lipa....

does anyone have experience with balanced billing? we just moved here 3 months ago i just got a bill for 160 ( im guessing its two months?? ) is this alot? I am a sahm we have a pretty big 3 bedroom ranch. Should i do the balanced billing? It would be 80/month it says. or should i wait till were here longer to doit? Either way if i overpay now it comes off in the summer or whatever right?

Re: lipa....

it all adds up in the end.

We started right away with balanced billing and what happens is as you use more electricity, they will adjust your increased payment over the course of the remaining months, so that you don't get hit with a large bill at the end of your 12 months.

For example, when we first bought our house the balanced bill was
$102.00/month
Over the course of renovations we added Central A/C and some other things, plus the old owners were older and probably didn't use as much electronics as we did.
So about 6 months into it, they raised the balanced bill to $151/month to catch up on our 'projected usage. Then about 3 months later, they increased it again to $175 to catch up again. Once they reset the bill for the new 12-month period it went down again.

We didn't overpay or underpay a dime. THey have it worked out to the penny and the balanced bill softens the blow on months of high usage - like the summer when I use the CAC, the inground pool, the dryer, the electric stove, etc...

Re: lipa....

they started us on balanced billing at $200 each month! we moved into the house in june so i figured hey, its the summer, this might be better. i paid it like a fool for several months. then i see that after about 4 months we have over a $350 balance in our favor since we were over paying so much each month! i just called to switch it back. they told me now we will go to bi-monthly billing and we will receive the credit back.

Re: lipa....

We have balanced billing and overpay. It's nice when the last bill comes and they owe you!

Re: lipa....

I do balanced billing. The first year in a new place you will see the bill go up & down every few months. That's what happened to us. In the end, we still had enough credit in our favor that I didn't recieve a bill for 2 months & then a reduced bill for a third month. This being our second year in this apartment, the projection has been a little more stable.