How to handle or avoid a balloon bill

Here’s what consumers can do to avoid balloon bills.

Ÿ Read your bills carefully and contact your utility when it estimates your bill for two months in a row. That’s when you see both the previous and present reading marked “estimate.”

Ÿ Consider contacting the company to get on its meter-reading program. You can do your own meter reading each month, and the Citizens Utility Board has a fact sheet to tell you how to do it.

Ÿ Be aware that state regulations prohibit your utility from back-billing residential customers for more than 12 months from when the error was discovered.

Ÿ For big balloon bills, those more than 50 percent greater than a normal bill, state regulations require the utility to give you the same amount of time to pay off the debt through a deferred-payment arrangement. So if the estimated bills go back six months, you get six months to pay off the balloon bill, without paying interest.

Ÿ If you need more time, contact the utility to see if it can be arranged.

Ÿ For more information, visit www.citizensutilityboard.org. You can also file a complaint through CUB.

Ÿ For help or to file a complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates utilities, visit www.icc.ilinois.gov or call (800) 524-0795.