We are now on Twitter!

I’ve found that a lot of the blog posts that I’ve wanted to write were too short and insignificant to warrant a new blog entry.

So now you can get lots of little tips by following me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/irishconsumer

Shopping in the UK

As I write this, €1 will buy you 85p in sterling (GBP) and from next Monday the British government will reduce VAT to 15%, that’s a 2.5% reduction. You can make fantastic savings if you decide to shop in the UK.

Groceries

The big boys in the UK grocery market are Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Make sure that you check out mysupermarket, It is a fantastic resource for research on how to get the best value out of your shopping basket. According to their latest report, Asda are the cheapest by a long way.

Christmas Shopping

A good way to get an idea for the savings that you can make is to compare argos.ie and argos.co.uk. For Electronic goods Currys are very competitive. If you don’t fancy the drive across the border then Amazon.co.uk offer great value and will deliver to your door (Note: Amazon.co.uk will not deliver electronics outside of the UK).

Traveling to the UK

Crossing the border by car is relatively painless, Irish citizens don’t need a passport but you should carry identification with you. You could also go to Wales — Irish Ferries have a special offer at the moment which ends at midnight tonight (Tuesday, 25th November). You can take yourself and your car to Wales from either Rosslare or Dublin for €49.

Caveats

The vast majority of products are cheaper in the UK at the moment, one exception is petrol prices which are marginally cheaper in Ireland than the UK. Generally there are no restrictions when bringing back items from the UK but watch out for cigarettes (no more than 800) and alcohol, have a quick look through the customs regulations.

But buying from abroad hurts the Irish economy!

On my Soapbox: Especially during these tough economic times there is a big push to encourage consumers to buy Irish. The fact is that Irish retailers are not competitive enough (I’m not suggesting that all the blame lies with retailers). Subsidising Ireland’s lack of competitiveness isn’t going to solve the problem, it will exacerbate it. If the Government wants to ‘Stem flow of shoppers across border’ then prices will have to become more competitive.

Check out the latest EUR » GBP exchange rate at xe.com.

Avoid the credit card charge when booking with Ryanair

Ryanair have a free flights offer running at the moment which expires today (21st November). Of course they whack on a credit card charge of €5 per journey when booking with a standard credit card.

There is an exception however. If you book with a Visa Electron they will waive the credit card booking charge, which means that you will be paying €0.01 per flight including all charges.

I rang around a few of the Irish banks (AIB, BOI, Halifax, Permanent TSB) and none of the banks offer a visa electron card. I was determined to see if I could get my hands on an electron because I wanted to book in bulk a series of about 30 flights. 15 return trips, 30 x €5 = €150. Which could come in handy with Christmas coming up.

A bit of research and a few emails to some helpful people and I found EntroPay who provide virtual visa credit cards but crucially they are recognised as Visa Electron cards by Ryanair.

An Entropay Virtual Credit Card

1. Sign up for EntroPay but make sure that your chosen account currency is GBP (This is because your card will not be recognised as a Visa Electron if you choose EUR). Postal code is required so type in EIRE or some random postal code.
2. Use your regular credit card to fund the account.
3. Activate the account using the activation email that they send you.
4. You will need to load at least €10 on to the account from your existing credit card, they also take a 4.95% commision, so it will cost €10.50.

That’s it (Well almost, see appendum below), you should be able to log on and get your new visa electron credit card details. Make sure that you choose Visa Electron when booking your flights with Ryanair and you will only pay €0.01 for your flight.

Appendum: EntroPay are now asking for you to email them identification once you have registered, this is because Sterling (GBP) is not the currency of Ireland. if you have any questions then the best thing to do is drop the EntroPay guys an email they are very nice and they responded to all my questions very quickly.

Here is what a one cent flight booking confirmation looks like!

Welcome to Bargains for Irish Consumers

Welcome! The idea here is pretty simple (and should be obvious from the title).

This site will regularly blog about money saving tips and bargains with a slant towards Irish consumers. So make sure to subscribe by RSS or check back regularly for the latest updates.