BUDGET BILLING PROGRAM

By Pat McGonagle, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Budget Billing is a free service that allows you to spread your utility payments throughout the entire year and keep your payment amount as consistent as possible. Budget billing does not save you money. Instead, it spreads out your total utility costs evenly throughout the entire year. The main benefit of budget billing is to avoid high bills during months when you use more energy to heat and cool your home.

Although the amount due each month remains the same, we show your actual charges on your bill. Any difference between the amount paid and the amount charged becomes your deferred balance. A settle-up process occurs and the deferred balance is in the calculation for the next year’s budget amount. We review budget accounts twice a year to make sure it is the right amount to cover your total energy use for 12 months.

Members who participate in budget billing build a credit at some point throughout the year. The credit does not mean you should skip your monthly budget payment. Instead, your credit builds up so you will not need to pay more than the budget when your energy use increases during the summer or winter months. When you pay more than your budget, it goes towards the account balance and does not take the amount from your next budget.

• Your account must be in good standing and have a zero balance.

• You must have at least one year of energy use in the home.

• We keep you on it until you tell us otherwise. However, if you miss budget payments, we remove you from the program. You cannot return to budget billing until your account balance is zero.

You can sign up for budget billing by simply calling our Member Service Department at 1-800-255-6815

If you’re having trouble managing your home energy costs, Ohio’s Energy Assistance Programs can help.

The Winter Crisis Program provides a benefit once per heating season to eligible Ohioans facing disconnection, have been disconnected from their utility service or have less than 25% of their supply of bulk fuel.

• You use more energy than you did when we estimated your last budget. This can happen when extreme weather events occur.

• Your budget amount will go up if the amount we charge for electric, gas or propane increases. Recently, this has been the case for our gas and propane members on the budget.

Ohio's Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) provides eligible Ohioans assistance with their heating bills. The one-time benefit is applied directly to the customer’s main heating bill. Ohioans with a household income at or below 175% of the federal poverty guidelines are eligible for the program. Visit development.ohio.gov/individual/ energy-assistance to learn more and apply.