This is the only head-to-head on the site where both sides charge you for the privilege of paying in advance. Prepay Power is Ireland’s biggest pay-as-you-go brand — roughly 180,000 electricity and 60,000 gas customers at its June 2026 price rise — selling budget control on both fuels. Pinergy is the smaller, slicker specialist: electricity only, a smart meter running in prepay mode, and the best usage app in Irish prepay. We score them 6.6 and 6.5 — a photo finish on paper that hides real differences in what each costs and how much it costs to change your mind.
Two things frame every row that follows. First, both carry a prepayment service charge on top of the normal standing charge — €164.41 a year inc VAT on a Prepay Power Smart Pay electricity meter, roughly €163 a year inc VAT at Pinergy (41c a day ex VAT) — a line bill-pay customers never see. Second, both put prices up in 2026: Prepay Power by 8.8% on electricity and 10.6% on gas from 1 June, and Pinergy by 7.6% from 14 September 2026 — a fortnight away as we write, so treat every Pinergy figure here as the last of the old price. And a housekeeping note: matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited comparison site — the accredited list is on cru.ie.
Quick comparison
Side by side from published August 2026 prices and contract terms. Green highlights the better figure on each measurable row.
| Prepay Power | Pinergy | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 6.6 | 6.5 |
| Elec year 1 (EAB) | €1,983 | €2,052 |
| Elec year 2 (EAB) | €1,983 | €2,220 |
| Gas year 1 (EAB) | €1,783 | — |
| Gas year 2 (EAB) | €1,783 | — |
| Fuels | Electricity + Gas | Electricity |
| Dual fuel | Yes | No |
| Prepay option | Yes | Yes |
| Exit fees | Electricity: €11.25 for every month (or part-month) left of the 12-month initial period — up to about €135 if you leave immediately after cooling-off. Gas: €50 cancellation fee. Both from the rate card checked 28 Aug 2026. | Steepest in the market: a flat €150 ex VAT early exit charge for residential connections (schedule effective from September 2025), and the T&Cs allow a separate meter removal charge inside the first 12 months. Verified on pinergy.ie this week. |
€2,106 flat vs €2,052 that becomes €2,220: the all-in maths
Read both rate cards to the bottom line and the year-one sticker fight is close. Prepay Power’s published all-in figure for a typical urban home on a Smart Pay 24-hour electricity meter is €2,105.81 — 4,200 kWh at 37.62c inc VAT, a €342.69 standing charge and the €164.41 service charge. Its Classic Pay keypad meter does the same job for €2,072.69, because the service charge drops to €131.29. Pinergy’s new-customer offer — 10% off standard units for 12 months plus €110 of welcome credit — publishes at €2,051.74, beating Prepay Power by €21 to €54 in year one. That is the entire price case for Pinergy, and it has a two-week shelf life: unit rates rise 7.6% from 14 September 2026, roughly €169 a year by Pinergy’s own estimate, which erases the gap almost the day you sign.
Time-of-use shifts the margins: Prepay Power’s Smart Pay time-of-use plan publishes at €1,983.32 — the cheapest verified prepay year in Ireland — but only pays off if you can shift washing and charging past its 46.81c evening peak, while Pinergy’s NightSaver equivalent is €2,093.85 on a day/night meter. And on gas there is no contest to score: Prepay Power sells PAYG gas at a published €1,783.22 a year; Pinergy sells no gas at all. Say it plainly — if your heating runs on gas and you must prepay both fuels, Prepay Power is the only name on this page that can take the whole order.
The trap in this matchup: treating either of these as cheap energy. The discounted bill-pay cluster sits at €1,492–€1,612 for the same 4,200 kWh, so Prepay Power and Pinergy cost roughly €440–€730 a year more — higher unit rates plus a service charge that exists only because the meter is prepay. If you can pass a credit check and hold a direct debit, the best move is not picking the better prepay brand; it is leaving prepay altogether. Start with the full supplier ranking or prepay vs bill pay.
Only one of these prices survives month 13
Prepay Power is the rare Irish supplier with no year-two cliff, because there is no teaser: the rate you top up at in month 1 is the rate in month 13, so €2,105.81 (or €2,072.69 on Classic Pay) is both the year-one and the year-two figure. The €100 welcome credit for new switches — an offer end-dated 31 August 2026 — is a one-off vend, not a discount, so nothing expires. Pinergy runs the standard playbook instead: the 10% discount dies at month 12 and the published price becomes €2,219.97 urban (€2,250.29 rural) — a €168 step-up before any rate change, and €114 a year dearer than Prepay Power’s Smart Pay figure. Our guide to this mechanic across the market: year 1 vs year 2.
Flat is not the same as frozen, so weigh the rise records too. Prepay Power’s June 2026 increase — 8.8% electricity, 10.6% gas, roughly €168 and €171 on typical annual bills — was its first in about 3.5 years, after an eight-month winter price freeze. Pinergy has moved twice in eleven months: about 13% in October 2025, then the 7.6% landing on 14 September 2026, leaving a typical Pinergy home paying around €370 a year more than in autumn 2025 by its own numbers. One supplier raises rarely; the other has made it a habit.
