Despite higher electric bills and a slower economy, most Chattanoogans have continued to pay their monthly power bills, even if they sometimes take a little more time to make their payments, EPB directors were told Friday.
The amount of money EPB wrote off Friday in bad debts for the past year — $276,619 — was only one-third the average rate of all TVA distributors and didn’t increase much from the previous year, said EPB President Harold DePriest.
“We work with people as much as we can to allow them to pay their bills over time,” he said. “A lot of other utilities allow only two or three bill extensions (beyond the due date for payment) a year. We don’t care how many bill extensions you have as long as you pay.”
EPB limits its bad debt by charging new customers a $200 deposit, although that fee may be reduced depending upon a person’s credit rating.
If you don’t pay the electric bill on the due date, a 5 percent penalty is assessed to the bill and that penalty can be increased over time with bigger unpaid bills, said EPB customer representative Stephanie Bain.
The $276,619 of uncollectible bad debt for EPB in fiscal 2009-10 was less than 0.1 percent of EPB’s annual electricity sales of $483.1 million for the past year. Among all 158 TVA distributors, the average utility writes off 0.3 percent of sales a year for bad or uncollectible debts, Mr. DePriest said
“We’re pleased that we were able to hold down that number in a very tough year,” Mr. DePriest said. “The winter was colder and, so far, this summer has been hotter, so we’re seeing some bigger electric bills this year.”
EPB also is aided by the Power Share program, which collects contributions EPB customers make on their monthly bills to help others unable to pay their utility bills.
Last year, more than 15,000 Chattanoogans requested help with EPB bills through United Way’s 211 program, up 55 percent from the previous year, agency spokeswoman Kelley Nave said.
Requests have jumped another 25 percent so far this year, according to United Way.
EPB, which also began offering high-speed Internet, cable TV and telephone service through fiber optics last September, had larger bad debt losses from those services.
Mr. DePriest said 1.6 percent of its residential fiber-optic bills, or a net $108,570, was lost to uncollectible debt. More than one-third of those losses stem from set-top boxes in the home that are not returned to EPB.
EPB said its bad debt losses from its video offerings are still only one-third of the 5 percent loss ratio for the industry as a whole.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Or login with:
New Account