Simon Moynihan
Staff Writer

Today is a big day at bonkers.ie. Our energy comparison and switching service just became the first in Ireland to receive accreditation from the Commission for Energy Regulation.

We’re immensely proud of this. CER accreditation means that we’ve met a comprehensive set of standards. These standards confirm that our energy comparison service is independent, accurate, impartial and up-to-date. It means that Irish households can use our service to compare gas and electricity tariffs and prices and switch suppliers with confidence.

Being able to compare with confidence is a good thing because prices change and tariffs expire all the time.  Just this weekend hundreds of thousands of people will see their energy prices go up when Airtricity increases standing charges and Electric Ireland’s SuperSaver deals come to an end.

We've worked hard to achieve accreditation. The CER’s standards and rules are as stringent as any in Europe. They also include a monitoring system whereby any CER-accredited website (and that’s just us so far!) that fails to maintain the standards will have their accreditation removed. We think this is a good thing because when you see the CER’s stamp on an accredited website, you’ll know that the energy comparison is not influenced by suppliers, it’s accurate and the tariffs are current.

It’s been quite a journey to get his far. In fact, bonkers.ie was launched two years ago, and back then our energy comparison was just electricity. But as the market changed, new deals were launched and electricity was deregulated, we changed too. Now you can compare electricity, gas and dual fuel on bonkers.ie – and although we know you already trust our sums, we’ve very proud to have the regulators seal of approval too.