Prepay Power Review Ireland 2026
Put €20 on a Prepay Power electricity meter and about €5 of it is spoken for before you boil a kettle. That is the deal in one top-up: pay-as-you-go gives you total control of your energy spend — no bills, no direct debit, no credit check — and charges a real premium for it. This review takes a typical top-up apart, line by line, so you can see exactly where the money goes and decide whether the control is worth it.
Prepay Power review: key takeaways
- ✓Prepay Power is Ireland's biggest PAYG supplier — roughly 180,000 electricity and 60,000 gas customers at the June 2026 price rise.
- ✓The hidden line is the prepayment service charge: €164.41 a year inc VAT on a Smart Pay electricity meter (€131.29 on Classic Pay, €70.87 on gas) — a charge bill-pay customers do not pay at all.
- ✓Their own published electricity EAB is €2,105.81 (Smart Pay 24h, urban, inc VAT) at CRU typical usage; fixed charges — standing, service, PSO — soak up roughly €1.44 of every day before a single unit is burned.
- ✓Prices rose 8.8% on electricity and 10.6% on gas from 1 June 2026 — the first increase in about 3.5 years, and it followed an eight-month winter price freeze.
- ✓There is no year-2 cliff because there is no teaser: the rate you top up at in month 1 is the rate in month 13.
- ✓Leaving early costs €11.25 per remaining month of the 12-month initial period on electricity (up to about €135) and €50 on gas — and going back to bill-pay means a meter change, not just a phone call.
- checkNo credit check and no deposit — the meter is the guarantee
- checkTop-up by app, auto top-up or any Payzone shop; balance updates through the day
- check€20 emergency credit plus friendly-credit hours (evenings, weekends, Christmas, New Year, St Patrick's Day)
- checkNo year-2 cliff — there is no teaser rate to expire
- checkHeld prices through an eight-month winter freeze before the June 2026 rise
- closeA prepayment service charge of up to €164 a year (inc VAT) that bill-pay customers simply do not pay
- closeUnit rates sit above discounted bill-pay deals — control costs a premium
- closeRun the balance to zero outside friendly-credit hours and the lights go off
- closeLeaving early costs €11.25 per remaining month on electricity, €50 on gas
- closeJune 2026 rise added roughly €168 (electricity) and €171 (gas) to typical annual bills
How Prepay Power scored
Six categories, scored from published rates and Estimated Annual Bills, contract terms, billing behaviour and complaint records — never a supplier brochure.
Prepay Power at a glance
Plans and estimated annual bills
Estimated Annual Bills (EAB) at CRU typical usage — 4,200 kWh electricity, 11,000 kWh gas — including standing charges, PSO (electricity), carbon tax (gas) and 9% VAT. Urban (DG1) figures; rural (DG2) standing charges are higher. Year 1 is with the new-customer discount, year 2 is the standard rate the same plan lands on. A dash means we have not verified the figure this week — we never invent one.
| Plan | Fuel | Meter | Payment | Year-1 EAB (urban) | Year-2 EAB (urban) | Exit fee / fuel | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smart Pay 24h (PAYG electricity) | Electricity | Prepay (PAYG) | Prepay | €2,106 | €2,106 | — | 2026-08-28 |
| Classic Pay 24h (keypad meter) | Electricity | Prepay (PAYG) | Prepay | €2,073 | €2,073 | — | 2026-08-28 |
| Smart Pay time-of-use | Electricity | Smart time-of-use | Prepay | €1,983 | €1,983 | — | 2026-08-28 |
| Prepay Gas (PAYG) | Gas | Prepay (PAYG) | Prepay | €1,783 | €1,783 | €50 | 2026-08-28 |
| Prepay Dynamic (wholesale-linked) | Electricity | Dynamic (wholesale-linked) | Prepay | — | — | — | 2026-08-28 |
Who it’s for
Prepay Power suits three kinds of household, and it is worth being blunt about all three. First: people who genuinely need spend control — if a quarterly bill of unknown size causes real stress, paying for energy the way you pay for groceries is a legitimate choice, and the meter enforces the budget for you. Second: people a bill-pay supplier will not take — there is no credit check and no deposit, so a debt flag or thin credit history does not block you. Third: renters who moved into a home where the landlord already fitted a Prepay Power meter. If you are none of these — if you could pass a credit check and hold a direct debit — a discounted bill-pay deal will almost certainly cost you less over the year. Use our energy matcher to see the alternatives before you commit.
