Leveled billing from your power provider

[DawnM]

How does leveled billing work?

I am getting emails regularly telling me that leveled billing is available.

Right now I just pay monthly, some months it is $130 and it has gotten as high as $260.

It averages just under $200/mo for 12 months.

What if I do it and then end up going over for the year? Do they just bill me the overages?

What if I go under, do they credit me?

Dawn

 

[scrapquitler]

How does leveled billing work? I am getting emails regularly telling me that leveled billing is available. Right now I just pay monthly, some months it is $130 and it has gotten as high as $260. It averages just under $200/mo for 12 months. What if I do it and then end up going over for the year? Do they just bill me the overages? What if I go under, do they credit me? Dawn

Yes that's essentially what happens. My power company looks at the past years bills and averages them out, and that's your payment. Every 4 months they look at the running balance and adjust the payment up or down as needed, but they do a great job and the adjustment has never been more than $6. Other companies might handle it differently.

 

[supersnoop]

It can vary by company, but generally, they average your last 13 bills and charge you that for a year. At the end of a year, they may adjust the amount, or they may make you true-up; pay any difference or get a refund for any overage.

They usually try to start a level payment plan when your bills will be lower than average so you can build up some cushion. If you start when your bills are higher than average, and you have to cancel your service (you move or change providers), you could get hit with a really big bill.

 

[SAMCRO]

Our provider takes the last 16 months and gets an average. They then multiply that by 12 to get a yearly total. They then divide that yearly total by 11 and that is what you pay monthly for 11 months. The 12th month is used to makeup the difference as either a credit to your account or an additional payment due.

I do the same with my natural gas bill. I find it easier to budget knowing exactly what my utilites will be each month.

 

[tina.tina]

Our power company has two different types of payments (other than just they monthly bill). One has a month where you pay the difference.

We're on the other type. Our last 12 months are averaged each month to get our monthly payment. We just signed up for it last January. Our bills are lower this year due to a change in our heating source and our monthly averages are going down each month.

 

[disneyfab]

Yes that's essentially what happens. My power company looks at the past years bills and averages them out, and that's your payment. Every 4 months they look at the running balance and adjust the payment up or down as needed, but they do a great job and the adjustment has never been more than $6. Other companies might handle it differently.

This is how our power company does. They take the last 12 months and your payment is the average. They adjust, if necessary every 4 months based on usage.

The bill will also show your actual usage and keep a running tab. This tab will either be a credit amount or amount due. If you want to stop the leveled billing, the amount of your running tab will be applied and due, if a balance, on your next bill.

 

[DawnM]

Ok, thank you. I think this would be a good thing for me to do. Paying the same amount per month does help with budgeting.

Dawn

 

[LJSquishy]

You will love having the same monthly payment!

Ours is called "comfort billing" but it's the same thing. We pay somewhere around $120/mo. Without it, we would have a $200+ bill in the winter and a $60 bill in the summer. Our comfort billing used to be $135 but it's been adjusted down a couple of times (part lower rates, and part that we use less energy).

If they over calculate the monthly bill, they just apply a credit to your account.

 

[StephMK]

I love budget billing! Ours gets adjusted once a year and it hasn't changed more than $20 in payments since we started 6 years ago. We have it for electric and our gas/water. So nice to make the same payment every month!

 

[NYCDiane]

I have "budgeted billing" through my electric company and, while it's great to have the same bill amount each month, I don't like the fact that at the end of the 6 month cycle, they always claim I owe more.

 

[trip]

I haven't used level billing because I find my electric and gas bills balance each other out for heating and cooling seasons. Then I love the spring and fall months that are lower. Found money.

 

[Lunchlady]

Not sure what our company calls it but I call it budget billing. We pay the same amount 11 months and in July is when you true up. Usually we are about even but one year we had over 500.00 overage. That was a nice surprise. I wouldn't go back to the old way ever! Makes life so much easier when it is the same payment every month. This covers our gas electric and water. They are all in one bill.

 

[Narnia_girl]

We used to do the budget billing, which our company called The Equalizer --sounds like a superhero, doesn't it?

Now we do PowerSmart pricing and if your company offers it, you might want to investigate. Basically, for electricity the provider charges a flat rate--for example 7 cents for every kilowatt you used. But that is just an average to make calculating it easy. The electricity might only cost them 1 cent or it might cost them 14 cents. So they charge you the same rate day in and day out for ease.

PowerSmart Pricing charges you the actual cost, and provides you with a daily chart of costs so you can see when electricity is highest and avoid using your big appliances then. We hardly ever look at it except in the heat of summer or bitter cold of winter. During those times, our costs might be higher than what others pay, but we make up for it most other times.
Here is my most recent email with our savings detail:

Total # of Bills on PSP: 26
Total Savings: $320.67
Total Electric Supply Savings %:22.94%*

*Savings % calculated using only the Electric Supply Services cost section in the program's bill comparison tool.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We have the budget and I really like it. Our house is all electric, so our bill was fairly leveled out even prior to the budget plan, but it is nice to know exactly what it is going to be each month. We almost always "overpay" and so in April (which is the balance out month for our electric company) we usually have a very small bill because they owe us.

 

[Green Tea]

I really like this service. Mine averages over the year but adjusts every 6 months. The adjustments are only several dollars--usually down. They do not refund or bill overages; the needed amounts are just averaged in for the next 6 month cycle. Many times there is no adjustment. Each month I still get a statement that shows usage and the actual amount the account is ahead or behind.