The budget billing program is a free service offered to all residential customers. The program is designed to help you avoid unpredictable utility bills and make balancing your budget a little easier. Auto pay is required for budget payments.
Your monthly budget amount is based on the average of your actual bill charges during the previous 12-months. Any expected increase in the cost of electric and/or water and sewer are also calculated into the monthly payment when you enroll in the program. We continue to read your meter every month and your utility bill will show how much energy you used, the actual bill amount and the balance on your account. Some months you will pay less for what you actually used and some months you will pay more.
Budgets are reviewed twice a year, in December and June. During the review process your current budget amount may be updated to reflect higher, or lower than expected usages. You will be notified via letter if there are any changes needed to your budget amount. Your new budget amount will be set to begin the following month.
While we monitor budgets twice a year we request you occasionally watch the actual amounts on your statements and call us if you notice larger than expected credits, or amounts due.
To see what your average might be, you can sign up for an online account through MYACCOUNT where you can see usage trends and balances for the previous 12-months. If you would like more information, or are interested in budget billing, please call our office at (715) 246-4167.