Electricity: deferral, payment in installments as “help offers”
80,000 of Salzburg AG’s 170,000 private electricity customers now have to deal with significantly higher electricity bills. In order to avoid blatant additional payments in the annual statement, Salzburg AG has therefore already adjusted the partial amounts of many customers, says customer service manager Martin Zauner.
Caritas hardship fund for private customers
If customers are still threatened with payment difficulties, there is support: “We have two instruments at our disposal, which is the deferral. We can defer the payment for a few months. The second option is to pay in installments, which is also required by law. For cases of social hardship we still have the Caritas social fund endowed by Salzburg AG. So far we have been able to help many customers out of payment difficulties.”
If you don’t pay, you’ll be cut off at some point
Simply ignoring electricity bills is not a solution, says the electricity manager: “We recommend contacting us to point out the situation. So that we can work out a solution together. The worst thing is just going under. If the billing is discontinued, then every company will also discontinue the service. And of course that means the shutdown.”
Flood of complaints against electricity price increase
The increase in electricity prices for customers of Salzburg AG is now causing a flood of complaints at the Salzburg Chamber of Labor. The average price increase per month is between 20 and 30 percent – more on that in salzburg.ORF.at (01/26/2023)