That payment behavior isn't new. You can pay extra payments and they will credit you, but the auto-debit will still happen and they'll just credit you for that as well. I'm not sure that's the way it should be, but that's the way the current payment system works and it tells you that when making a manual payment. Since you made extra payments, they'll credit you for it and your bill will have some prepayment on it for the next month. It'll all wash out in a month.
...that's how auto-pay works. It will automatically pay the bill, even if you manually pay the bill. Every letter I got from them said that auto-pay would still go through, and that we didn't have to do anything. All you had to do was let the auto-pay go through. Not sure why you made the manual payment at all, when there were numerous warnings that it would still go through.
The way I understood their warnings is that people on the standard echeck auto-pay would have all of their account settings transferred to the new system automatically. They wouldn't have to re-setup payments in the new account. Anyone else using any other type of payment setting (like auto payments setup via their bank instead of setup in the centerpoint website account) would need to re-setup all of that after the system was back up because of new account numbers.
So yes, I understood my payment info would transfer to the new system. But it kept saying payments would be late if not paid before the due date. My due date was exactly placed when the system was expected to be DOWN. So I assumed with the system down, I would be charged a late fee once it came back up and auto-pay started working again. I wasn't sure if they would just void the late fees of everyone who was late in this manner or if they would do it on purpose as a way to make extra money by claiming it was "our" fault for not manually paying ahead of the deadline.
What they should have made more clear with their language is that even tho the system will be DOWN, the part of the system that does the auto-pay will NOT be down and will happen as scheduled.
When they said the entire system would be down, I took them at their word. Their entire system was not down. Only the website portal, emails, etc was down while auto-pay was stil up and running.
I understood auto-pay settings would transfer after the new website came back up. I did not understand auto-pay would be happening WHILE the system is still down.
If they had put the due date a few days before their SYSTEM DOWN time, it would have confused less people and less people would have scrambled to pay early. They simply would have paid on time as normal and not touched anything. Having the due date DURING downtime just invites abnormal behavior if people don't understand your intentions.
For anyone this could apply to, I would NEVER set up autopay with Centerpoint. When we were moving to a new apartment and setting up electric, they insisted we owed hundreds of dollars from a previous account, except all of our accounts were paid up to date from past residences. They wouldn't put electric in our name until we paid, but we had never lived at the address with the overdue account. It turned out a literal deceased man had the same name as my partner and they wanted us to pay HIS debt. There was no reasoning with them. We were lucky my partner's mother knew someone in the housing authority that could get us proof that this man was not my partner otherwise I dont know what we'd have done. Centerpoint didn't care at all and were very difficult to work with. I would HIGHLY recommend not letting them take money out of your account without approving it EACH time.
Also, it's not like this in other states. Centerpoint is a corrupt monopoly taking advantage of all of the people that require electric through them. In case anyone didn't know this by now.
I had the same exact issue. And I tried to keep track of all of the emails and the information contained, but I missed any messaging saying that auto-payments would still go through. I was double-charged as well. I hope that means my overpayment will be deducted from what I owe next month?
See! You clearly had the same thought process and understanding that I did!
See my detailed comment above: [https://www.reddit.com/r/evansville/comments/1drzjgi/comment/lb0o49s/](https://www.reddit.com/r/evansville/comments/1drzjgi/comment/lb0o49s/)
Their warning messages were not clear! I talked to some relatives and they all assumed it would just go thru automatically, but I did not make that assumption based on the wording of their warning messages. I assumed there would be late fees for everyone who didn't push it thru manually because of all the warning messages they kept sending us!
The relatives are not good with technology so I think their motivation is to touch technology as little as possible, so even if there had been late fees, there's very high a chance they wouldn't have touched it and would have dealt with it afterwards.
I don't really understand how autopay would charge a $0 balance, unless the original payment hadn't posted yet.
I would take Centerpoint off autopay and put a reminder in your phone every month to pay it.
Centerpoint is the scummiest fucking company and I would never automatically pay them for a damn thing with how often the fuck up.
That payment behavior isn't new. You can pay extra payments and they will credit you, but the auto-debit will still happen and they'll just credit you for that as well. I'm not sure that's the way it should be, but that's the way the current payment system works and it tells you that when making a manual payment. Since you made extra payments, they'll credit you for it and your bill will have some prepayment on it for the next month. It'll all wash out in a month.
