas and electricity.

A quick search on  Bonkers.ie bears this out. Yuno tops our table for the cheapest dual fuel deal with a price of €2443.

The next cheapest fixed deal is SSE Airtricity.

Variable deals aren’t far behind with Flogas offering a 22% discount and €300 cashback, while Electric Ireland has a €50 cashback offer with a juicier 30% discount.

Most suppliers are now offering cashback and sizeable discounts of up to 30% which last for one year only. This makes a compelling case for annually switching supplier – or at least threatening to do it so your existing provider gives you a better deal.

“There are very significant savings for customers particularly those who have not moved their supplier over the past year,” says Cathal Fay, Yuno Energy CEO.

What he means is that most customers are on year-long contracts and may have to pay a fee to break out of them.

However, this can still be worth it, as breakout fees can be as low as €50 – although Yuno itself charges twice that.

Fixed rates do have a downside in that they make it even harder to break out of a contract.

They also don’t pass on the benefit of price reductions, which, ironically, are even more likely with Yuno’s entry onto the gas market.

Energy prices have fallen fast, yet are still about 80% above where they were in 2021.

They were expected to fall further, but ongoing and escalating conflict in the Middle East has raised fears over future pricing prospects.

Another feature of Yuno that may not appeal to everyone is pre-payment, which effectively means you’re losing the price of a month’s worth of energy – at least until you switch back to a company that charges in arrears.

It also means bills can be unpredictable as your usage may lead to an extra payment. Yuno’s says its mobile phone app “gives customers control in real time over how much they are spending” as they can adjust usage if they see their bill is going to spike. This also helps conserve energy generally by making people conscious of how much they are using – and how much it costs!

Yuno Energy is run by the people behind Prepay Power – Ireland’s largest pay-as-you-go provider with over 180,000 electricity customers, 60,000 gas customers.  

Yet Prepay is one of the dearest providers – while Yuno is now the cheapest.

Savings calculated are based on average usage of 4,200kWh for electricity and 11,000kWh for gas.