Faced with the energy crisis, an impressive number of households have switched to monthly bills. Walter Peeters from Lommel is one of the customers who have decided to change their payment habits.
Since April 1, 2022, households that have a digital meter can choose to pay their energy bills on a monthly basis rather than a final annual bill. According to information from Belang van Limburg, in September only 4,190 Belgian families had a monthly bill for electricity and 340 for gas. Two months later, 20,957 families have opted for this choice for electricity and 10,129 for gas.
But be careful, if you too want to switch from an annual bill to a monthly one, you will have to be patient. “Before, I went to Energie.be for my energy. But I couldn’t get monthly bills there. That’s why I chose Luminus,” Walter explains to our colleagues.
To save money, Walter decided to shut down its natural gas. “My installation uses two cubic meters of gas per week to keep my water hot. It’s six euros. While I don’t really need hot water. I do my laundry in cold water, ”explains the Belgian. And despite this very inexpensive consumption, Walter had to pay 140 euros in bills in October. ” It’s not good. This bill is so high because Luminus assumes my gas usage will increase further in the winter. But that’s not the case, because I don’t use anything. And I don’t want to play the bank and lend the energy supplier money that I get back later,” he adds. “That’s why I want a monthly statement,” says Walter.
But he will have to wait until February 2023 to be able to benefit from it. “It’s far too long for me,” complains Walter. Due to the crisis, suppliers are taking much longer to implement contract changes. At Luminus, you have to wait up to three months to get a new contract. At TotalEnergies, two months and for Mega it would be a minimum of 21 days.
And if, like Walter, you want to be billed for your “metered monthly consumption”, then you will have to be very patient. You will then pay for your actual consumption without any increase or subsequent reimbursement. Note that the possibility of obtaining a monthly invoice only concerns large suppliers such as Engie, Luminus, TotalEnergies, Mega or Eneco.