Top-ups, emergency credit and the app gap
The app is Pinergy’s genuine strength, and it deserves a straight sentence: it is the best usage tool of any Irish prepay supplier. Balance and consumption update every 30 minutes from the smart meter, top-ups work by app, online or phone as well as at any Payzone till, and if you actually act on the half-hourly data it is the one thing on this page that can claw back some of the prepay premium. Prepay Power’s machinery is more workmanlike — app, auto top-up that fires below a level you set, or cash at any Payzone counter — but it is proven at scale: a Trustpilot score around 4.7 from over ten thousand reviews, against Pinergy’s still-healthy 4.5 from about 1,300.
The safety nets point the other way, and on prepay they are not a footnote — they are what stands between a bare balance and a dark house. Prepay Power gives €20 of emergency credit on each fuel; Pinergy gives €10; both repay it from your next top-up. Friendly credit follows the same pattern: both cover evenings and weekends, but Prepay Power also covers Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Day and St Patrick’s Day in full — run out after 3pm on a weekday on Smart Pay and you hold power until 2pm the next day. If top-ups tend to happen the day the money arrives, twice the buffer is worth more than twice the data.
The exit-fee fork: €11.25 a month left, or €150 ex VAT flat
Both suppliers sign you to a 12-month initial period with a 14-day cooling-off, and then the models fork completely. Prepay Power charges €11.25 for every month (or part-month) left of the electricity term — about €135 if you bolt immediately after cooling-off, melting to nothing by month 12 — plus a flat €50 on gas. Pinergy charges a flat €150 ex VAT for residential connections whether you leave in month 2 or month 11, the steepest exit charge of the nine suppliers we review, and its terms also allow a separate meter-removal charge inside the first 12 months.
| If you leave… | Prepay Power electricity | Pinergy |
|---|---|---|
| After 3 months (9 left) | €101.25 | €150 ex VAT |
| After 6 months (6 left) | €67.50 | €150 ex VAT |
| After 9 months (3 left) | €33.75 | €150 ex VAT |
| After the 12-month term | €0 (gas: €50 inside the term) | €0 |
Why it matters more on prepay than anywhere else: both are variable tariffs, so the price can move mid-term — and in 2026 both did. An exit fee that shrinks every month keeps a door open if the next rise lands badly; a flat €150 ex VAT keeps it shut for the whole year. Leaving prepay entirely also means a meter conversation — a Classic Pay keypad needs removal, a Pinergy smart meter needs switching out of prepay mode — but the switch itself works like any other and supply never cuts: how to switch supplier.
A certificates story vs no story at all
Pinergy markets its supply as 100% renewable, and we score it 6 on green against Prepay Power’s 4. Understand what the claim is: annual matching of customer demand with renewable certificates on the shared national grid — legitimate accounting, verified through the fuel-mix disclosure regime overseen by the CRU, but paperwork rather than a private wind farm feeding your socket. Prepay Power makes no green claim at all; it sells budget control and prices it accordingly.
Our advice cuts the same way it does on price: if a certified green tariff is your deciding factor, prepay is the wrong aisle of the shop — the strongest renewable stories sit on bill-pay tariffs, ranked in best green electricity. Between these two, Pinergy at least has an audited claim; treat it as a tie-breaker, not a reason to pay the standard €2,219.97.
Choose by the thing you cannot change
Sort yourself by constraint, not by brand. Heating runs on gas and both fuels must be prepay: Prepay Power, full stop — its €1,783.22 PAYG gas is the only gas on this page. Money tightest in the days before payday: Prepay Power again, for the €20 emergency credit and holiday-proof friendly credit. Electricity only, and you will genuinely act on half-hourly data: Pinergy, with clear eyes about the €150 ex VAT exit charge and the 14 September rise. Landlord already fitted one of these meters: run with what is installed while you check whether the account can move — our renters’ guide covers whose permission you need.
And the biggest cohort of all: people reading a prepay comparison who do not actually have to be here. If you can pass a credit check and hold a direct debit, both of these lose to a discounted bill-pay tariff by hundreds of euro a year — the honest headline of our prepay electricity ranking too. Take 30 seconds with our energy matcher before committing to either meter, and if arrears are what keeps you on prepay, MABS gives free, state-funded advice on clearing the path back to bill-pay.
Which should you choose?
It comes down to cost profile, contract terms, and how you like to deal with a supplier. Use this fast decision frame.
Choose Prepay Power if
You heat with gas (Pinergy sells none — Prepay Power’s PAYG gas is €1,783.22 a year at typical usage), you want the bigger safety net when money is tightest (€20 emergency credit per fuel, friendly credit that covers Christmas, New Year’s Day and St Patrick’s Day), or you want an exit fee that shrinks every month instead of a flat €150 ex VAT. At €2,105.81 all-in it is also the cheaper 24-hour electricity from month 13 onward.
Check Prepay Power →
Choose Pinergy if
You are electricity-only, you will genuinely use half-hourly usage data to cut waste — Pinergy’s app is the best prepay tool in the market — and the 10% first-year discount (€2,051.74 published, plus €110 welcome credit) appeals more than a flat rate. Go in eyes open: the price reverts to €2,219.97, rises 7.6% from 14 September 2026, and leaving early costs a flat €150 ex VAT.
Check Pinergy →Advertiser disclosure: we may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. That never affects scores or the winner.
