Do You "Equal Pay" Your Utilities?

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Do You "Equal Pay" Your Utilities?
17
Thu, 12-29-2005 - 1:07pm

Another helpful tidbit for budgeting...


Many of the utility companies have a payment plan akin to "Equal Pay" where you pay roughly the same amount of money each month for 11 months, then the 12th month is the "settle up" month where either you pay them or they pay you, and in that month, they can better determine your rate for the next 11 months.

All my best,
Danni

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-20-2005
Thu, 12-29-2005 - 10:07pm
We take advantage of our company's "BudgetWise" billing. Here, the electric and gas companies merged, so we get one bill for both. We've done this since we bought our house, and it seems to work well for us. Even being on the budget plan, though, this month it went up by 30.00, but we kind of figured it would because of the announced increases.. I figured we wouldn't be exempt from that! My mother, who lives 4 blks away, doesn't take advantage of it, and her bill was through the roof this month.. she's trying to get on the plan now!
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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2005
Thu, 12-29-2005 - 10:25pm

Our gas bill is on a budget. We pay $66/month - and sometimes if we can afford it, I round that up to $70 or $80 - just so we have extra money paid before the winter months!

We haven't done it for our electric, but we might eventually..... it is really convenient!

~Aravis~

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Thu, 12-29-2005 - 11:11pm

I just checked with our gas company here (Scana Energy-Atlanta), and they charge an extra $6.75 per month for this service. Kind of a bummer. I would have liked to try it, but I don't want to pay for the service. :-D

Pat :-D

Avatar for siriele
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-15-2003
Fri, 12-30-2005 - 12:27am

We don't have an option like that in NJ but our electric bills have been pretty steady.

Iris

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-10-2005
Fri, 12-30-2005 - 9:58am
I've been signed up for level pay on my electric bill for a little over a year. I really like it. My gas company started offering it not to long ago and I signed up last month. Those are the only two bills I had that fluxated so it will be nice when I have a handle on exactly how much I'm gonna owe each month.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 12-30-2005 - 10:50am

Oh, how ridiculous that they charge for this service! It benefits them, too, when people go on the level plan--our gas and electric companies actually go to great lengths to encourage people to sign up for it. It levels out their income over the year, and any extra they get in low-payment months they can invest. If they're charging for it, they're just trying to skim extra off the top.

I definitely wouldn't do it if I had to pay a fee--and $6.75 PER MONTH is insane. Sheesh. You can get a cell phone plan for that much! LOL

If you're interested in the idea, though, you can do it for yourself and make some interest at the same time. Go through your bills for the past twelve months (if you don't have them, you should start saving them--the way I do this is with a cardboard file divided into twelve segments, one for each month. Each month I take out last year's receipts, bills, and statements--keeping anything that should be kept more than a year--and throw in the current year's as they arrive). Add up the total due for the twelve months, and divide by twelve. That's your monthly average. I usually add a little extra, to account for inevitable increases. Each month when I pay the bills, I subtract the amount I actually paid for power (or whatever) from the monthly average, and I put that amount in a savings account (ING has a great set-up for this). In expensive months, I can withdraw money from savings to cover the difference. It works great, and as long as money is sitting in the savings account, it's drawing interest.

Heather

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Fri, 12-30-2005 - 11:14am

Our heating utility has that.

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