I wanted to thank everyone for their input on my last post regarding equalized payments. It is so important to hear from voices who have gone through this before and love it or do not, and why.
I debated long and hard about what path to take. If it were me personally paying this bill I would go with setting a monthly budget for the bill, calling in the actual readings, and setting aside any credits, to dip into during the heavier months. I know I could 'not touch' that set aside money to keep for later.
DH, however, would not do that. Any extra money would disappear and then the heavier months would be a surprise and he'd be short cash.
With his blessing and surprising approval, I have put both natural gas and electricity on equalized payments with July being our annual balancing month. To further this, my plan is to attempt to call in actual readings to both on the 15th of each month. The electricity one should be interesting in the deep of winter when I can barely get into our back yard, but I shall try. This will give us truly accurate month to month bills and we will know if we are ahead or behind the game.
As DH said, "I often hold my breath when I open that bill, scared of what the amount is going to be inside." That's a whole lotta stress.
So those are now set up. I am still amused/offended each time I call there and I have to practically give my DNA to get access to the account. Both our names are on it but originally, when we bought the house, DH was the one who went in to set up the account and is listed as the primary. He can phone in and doesn't have to answer any skill testing questions about who he is, but I have to answer about 5, every single time.
A male friend of mine said they had the same problem. The companies suggested that she (the wife) set up a verbal password when she called in. Her husband needed no password, but she did. He grabbed the phone from her and said her password would be 'bullshit'. The startled agent asked why they would choose that. He replied that it was bullshit that he didn't have to give ID and a password and she did when it was set up in both their names. The agent laughed, apologized for the rules she has to follow and to this day, their password is bullshit.
Next, I am off to explore whether the town has equalized payments for the water/sewer bill.
And then, another call to Workman's Comp. It is now day 51 of them saying that we are just caught up in a computer glitch from them switching computer systems.
Again, thank you everyone for your comments. They all really helped and made me think.
Tuesday, Nice weekend!
1 day ago
3 comments:
If you call in your actuals, will that mess up your bill and someone "reverts" it back to actual?
On our bills...we see the actuals in addition to the budget amount. We ALWAYS know where we stand.
Good question Mysti. I asked them that and they said it would not. I may have to train them when I call and say "I understand I am on equalized...I am just calling in actuals to have an accurate monthly read."
I hope our bill looks like yours.
Since you are going to do equalized particularly for your gas, you should call them and ask them to send you a cycle sheet This a piece of paper that states the cycle you are in with each month's read date listed. You then need to read your meter for a particular month on the date they have listed on the cycle sheet and then call it in. This is also a good method to know exactly what you have used month to month because you record on that sheet the reading you have called in. For example this is how ours here in Alberta( rural small town) works. Our yearly gas cycle with Altagas ends the month of Dec each year. About mid Dec I call and have them send me the new reading sheet for that new year. So this past Dec I called and wad sent the new sheet for 2014 which is Cycle 13 for us. Then on the date specified for the month reading, I go out and read the meter which is on the side of the house recording the numbers and call this information in.
The sheet is important because it tells you exactly when the meter has to be read as there are months that have fewer days than others. Calling in on the 15 th of every month will not give you accurate usage . Secondly you then also have a permanent record of when you have called the info in with the accurate reading. As the equalized plan will only have some months where the dude actually comes and reads while others will be estimates( and trust me the estimates will always be much lower than actual usage, you will be able to keep a close eye as to what your final amount to pay while be at the end of your budget plan cycle since this payment again will be much higher than you anticipate
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