Hidden Utility Fees You Didn’t Even Know You’re Paying

When you look at your utility bills and can't figure out exactly what's causing them to be higher than usual, you might have some hidden fees to look at. Granted, you require more electricity than usual during certain seasons and expect a spike. But sometimes, you read the fine print and find an awkward fee that's just a cost for processing another charge (like a payment processing fee). Some of these hidden costs are sneakier than others. Utility companies are looking to offset their costs and what seems like only a couple of bucks per month adds up significantly. Learn what some of these fees are and what you can do, if anything, to reduce or eliminate them.

Some environmental regulations require compliance and these compliance-related fees are used to help fund different energy initiatives. This is one of those unavoidable costs because there is an authoritative agency that your utility company has to comply with. However, you can tap into those efforts and consider some energy-efficient changes to lessen your bill and compensate for paying those mandatory environmental fees.

It happens, no matter how careful you are. If you're not set up on an automatic payment plan, the payment due date might slip your mind, and you may miss your payment. In these cases, your electricity company adds a late payment fee. If you've had a great history with payments, you may be able to call them and nicely request that they do you a favor and remove it. To ensure this doesn't happen again, set up those automatic payments and if you don't feel comfortable doing that, make use of your calendar reminders.

You can keep your usage consistent but there are still going to be maintenance costs for either keeping your meters in good order or even replacing them if need be. This fee is unavoidable, but you can take some measures to help reduce any other hidden charges. For example, when you switch to a smart meter, you can count on significantly more accurate readings.

Normally, this fee is seen in businesses but sometimes they end up showing up on your home bill too. These fees are not calculated based on the usage throughout your billing cycle, but on the period when your electricity demand peaked. To avoid being charged these peak demand fees, consider when you use your appliances. For example, don't run your washer and your dryer at the same time, even though you have multiple loads. Let the load in your dryer finish before adding a new load to your washer. It's not the most time-efficient, but doing this is energy-efficient (which reflects on your bill).

You get charged for the electricity you use throughout your billing cycle but a delivery fee is the cost for actually delivering that electricity to your residence. These aren't fees that you can get out of but if you lower your electricity usage, that does help to compensate for this fee that you are going to see regularly on your bill. To do that, lean into energy-efficient practices and try to only use energy-efficient appliances.

When life throws you a curveball and you need to make a sudden change like move to a new home, there are so many moving pieces you need to account for. One of the things you may overlook is the early termination fee your gas company can charge you for terminating your contract early. These fees are more substantial than some of the smaller fees you might spot on your bill. To try and avoid paying this fee, stay within your provider's service area.

When there's a chill in the air, you're likely to start using your heater. Of course, this increases the demand and you can expect to see a seasonal rate adjustment. You don't always get a notification for this but you should know that it happens. You might consider employing different heating methods if you are interested in keeping your gas bill down over the chillier months of the year. The same goes for using your air conditioning unit during the summer months.

When you've just set up your connection with the gas company, you might overlook that there is a connection fee simply for connecting the gas service to your residence. To avoid paying a higher fee, shop around before you commit to a gas provider. Take advantage of any available promotions and inquire if that connection fee can be waived.

Capacity fees refer to the total capacity used in your household. You might use less than your total capacity during months when you're not powering up your gas as much, but the higher capacity you use during colder months determines your total capacity. Therefore, if you want to lower your capacity fees, work on reducing your gas during peak season.

These fees relate to the maintenance of gas pipelines. These are fees that may increase over time in such a small way that you may overlook them. You can't negotiate these fees either but remember, working to reduce your total gas consumption can help offset these mandatory fees you're paying on your gas bill.

You're already making a payment and yet you still have to pay a fee for that payment to go through. It's frustrating when you discover fees like this but typically, payment processing fees only occur when you use specific payment methods like credit cards. Your phone company has to pay to process these types of transactions and they pass that cost off to you. Sometimes, it shows up as a percentage and sometimes it's just a flat fee. To avoid this fee, consider a different payment method. While paying with a credit card or debit card is ultra-convenient, you may be able to save on payment processing fees if you use alternative payment methods.

You may not be charged roaming fees if you have a plan that allows for international calling. However, if you don't have a plan set up already and you travel internationally, you may be surprised to see just how pricey it is to make those calls and send those text messages. Therefore, make sure you are equipped with a proper international calling plan if you plan to communicate with someone internationally or if you'll be traveling internationally and calling back home.

If you fail to make your payment on time, your phone company is likely to tack on a late payment fee. These typically show up on your next billing cycle. Late payment fee processing is usually done automatically so if you want to get it waived or ask for a grace period, you need to contact your phone company ahead of time. If this is a one-time situation, your phone company may waive the fee even after adding it to your bill. Just ask. But there are no guarantees.

Your phone provider has to comply with both federal and state regulations and to recover what they spend, they pass on the cost to their customers. This is yet another unavoidable fee, but you may be able to shop around for a smaller phone provider, which may have a lower regulatory recovery fee than some of the big names you're more familiar with.

This fee can creep up on you depending on the type of plan you have. A lot of phone companies offer unlimited data so this shouldn't occur as regularly as it once did when unlimited data wasn't available. However, each plan is different so make sure you understand yours thoroughly. Otherwise, you may find yourself accidentally incurring data overages fees. They occur when you exceed your data allowance for any given billing cycle.