Head's up, ComEd customers: Your account is about to change, and you may need to take action in order to make sure your payments are correctly applied to new bills.
ComEd, the largest electric utility in Illinois and the primary electric provider for Chicago and much of Northern Illinois, is overhauling its billing and customer information system as early as Friday, an announcement from the company said. The changes are meant to create a more "sophisticated" system to better serve customers.
As part of the system updates, many of ComEd's self-service tools will be limited or offline for at least six days, ComEd said.
"We are currently implementing a new customer billing system designed to better serve our customers," ComEd said in an alert. "Most of our systems, including My Account services, are unavailable through Monday, February 19th. Our ability to process your requests are currently limited to reporting outages and other emergencies."
Part of the change includes assigning all ComEd residential and business customers "new unique account numbers," which the utility says will follow customers through new addresses and service changes. Those account numbers however mean some customers may need to update the way they pay their bills.
Here's a breakdown of how payments might change, and what action customers may need to take.
Customers who use autopay
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According to ComEd, customers who have autopay through ComEd set up do not need to take any action.
"These account numbers will be updated automatically and monthly bills will continue to be withdrawn from their designated checking or savings account," ComEd said.
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What if I pay my bill each month through my bank account, check, or debit card?
Upon receiving a new account number, ComEd customers who pay their bills through banks or other financial institution will need to take action.
"If you set up your ComEd bill to be paid directly through your bank or other financial institution's bill pay service, you’ll need to update your account number in early 2024 to help ensure your payments are applied to your account," ComEd said.
According to officials, customers enrolled in ComEd's "Budget Billing" will also be impacted by the changes.
"In addition to receiving a new account number in early 2024, we will also review your monthly billing amounts every three months instead of every six as it is done now," ComEd said, "If your average bill amount over the last 12 months changes by more than 20% compared to your prior budget bill amount, your budget bill amount will be adjusted accordingly."
ComEd officials also note that bills will physically look different, with updated colors and logos. Account numbers can be found in the upper right hand corner of a paper bill, or in the lefthand corner of the home screen on ComEd's mobile app.
New account numbers are expected to be shown on ComEd bills issued on or around Feb. 20, ComEd said. More information can be found here.