Get it if
- A surprise bill would genuinely hurt — you want the meter to enforce the budget, day by day.
- You cannot pass a credit check or will not commit to a direct debit: no check, no deposit, no bill.
- You want cash top-ups — any Payzone shop takes them, and the app or auto top-up covers everyone else.
- You value predictable pricing over teasers: what you pay in month 1 is what you pay in month 13.
Skip it if
- You can hold a direct debit — a discounted bill-pay deal avoids the €164-a-year service charge and buys cheaper units.
- Your home would struggle with self-disconnection: medical equipment, or nobody able to reach a shop or app when the balance dies.
- You are only here because the landlord fitted the meter — ask about switching to bill-pay before you settle in.
- You are chasing the cheapest kWh in Ireland — this is a control product, and control is the thing you are paying extra for.
What they sell
PAYG electricity. The core product, on two meter families: Smart Pay (uses the ESB Networks smart meter, top-up by app) and Classic Pay (their own keypad meter). Same 37.62c unit rate inc VAT; Classic Pay's lower service charge makes it about €33 a year cheaper. A time-of-use version prices the 17:00–19:00 peak at 46.81c against a 21.60c night rate.
PAYG gas. Same model on the gas meter: 12.89c per kWh inc VAT, plus carbon tax at 1.25c/kWh, a €156.96 standing charge and a €70.87 gas service charge per year. Their published gas EAB is €1,783.22 at CRU typical usage. You can take gas alone, or pair it with the electricity for one app.
Prepay Dynamic. A wholesale-linked tariff — half-hourly prices set a day ahead, with the dynamic component capped at 50c/kWh. Needs a smart meter with full comms. No EAB is published because your annual cost depends entirely on when you use power; treat it as a tool for shiftable load, not a default.
Our verdict
Start with the dissection, because it is the whole review. Prepay Power's own published estimate for a typical urban home on a Smart Pay 24h meter is €2,105.81 a year. Take it apart and the anatomy reads: about €1,580 for the units themselves (4,200 kWh at 37.62c inc VAT), €342.69 for the standing charge, €19.10 for the PSO levy — and then €164.41 for the prepayment service charge, a line that exists only because you are on prepay. Day by day, that is roughly €1.44 of fixed cost before you switch anything on. On a €20 top-up, about a quarter is gone before the first unit. Nobody hides these numbers — they are on the rate card — but nobody reads a rate card at the Payzone till either.
Against that premium, weigh what you actually get, because it is not nothing. No credit check and no deposit — for households carrying a debt flag, this is often the only door that opens. A genuinely good top-up experience: the app, auto top-up, or cash at any Payzone counter, with the balance updating through the day — customers report it works, and a Trustpilot score around 4.7 from over ten thousand reviews is unusual in Irish energy. Sensible safety nets: €20 of emergency credit on each fuel, and friendly-credit hours that keep the power on through evenings, weekends, Christmas, New Year's Day and St Patrick's Day even at zero balance. And a kind of pricing honesty: no teaser that collapses at month 13. The June 2026 rise — 8.8% electricity, 10.6% gas, the first in about 3.5 years, after a winter-long freeze — was painful but plainly signposted. What you give up is the self-disconnection risk: run out on a Tuesday morning with no way to top up, and the meter does not send a reminder letter — it turns the power off.
Our verdict weights value and flexibility hardest, because that is where prepay bites. Value scores 5.5: you are paying a few hundred euro a year over a discounted bill-pay deal for the privilege of budgeting. Flexibility scores 5.5: leaving inside the first year costs €11.25 for every month left on electricity and €50 on gas, and escaping prepay itself means a supplier switch and a meter change. Billing (8) and service (7) score well on the strength of the top-up machinery and a large, mostly satisfied customer base; year 2 (7) reflects flat, honest pricing with rise risk; green (4) reflects the absence of any evidenced renewable story. Overall: 6.6. If you need what Prepay Power sells, it is the best-run version of an expensive product. If you do not need it, do not buy it.
How we review: we price every supplier at CRU typical usage (4,200 kWh electricity, 11,000 kWh gas), urban and rural separately, including standing charges, PSO, carbon tax and 9% VAT — and for prepay brands we add the line comparison sites often bury: the prepayment service charge. Euro figures were checked on prepaypower.ie on 28 August 2026; where we could not verify a number that week, we print a dash rather than guess. More on how we test.
