Balanced Bill Pay Plan ( Power Company )

[Yreka]

Here is what my company (PG&E) lists:

Balanced Payment Plan (BPP)

* Available to residential and small business customers
* Eliminate big swings in your monthly payments during extreme-weather months
* PG&E averages your energy costs over the last 12 months to set your monthly payment amount
* Find out how much youll pay each month and sign up for BPP when you login to My Account. To sign up for My Account, you'll need your PG&E account number and meter number or phone number associated with your account.
* Or enroll in BPP without online account access

The benefit is you don't get those "surprise" bills in the Summer and Winter months, but the downside is ???.. Im not really sure, but there is always a negative right ? Maybe I am being overly skeptical, but I just don't trust PG&E.

Also, what happens if your usage goes up or down for the month/year ? I cant believe they aren't getting their money somewhere. Do they simply re-calculate every month based on the last 12 ?

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: Yreka
Here is what my company (PG&E) lists:

Balanced Payment Plan (BPP)

* Available to residential and small business customers
* Eliminate big swings in your monthly payments during extreme-weather months
* PG&E averages your energy costs over the last 12 months to set your monthly payment amount
* Find out how much youll pay each month and sign up for BPP when you login to My Account. To sign up for My Account, you'll need your PG&E account number and meter number or phone number associated with your account.
* Or enroll in BPP without online account access

The benefit is you don't get those "surprise" bills in the Summer and Winter months, but the downside is ???.. Im not really sure, but there is always a negative right ? Maybe I am being overly skeptical, but I just don't trust PG&E.

Also, what happens if your usage goes up or down for the month/year ? I cant believe they aren't getting their money somewhere. Do they simply re-calculate every month based on the last 12 ?

I'd imagine you'll owe or get refunded the under/overages at the end of the year. I can't see the benefit unless you have 0 cash after paying your monthly bills.

 

[se7en]

I would ask a few questions before signing up but I have some family using a similar option. They have propane so they pay a set rate in advance so if prices go up they are covered under the original plan.

The normally low months you will probably overpay but in winter you might get it all back. I would guess it works out just about the same if you have a wife with no blood and gets hot / cold easily like mine.

A good benefit would be in summer you could crank the a/c to high heaven but that would probably count towards next years plan so I dunno.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

You end up paying the same amount, this is just added confusion IMO, but is probably just supposed to make it easier to budget for the entire year. Maybe they just want you to feel comfortable with electric usage so you feel free to use more?

 

[tw1164]

I use it, makes energy bills much easier to budget for. The only negative is you there maybe some months that you pay more then your actual bill i.e. you're bill is $120, but your "budget billing" is $180. It works itself out at the end the end of the year.

 

[CPA]

When I used to have it, the balanced billing was based on the last 12 months. That rate was now the rate for the next 12 months regardless of your actual experience. On the 12th month, you paid the difference or was refunded the difference between actual and paid. Then the next 12 months (2nd year) was base on the previous 12 months again.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I prefer to have straight billing so that I can keep track of my usage and check the numbers vs. their billing myself.

 

[FoBoT]

i used to do it for natural gas

i don't bother now, with a ground source heat pump, the difference between highs (summer and winter) and lows (spring/fall) is only about $100 to $125

 

[TXHokie]

I do it just to simply my monthly bills budget and don't have to worry about those seasonal spikes:
- Electric (low $60 winter vs. high $360 with ac 24/7 in hot summer)
- Gas (low $30 summer vs. high $250 on cold winter)
The average payment gets adjusted once a year depend on your use pattern. Although I'm not using more year over year, prices keep increasing each year which bump up my payments :frown:

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
You end up paying the same amount, this is just added confusion IMO, but is probably just supposed to make it easier to budget for the entire year. Maybe they just want you to feel comfortable with electric usage so you feel free to use more?

Bingo.

I dont do this, because I want to know if my monthly usage went up so I'm motivated to turn the thermostat up a few more degrees or replace those last few incandescents with CFL's.

 

[Yreka]

Ok, I decided to email them, this is the response I got:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us via our website.

The Balanced Payment Plan (BPP) is a program that helps residential
customers budget their bills with a predictable monthly payment by
averaging energy costs at the location over 12 months.

During the 12-month period, we make calculations on a quarterly basis.
Recalculations take place to ensure the estimated BPP amount for the
year is on target. Recalculations may take place at months 5, 9, and 12.
Month 12 is the rollover or settlement month.

If the usage during each period changes more than 15% during the 5th,
9th or 12th month, the BPP amount will increase or decrease (unless the
account is manually calculated).

Thank you for using our online services.

Customer Service
Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Im still on the fence, but think I am going to give it a shot. Its not that we cant afford the swings per se, they just hurt sometimes

We are already pretty efficient. Our house is only 3 years old Natural Gas/Electric. We have CFL's installed everywhere possible, and use climate controls within reasonable means. What kills us is the weird billing cycles / meter reads, whatever. Some monthly bills will only have a smaller % of the electricity charged on them depending on when they read the meter. You really have to study your bill and stay on top of usages, pay attention to when they read the meter etc, who has time for this shit ?

For instance, in July I though we were doing good as our bill was only about $150 running the AC quite a bit. *Our bill is normally right around $100 per month* Well it turns out, they metered like halfway through the month, so when my August bill showed up, they want $270 dollars !

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
You end up paying the same amount, this is just added confusion IMO, but is probably just supposed to make it easier to budget for the entire year. Maybe they just want you to feel comfortable with electric usage so you feel free to use more?

And it probably also means that they won't have to send a meter reader around so often. The savings then will get passed on, but probably not to you.