The Great Billing Cycle Money Grab

I was starting to get worried. It was the eighth of February and my electric bill, that usually comes on the second or third day of each month, had not arrived yet. From reading some of my other posts, you know how paranoid I am of the U.S. Postal Service. So, I promptly got on the phone with my power company and asked if they had sent it out on time. The lady on the other end of the phone checked my account and said my billing cycle had been changed and that my bill would be printed tomorrow.

Now this meant that my February bill was going to be larger than usual because of the one-time longer billing period. The power company had figured out a way to get more money out of everyone for one month, even without a rate increase. I believe this is an unscrupulous practice. Now, they might argue that I'm getting some benefit out of it, in that I'm being allowed to wait later in the month to pay my bill. But that's no benefit to me. I always pay my bills when I first receive them and the money is still coming out of my February budget. In addition, since there is no corresponding shorter billing period, there will not be month when my bill will be smaller than usual.

This is not first time I've had the screws put to me by billing cycle changes. Many years ago, my cable company got 13 payments out of me in one year by constantly moving up the billing cycle, and thus the due date. Then last year, they did it to me again. Before I moved last May 16, I had already paid my cable bill, which was always due by 15th. After I moved, they changed the billing cycle on me and I received a bill that was due on the first of June. That's right, although the second one was reduced somewhat, I had to pay two cable bills out of my May budget. Once again, they were hitting me up for 13 payments in one year. When I called to complain about the injustice of such billing practices, the person I talked to couldn't understand why I felt cheated!

Now, the only effect this stuff has on me is to reduce the amount of discretionary money I have at the end of month to spend or put in my mutual funds and money market accounts. However, what about people who live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to make ends meet? These unethical billing cycle changes will inevitably cause some of them to have to not pay in full or forgo some much needed food and/or medicine. That's a crying shame!