Almost half of the users of the Ennatural heating network have still not increased the advance. That can cause gigantic setbacks in the final settlement; reason for the supplier of district heating. The message: increase the monthly amount that you pay, otherwise the final bill can just be 500 euros higher.
The heat rates are determined once a year. This always happens on January 1. The price of heat is related to, among other things, the price of gas. Because it has risen so much, the heat rate has also risen sharply, by as much as fifty percent.
If users do not adjust their monthly amount, they can run into problems with the final bill. Patrick van de Langenberg of Ennatural: “We have been warning for a long time that the rates will be increased this year, but there are customers who don’t do anything with it anyway. They hope it’s not too bad or they can’t miss it during the month.”
Whether the final settlement is higher than expected also depends on when the annual settlement is sent. that’s not the same for everyone. If that is at the beginning of the year, then the damage is not too bad, because Ennatural has already increased the monthly advance. If the annual settlement does not come until the second half of the year, then you may have paid too little advance for months and you may have to pull out your wallet.
Email, text and call
Ennatural chooses not to increase the advance for the users in the meantime, but only immediately after the annual settlement. So people have to do that themselves. “We recommend it as much as possible. We email about it, text, and help people over the phone through customer service. If someone hasn’t done it by then, we’ll also call ourselves. People do not appreciate it if we increase the advance without consultation. Customers still manage their own wallet themselves.”
Blanket against the cold
Joke de Kock, Debt Assistance Manager in Tilburg, recognizes that people do not want to increase the advance. “People are afraid they won’t be able to afford it and they’ll get into trouble. We also notice that older people simply left the heating off last winter and used extra clothing and blankets to keep heating costs low. Luckily it wasn’t such a cold winter either.” She advises Ennatural to send a suspense bill to the users of the heat network so that everyone can see how high the bill actually is.