OAR 860-021-0126: Late-Payment Charge

(1) Except as provided in section (2) of this rule, an energy or large telecommunications utility may apply a late-payment charge to customer accounts not paid in full each month, provided the utility has filed the late-payment charge in its rate schedule. (2) An energy utility shall not impose late-payment charges on residential customers unless: (a) The energy utility offers residential customers a preferred billing date option under which the customer can select or change a bill date. Utilities shall not be required to change a customer’s bill date more than once in any 12-month period; (b) The energy utility’s rate schedule provides that the late charge is not applied on residential balances less than $200; or (c) The charge is applied only to amounts carried forward for two consecutive months. (3) An energy utility shall not impose late-payment charges on the accounts of income-qualified residential customers. (4) The charge will be based on a monthly late-payment rate applied to overdue account balances at the time of preparing the subsequent month’s bill for residential accounts or by the bill due date for all other accounts. The late-payment charge may not be applied to time-payment or equal-payment accounts that are current. The Commission will determine the late-payment rate based on a survey of prevailing market rates for late-payment charges of commercial enterprises and will advise all utilities of the changes in the rate they may use to determine late-payment charges on overdue customer accounts as needed. The current late-payment rate and the conditions for its application to customer accounts shall be specified on the energy or large telecommunications utility bill.