My local electric provider offers a power plan called flatbill where they will give you the same price for a whole year. Seems great right? Not so much. They offered me a monthly rate of $154 which i knew right away was way overpriced as i almost always pay more than what i owe to build up a credit in case something comes up and i cant pay it. So i keep a very sharp eye on my usage. I did the math and found out that my average power bill over the last year was $113 per month. I always pay $130 to build the credit and they wanted to charge me $154. Na, im good. I will handle it myself.
That’s actually terrible advice. If your bill (all numbers examples) was $125 and you spend $150 to build up a credit with the company, you are essentially giving the company a free loan of $25 per month, and telling them “here, invest this for me, and keep the profits.” You can put the same amount in a high interest savings account, only use it to pay for electrical emergencies, and just pocket the interest as profit. Functionally identical but you get the profit instead of the electric company.