[ale] Electric bill

[Mike Harrison]

>> steal your money. The annual contract specifies in the fine print that if 
>> the company over estimates the charges, they KEEP your money. You don't get 
>> it back! Which means, of course, that they have a HUGE incentive to over


In all utilities I deal with (more than one), the system will apply that 
to your account as a positive balance that is either applyable to future bills or 
refundable. Our system calls it your "wallet", as in many countries if it 
is a positive account balance producing a negative number (credit) on the 
bill, they must issue a check for that amount. In either case, positive 
balances should be easily converted into a refund/cash. Exception:
if postpaid (arrears billing) that balance may have to exceed your 
estimated pending billing before a refund is issued.

>> BUT . . . You can do the math yourself and not waste your money. Ga. Power 
>> is perfectly willing to let you overpay your monthly bill most of the year 
>> to build up a credit pool to apply to the summer months. That's what we are 
>> doing now and it is working well.

Personally: Yeah, when I have low bill months I pay extra, and that 
offsets the higher bill months well.  Used to drive EPB/Chattanooga's 
system math nuts. :) They finally fixed it.