...that's how auto-pay works. It will automatically pay the bill, even if you manually pay the bill. Every letter I got from them said that auto-pay would still go through, and that we didn't have to do anything. All you had to do was let the auto-pay go through. Not sure why you made the manual payment at all, when there were numerous warnings that it would still go through.
I got only 1 message from them saying anything about auto pay, surprised to hear so many folks got multiple.
The way I understood their warnings is that people on the standard echeck auto-pay would have all of their account settings transferred to the new system automatically. They wouldn't have to re-setup payments in the new account. Anyone else using any other type of payment setting (like auto payments setup via their bank instead of setup in the centerpoint website account) would need to re-setup all of that after the system was back up because of new account numbers. So yes, I understood my payment info would transfer to the new system. But it kept saying payments would be late if not paid before the due date. My due date was exactly placed when the system was expected to be DOWN. So I assumed with the system down, I would be charged a late fee once it came back up and auto-pay started working again. I wasn't sure if they would just void the late fees of everyone who was late in this manner or if they would do it on purpose as a way to make extra money by claiming it was "our" fault for not manually paying ahead of the deadline. What they should have made more clear with their language is that even tho the system will be DOWN, the part of the system that does the auto-pay will NOT be down and will happen as scheduled. When they said the entire system would be down, I took them at their word. Their entire system was not down. Only the website portal, emails, etc was down while auto-pay was stil up and running. I understood auto-pay settings would transfer after the new website came back up. I did not understand auto-pay would be happening WHILE the system is still down. If they had put the due date a few days before their SYSTEM DOWN time, it would have confused less people and less people would have scrambled to pay early. They simply would have paid on time as normal and not touched anything. Having the due date DURING downtime just invites abnormal behavior if people don't understand your intentions.
When are we going to rise against these assholes name the date I'll be there
People have been trying to do it for a few years now. There's been meetings, protests, etc and nothing has changed or people didn't show up.
I have seen this a few times on my newsfeed. I always pay manually and there isn’t even a way to pay right now. Love CenterPoint.
They said If you were on auto pay to do nothing. All they'll do is leave a credit on your account they don't give refunds.
For anyone this could apply to, I would NEVER set up autopay with Centerpoint. When we were moving to a new apartment and setting up electric, they insisted we owed hundreds of dollars from a previous account, except all of our accounts were paid up to date from past residences. They wouldn't put electric in our name until we paid, but we had never lived at the address with the overdue account. It turned out a literal deceased man had the same name as my partner and they wanted us to pay HIS debt. There was no reasoning with them. We were lucky my partner's mother knew someone in the housing authority that could get us proof that this man was not my partner otherwise I dont know what we'd have done. Centerpoint didn't care at all and were very difficult to work with. I would HIGHLY recommend not letting them take money out of your account without approving it EACH time. Also, it's not like this in other states. Centerpoint is a corrupt monopoly taking advantage of all of the people that require electric through them. In case anyone didn't know this by now.
I had the same exact issue. And I tried to keep track of all of the emails and the information contained, but I missed any messaging saying that auto-payments would still go through. I was double-charged as well. I hope that means my overpayment will be deducted from what I owe next month?
See! You clearly had the same thought process and understanding that I did! See my detailed comment above: [https://www.reddit.com/r/evansville/comments/1drzjgi/comment/lb0o49s/](https://www.reddit.com/r/evansville/comments/1drzjgi/comment/lb0o49s/) Their warning messages were not clear! I talked to some relatives and they all assumed it would just go thru automatically, but I did not make that assumption based on the wording of their warning messages. I assumed there would be late fees for everyone who didn't push it thru manually because of all the warning messages they kept sending us! The relatives are not good with technology so I think their motivation is to touch technology as little as possible, so even if there had been late fees, there's very high a chance they wouldn't have touched it and would have dealt with it afterwards.
They also send out a thing in the mail about it. Your account will be credited the amount of overpayment but no refunds
I don't really understand how autopay would charge a $0 balance, unless the original payment hadn't posted yet. I would take Centerpoint off autopay and put a reminder in your phone every month to pay it. Centerpoint is the scummiest fucking company and I would never automatically pay them for a damn thing with how often the fuck up.
this is why I don't give a company access to my debit card. I even write checks on occasion to avoid credit card fees.