What To Do When You Can’t Pay Your CPS Energy Bill
CPS Energy is an electric company and a gas company that provides services to San Antonio and surrounding areas of Texas. As the weather changes, the amount of energy you use will change, and rates will vary with the time of year and the time of day, meaning that your power bill will vary from month to month. This will help you learn how to handle the situation if there is ever a time you cannot pay your bill.
How To Pay The Bill
CPS Energy offers several different billing and payment options to help serve their customers. You can: pay your bill online, pay your bill through automatic bank draft with AutoPay, pay by mail, pay in person, pay by phone, the Budget Payment Plan, or using a gift certificate.
Pay online: Pay Your Bill Online by visiting: http://www.cpsenergy.com/Residential/Billing_Payments/Pay_Online.asp
Automatic deductions: Enroll in AutoPay to have your bill amount automatically drafted from your bank account once a month.
Pay by mail: You can pay your CPS Energy bill with a money order or check by sending it to this address:
CPS Energy
P.O. Box 2678
San Antonio, Texas 78289-0001
Pay in person: Pay your bill in person by visiting one of the payment center locations near you.
Pay by phone: Pay your bill by phone by calling customer service at l-877-257-1172 and following the prompts. You will be charged a convenience fee of $2.50 per payment, for payments up to $1,000.
Budget billing: Enroll in the budget payment plan, where your monthly payment is the same every month for a year, and is calculated by using the average energy consumption amount over the course of a year.
Gift card: Purchase or redeem a gift card to help you or someone you know pay their bill.
Questions About Your Billing Statement or Account?
The complete list of applicable fees is located on the Policy for Miscellaneous Customer Charges document. Any additional questions can be answered by customer service at 1-877-257-1172.
How The Penalty Fees Work
If a payment is not made on time, you may be subject to late fees as a percentage of the late payment in addition to the current bill. You may also have to pay a reconnection fee to have service reestablished once it has been disconnected.
- Returned payment fee: $25 per instance.
- Reconnect during normal business hours: $24 for electric, $36 for gas and $54 for electric and gas.
- Reconnect after normal business hours: $30 for electric, $47 for gas and $69 for electric and gas.
- Other reconnect fees during normal business hours: $60 for electric at pole, $60 for underground transformer and $400 for gas main.
- Other reconnect fees after normal business hours: $120 for electric at pole, $120 for underground transformer and $600 for gas main.
- Field collection charge: $12 per in-person collection attempt.
- Meter tampering: $40 per instance.
I Can’t Make A Payment
If you cannot make a payment on your CPS Energy account by the due date listed on the bill, contact customer service immediately, or as soon as you know you will not be able to make the payment on time, to arrange a payment plan that will keep your account in good standing and services on. If this is becoming a problem over a period of several months, speak to customer services about the various assistance programs, detailed below, to see if they can be of any help to you.
Yes! CPS Energy has multiple customer outreach programs to ensure those who are eligible for assistance or discounted bills receive the help they need. The programs are as follows:
- Residential Energy Assistance Partnership:requires that you be at or below 125% the poverty level and experiencing hardship, have a child under the age of three in the home or have an eldery person requiring critical care in the home, and be a resident of either San Antonio or Bexar County. This program gives you up to $400 of assistance twice per year (once in heating, and once in cooling season.)
- Veterans’ Discount: helps veterans who have lost their ability to regulate their core body temperatures, by reducing up to $90 off their bills every month, certain months of the year. Medical confirmation is required on an annual basis.
- Affordability Discount: People who are at or below 125% of the federal poverty guideline can receive a discount on their service availability charge (either $6.55 for electric service or $3.15 for gas service.
- Critical Care Program:provides customers who use electrically powered medical equipment a longer amount of time to pay their bills.
- Senior Citizens Program:provides customers aged 60 years or older (with a primary residence account in their name) with an extra ten days to pay their bill every month.
- Disabled Citizens Program:provides people who are on SSI or SSD (who have an account in their name) with an extra ten days to pay their bill every month.
- Emergency Assistance Programs:are available through other agencies to help those who do not qualify for any other programs through CPS Energy.
- Temporary Hardships:This is a payment arrangement made with customer service for people who are having a hard time making ends meet on a temporary basis.
- LIHEAP home energy assistance program: This federally-funded program is available to CPS Energy customers that meet income guidelines. For additional information, you can contact customer service at 1-877-257-1172. Since funds are limited, you should apply for LIHEAP assistance early.
Will They Work With Me To Pay My Bill?
If you believe any of these programs would help you keep your CPS Energy account in good standing, please call customer service to learn more about the programs you may qualify for and how to get started with them. If you have any experience dealing with this company, please share below.
