How to Check Meralco Bill Online – Why our Electricity Bill Doubled this Month

Have you seen your latest Meralco bill?

Nagulat ka din ba kung bakit ang taas ng bill ng kuryente ngayong buwan?

I knew our electricity bill will increase because we have been using our fans and Aircon non-stop during the ECQ.

But… I did not expect that our bill will double in just one month.

What happened Meralco? Why so?

I checked Meralco’s website and I found their answer to our question.

5 Factors That May Have Affected the May 2020 Bill

1. Increased consumption during ECQ.
2. Temperatures are at record high (max so far for 2020 is at 37.3⁰C with Heat Index of 42⁰C)
3. Actual Consumption minus Estimated Consumption was added in the May bill.
4. As part of the ECQ period, some March and all April bills were estimated based on the past 3 months’ average daily consumption following the Distribution Services and Open Access Rules (DSOAR) issued by the ERC.
5. The months prior to ECQ including December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020, were considered “low consumption” months as these were significantly cooler months compared to the summer months of March, April and May.

Okay, I get it.

But aside from our May bill, our March and April bills were also left unsettled.

That’s exactly why I almost fell off from my chair when I saw that our total unpaid bills has ballooned to… (drum roll) P29, 549.

I know you’d ask, so let me explain kung bakit ang taas ng bill namin sa kuryente. 🙂

Actually, we split our monthly bill into three – one for us, one for my sister-in-law, and one for my mother-in-law. We installed a sub-meter so that it’s easier to compute our bill.

For my family, our average monthly electric bill was P2,000 before the ECQ. But during the past three months, our bill has been averaging P3,500 per month.

From the total unpaid bill of P29,549, ours is P11,000.

So we need to settle P11,000 for our March, April, and May electric consumption.

Why didn’t we settle our previous bills?

We had the budget for our bills, but I took advantage of the payment holiday and I planned to settle it altogether this month, after the ECQ.

I was supposed to pay our bills today when I found out that Meralco will convert the unpaid bills to 4 equal monthly installments.

To ease your burden from bills piling up, unpaid bills with due date from March 1 to May 15, 2020 (bill date from Feb 21 to May 6) will be converted to 4 equal monthly installments. The first installment amount will reflect starting bills dated May 16 to be delivered on May 18. Source

I tried contacting Meralco’s hotline and FB page to ask if I could pay our overdue bills via BPI Online Banking, but I got no answer.

I hope I could get in touch with Meralco so that I could settle our bills before they convert our balance to installment and add them to our next bills. Otherwise, I’ll keep the money first and wait for the new bill to arrive.

How to Check Meralco Bill Online

The first step is to sign up for a Meralco Online Account. To do that:

• Go to Meralco website at www.meralco.com.ph.
• Click Meralco Online Beta.
• Click Log in.
• Click New to Meralco Online? Sign up Here. 
• Create a New Account by filling up the form with the following information:
  • Select from these options:
    • I already have a Meralco bill
    • I haven’t received my first Meralco bill
  • Email Address
  • First, Middle, and Last Name
  • Mobile Number
  • Service ID Number
  • Total kWh
  • Bill Date
  • Read the Terms and click the box to agree.
• Click Register

Once you are registered, you can log in to Meralco online and view your Meralco bills anytime you want.

WATCH: How to Check Meralco Bill Online

How to Pay Meralco Bill Online

You can pay your Meralco bill online in different ways.

If you prefer paying it through the Meralco Online facility, follow these steps:

• Go to Meralco website at www.meralco.com.ph.
• Click Meralco Online Beta.
• Click Log in. Enter your email address and password.
• Once logged in, click View Bills or Pay Now.
• Choose the bill/s that you want to pay.
• Enter your card details.

A ₱47 fixed convenience fee will be charged for your bills payment transaction.

It will be added on top of the total amount selected for payment and it will go directly to Meralco payment partners.

READ: How to Pay Meralco Bill Online in 5 Easy Ways

WATCH: How to Add and Pay Meralco Bill in BPI Online

Conclusion

We are grateful that we have the budget to pay our bills for the last three months, but I know we can do something to lower our next Meralco bill, especially after summer.

Click here to read:

Practical Ways to Save on Electricity and Lower your Electric Bill