# Union Gas Equal Billing



## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

I have been living in my home for about 1 1/2 years and have determined that cancelling equal billing for my home heating will put more money in my pocket monthly. I logged into my account online and noticed at statement next to the cancel Equal Billing Plan:

"
We encourage you to speak to one of our Customer Service Representatives before cancelling your Equal Billing Plan to determine if there are any gas charges due or if a security deposit is required for this account. Please call our Customer Contact Centre at 1-888-774-3111 between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday to Friday."

Obviously they want you to call so they can talk you out of it. My question is will they actually charge you a fee or ask for a security deposit. Seems to me it would make more sense if they wanted a security deposit to do it on the move in. Anyone know the goods on this or is this just a tactic to prevent customers from optting out.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

If you want to cancel equal billing during the winter, you may have a substantial unpaid balance (that would be "smoothed" over the upcoming summer months). They want you to pay that amount before they'll move you to pay-as-you-go; nothing sinister about it.


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## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

That makes sense. I currently have a credit of $75.91, with infloor radiant heat I would expect this months bill to be around $100-$110 as it has never been over a $100 yet.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

To each their own, but I've actually found the equal billing set up to be fairly equitable. I thought the same as you did, and then I looked at the numbers. The bill was never more than a couple of hundred dollars in their favor (paid more than I used) and it's recalculated every year.

So what are you going to do with the couple of hundred dollars? Leave it in the old savings account of course. How much interest are you going to make on a couple hundred dollars over a year? At best a couple of dollars.

So sure, it would make a little bit of sense to cancel it, but it isn't a huge cost savings. I actually feel it's money "well spent" to have the same bill every month.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

It matters how you manage cash flow.

I always ended up with a positive balance, which briefly touched zero at the end of winter, I'd rather have the money in hand.


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## Davage (Nov 14, 2012)

*Actual Usage*

I have chosen to go with actual usage billing for gas and for hydro. In the winter time, my gas bill is higher, but my hydro bill is lower. In the summer, that flip-flops where the hydro is higher due to air conditioning usage, and the gas usage is much lower because the only thing we use gas for in the summer is hot water and the clothes dryer. In the end, it works out to be a fairly consistent monthly bill for the 2 services combined.


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## somecanuck (Dec 23, 2011)

"Equal billing" is based on typical usage, right? So likely a family with children in a 10+ year old house or apartment. My family has no children, and it's a new house, so my bills are always below the "equal billing" amount. We pay the actual bill each month.


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## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

somecanuck said:


> "Equal billing" is based on typical usage, right? So likely a family with children in a 10+ year old house or apartment. My family has no children, and it's a new house, so my bills are always below the "equal billing" amount. We pay the actual bill each month.


My equal billing is based on my useage only, not on what my neighbour with children might use. Every August, it's re-evaluated based on what I used during the past year. True it never works out to the dollar, but usually pretty close. ~$100


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

somecanuck said:


> "Equal billing" is based on typical usage, right? So likely a family with children in a 10+ year old house or apartment. My family has no children, and it's a new house, so my bills are always below the "equal billing" amount. We pay the actual bill each month.



Not in the least bit right.

It's based on your own usage. In your first year, yes, they will take an estimate and start charging that, if an adjustment needs to be mid way through the year they will.

When I moved into my home, they used the previous owners average, which was way more than we used, so after 6 months we paid way more we needed to, so it was adjusted down. Year 2 was more accurate.

This past year come month 9 we had paid $125 more than we had used. The final three months of the year were paid for using the extra.


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## somecanuck (Dec 23, 2011)

So the single benefit then is a consistent bill from month to month? That makes me wonder why they even offer it.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Because of all those people who are apparently living paycheque to paycheque and are 90 days away from financial disaster. If you are living that close to the bone, an unexpected "unusual" bill could send you over the edge. (I don't do equal billing!)


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

somecanuck said:


> So the single benefit then is a consistent bill from month to month? That makes me wonder why they even offer it.


From their perspective, those who are living pay to pay aren't in trouble as often as most bills are pretty much the same instead of the swings of actual use. It converting an unstable customer into a much more stable one. 

Then too, likely it's likely setup so that it's the company that has the excess in their bank account to smooth out the later swings.


Cheers


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

somecanuck said:


> So the single benefit then is a consistent bill from month to month? That makes me wonder why they even offer it.


Equal billing results in most people carrying a positive balance in their accounts for most of the year, and they don't pay interest on it.

Some people can't handle the swings in bills, stabilizing it actually might reduce missed/late payments, particularly during the cold months when they can't legally turn off your gas. People know this and some will purposely not pay gas bills in the winter.

So we have a plan that
1. Provides interest free money.
2. Fewer missed payments.
3. Reduces the number of delinquent accounts int he winter, as they would have a positive balance heading into the season.


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## somecanuck (Dec 23, 2011)

MrMatt said:


> So we have a plan that
> 1. Provides interest free money.
> 2. Fewer missed payments.
> 3. Reduces the number of delinquent accounts int he winter, as they would have a positive balance heading into the season.


It seems like a service a bank should offer for any preauthorized monthly bill. "We noticed that your bill is usually X, do you want us to smooth them over the year for the low low fee of 2%?".


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

I really like using the equal payment plans for both my natural gas and my electricity bills, and I'm certainly not in situation where I worry about paying my bills every month. I just like doing it that way for budgeting purposes - I like knowing how much to plan for utilities each month. Both my hydro and electricity come within a few dollars at the settlement dates. My last settlements were both within ten dollars.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Just watch you don't get stuck with an incompetent utility like Ottawa Hydro, which was incapable of automatically balancing and revising monthly payments annually for about 5 years. This lead to a few horror stories in the paper about people suddenly getting huge bills when they finally got around to doing reconciliations.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

The best benefit is to low income people during the winter. Smoothing it out over the course of the year rather than paying a $700 bill in February is beneficial. If your a family of 4 who lives below the poverty line, you probably won't have any extra to invest and equal billing will be very handy for you.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

When I was managing that building at Jane & Wilson that boasted windows from the 70's and electric heat...I tried to get hydro to send a bill every month. They could not, in fact they sometimes forgot to put bills in people's names even after being contacted multiple times, and one tenant got her first bill 10 months after moving in. 

I'll be honest I'm not sure I've ever dealt with such a bunch of buffoons in my life. We had to fax in the hydro forms they gave us during the application process and they still failed to get it right so many times and then fail to repair their mistakes. 

So low income people getting their bills every 2 months led to a lot of people being cut off. A lot. In February bills were $800 - $900.


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