Other Irish energy suppliers we review
| Supplier | Score | Fuels | PAYG | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yuno Energy | 7.9 | Electricity + Gas | No | App-comfortable switchers chasing the lowest year-1 bill |
| Community Power | 7.4 | Electricity | No | Values-led electricity shoppers who will keep gas elsewhere |
| Energia | 7.3 | Electricity + Gas | No | Households that shop around every 12 months and want the deepest big-brand new-customer discount |
| Electric Ireland | 7.2 | Electricity + Gas | Yes | Never-switched homes that want a big, stable brand |
| SSE Airtricity | 7.1 | Electricity + Gas | No | Bill-pay switchers who want a large supplier that is not Electric Ireland or Bord Gáis |
| Bord Gáis Energy | 7.0 | Electricity + Gas | Yes | Gas-heated homes that want one bill |
| Flogas | 6.6 | Gas + Electricity | No | Existing Flogas gas households deciding whether to add electricity, go dual or leave |
| Pinergy | 6.5 | Electricity | Yes | Prepay households who want half-hourly usage data and will actually use it |
Not sure which fits? Find your energy supplier in 30 seconds. matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited price-comparison site — for the regulated comparators, see CRU.ie.
Prepay Power: frequently asked questions
Why is Prepay Power more expensive than bill-pay?+
Two reasons stack. The unit rate (37.62c/kWh inc VAT on 24h electricity, checked August 2026) sits above the discounted rates bill-pay suppliers use to win switchers. Then prepay adds a line bill-pay does not have: the prepayment service charge — €164.41 a year inc VAT on a Smart Pay meter, €131.29 on Classic Pay, €70.87 on gas. It funds the metering and vending system, and it applies every day whether you use power or not.
What is the Prepay Power service charge per day?+
On electricity it is 45.04c per day inc VAT on a Smart Pay meter and about 36c on a Classic Pay keypad meter; on gas it is about 19.4c per day. Over a year that is €164.41, €131.29 and €70.87 respectively. It is separate from the standing charge, which you also pay — the standing charge covers the network like any supplier's, while the service charge exists only because the meter is prepay.
How much did Prepay Power prices go up in 2026?+
From 1 June 2026, electricity rose 8.8% and gas 10.6% — the company's first increase in about 3.5 years, announced on 1 May and blamed on wholesale costs from the Middle East conflict. It added roughly €168 to a typical annual electricity spend and €171 to gas, and landed on around 180,000 electricity and 60,000 gas customers. It followed an eight-month winter price freeze during which most rivals raised rates.
What happens if my Prepay Power meter runs out of credit?+
Outside protected hours, the supply stops — that is self-disconnection, and it is the defining risk of prepay. Two nets catch you first: €20 of emergency credit you can activate on each fuel (repaid from later top-ups), and friendly-credit hours — run out after 3pm on a weekday on Smart Pay and you keep power until 2pm the next day, weekends are always protected, and Christmas Day, St Stephen's Day, New Year's Day and St Patrick's Day are covered in full.
How do I top up Prepay Power?+
Three channels: the app (card payment, balance updates through the day), automatic top-up that fires when the balance drops below a level you set, or cash at any Payzone counter nationwide — the shop network is why prepay works for people who run their budget in cash. There is no minimum direct debit and no bill; on a Classic Pay keypad meter you enter the code from the receipt.
How do I switch from Prepay Power back to bill-pay?+
Sign up with a bill-pay supplier the normal way — the new supplier runs the switch using your MPRN, and supply never cuts. Expect a credit check, and if you are on a Classic Pay keypad meter, arrange with Prepay Power for its removal so the home returns to a standard credit meter. Mind the timing: leaving inside the 12-month initial period costs €11.25 per remaining month on electricity and €50 on gas, so the fee shrinks every month you wait.
Does Prepay Power do a credit check?+
No — that is a core part of the product. There is no credit check, no deposit and no bill to fall behind on, because you pay before you use. This makes it the practical route for households with a debt flag (arrears of €225 or more, over 60 days, can block a bill-pay switch) or no Irish credit history. The trade-off is priced in: higher unit rates and the daily service charge are what "no credit risk" costs the supplier — and you.
Is Prepay Power cheaper because you use less electricity?+
Using less is real — watching a balance fall makes people frugal — but the tariff itself is dearer, not cheaper. Roughly €1.44 of every day goes on fixed charges (standing, service, PSO, all inc VAT) before a single kWh, and the 37.62c unit rate beats no discounted bill-pay deal we know of. If you cut usage 10% you save about €158 a year at typical usage — around what the service charge and rate premium quietly add back. Control changes behaviour; it does not change the price of a unit.