i don't get this. last month I paid $158.72 for my electric bill. now i login to check my balance, and it says "Current PSEG - Electric: $124.43". but right below it, it says I owe $206?? where is that extra money magically coming from?

and sometimes I get bill notices in the mail, where it combines 2 months worth of bills and says I owe that much, EVEN THOUGH I PAID the last month's bill! what gives? are they hoping that people are stupid and FORGET they paid last month's bill, and give them more money?

You did not pay the full amount of your last bill...

You did not pay the full amount of your last bill...

...or the bill before that. It says that you owed them $240.83 but only paid them $158.72.
Last month's $240.83 + this month's $124.43 - last month's payment of $158.72 == $206.54

Or your biller is retarded (likely). I've had a lot of retarded billers: sending duplicates, not marking things as paid, not posting bills for a year then posting a years worth at once along with overdue notices, etc...

Do you keep your old bills so you can tally the balances and payments yourself?

i always, always, always pay each bill in full. only some companies, like this one, seem to arbitrarily add things together, or something else I'm not missing. I've only lived in my current apartment for 4 months. i've looked through all 4 bills... all paid in full.

It also matters when you pay the bill. If you send in a payment, but the company dates the next statement earlier than their receipt of that payment, it'll show on that bill as unpaid. And if the company that's billing was the same company you were using at your last place, your account could still be carrying a balance even if you've paid everything on time at your current place. It could even be something simple and beyond your control, like hodgman said, or it could be simple and under your control (like forgetting to switch the utilities from your name when you moved out of your last place).

Contact the billing department, preferably with receipt numbers on hand for your payments.

As the others have said, your current bill lists a payment held over from the last bill, as if you hadn't paid the total amount. If you did in fact do so then you need to follow up and have the mistake corrected. You may also have paid the full amount, but after the issue-date of the current bill, in which case you can safely ignore the additional amount.


You should (as you appear to already do -- good job!) always keep your bills filed away, and note the dates when you pay them. If possible given your method of payment you should also note a receipt number. You should also always be sure to check your bills for mistakes like this rather than simply paying whatever total appears at the bottom -- catching this sort of mistake and having it fixed will save you quite a bit of money. If this sort of mistake occurs often from a particular provider it may be a sign that you should look for alternative providers, or consider finding out if your local government provides any method for filing a complaint.

How many bills have you received from this company? You say you've only been in this apartment for 4 months, so it would seem only 4 bills. Which will definitely simplify the process when you end up on the phone with customer service. Definitely handle this sooner rather than later.




And excellent job keeping old bills stored away. This is the kind of situation where the brilliance of that approach really shows!

Some utilities are billed on estimates.

They take your average use and bill for that every month. Then, when they read the meters, they adjust for actual consumption when they take the actual reading from the meter. Utilities often do that since it would be to complicated to take readings once a month.

Might want to check how billing is performed, it should be explained in their policy.

It can also be the case with apartments, where most bills are averaged, but periodically adjusted for individual consumptions.

Without smart meters or monthly readouts, this type of schemes are frequent, since it's simply impractical for electric company to do the readouts around the billing date. Even if they do monthly checks, they might be spread over a month's time.

Over long term, this type of billing is fair and accurate, but it can lead to variations in bills. The company might also benefit slightly from collecting more money in advance, but it's hard to say what their net balance is.

Some utilities are billed on estimates.

They take your average use and bill for that every month. Then, when they read the meters, they adjust for actual consumption when they take the actual reading from the meter. Utilities often do that since it would be to complicated to take readings once a month.

unless it costs them money. My old electric company read the meters in january and used the same estimates through may even though we complained each month resulting in them coming out and reading the meters.

lol it's quite simple. You got charged $240 last month and didn't pay all of it, and they simply combined your past due with what you owe this month.

<--- Pro.