No CFE Bill This month

For the last several months I have received an email version of the CFE bill, followed in a day or two by the paper copy, just before the first of the month. This month I have received neither, nor have I seen anyone else nearby receiving a CFE bill. I live near six corners. Has anyone else noticed a missing CFE bill?

It is only the 4th. Patience is a virtue and I would not worry, since you are not alone in lacking a bill. If in doubt, go to CFE and enter your data into their machine to see your current balance. It may not be posted yet, but if it is, you can pay it there.....just put money in the slot, etc.

You can also check and print your bill from their website. This is what we do since we rarely get the actual bill or e-mail.

Just checked on-line. Nothing posted since the September bill which was due October 5. Guess they're really behind this month.

We went through the same situation...no bill for over 1 month. CFE told us we would be billed every two months, again. Do not know why they changed from one month back to two. The bill arrived, for 2 months, as they
promised on 10/23.

Got mine today in Chapala. Or, rather, got my neighbor's bill. Perhaps they got mine. Oh well....

I know several people who didn't receive bills this month (in Ajijic, anyway). Yes, CFE is really behind. I had to pull one off the internet today (for a client who doesn't access it that way normally), and it was waaaay overdue. She's lucky she still has electricity. Nonetheless, signing up and getting e-mail alerts, and being able to access bills from their website is better than getting shut off because they never delivered the paper version. No electricity = going dark = no web access = trip to CFE.

For anyone who hasn't done it, below is a link where you can sign up for e-mail copies of your bills, which I usually receive at LEAST a week before paper version, if I ever actually receive a paper version at all.

CFE Home Page

Same thing happened to me in September while I was in Germany for 6 weeks.  I was worried the power would be cut however my MagicJack phone service continued to work over there on my cell phone app with the unit plugged into an outlet back home, so I knew I was good.  When I got back I did get a bill the next month for two months, just like it used to be several years ago.  My bills are low but when they bill you every two months, they make more money off you as the whole second month is in the second or higher tier of charges.  For people who flirt with the DAC rate on a monthly basis, this type of billing would push them into it.  Maybe someone figured out changing a bunch of customers back to every two months would make CFE more money?  Just my thoughts on the change.

I thought the DAC was no more than 500kWh every 2 months or 3000kWh every year.

I have quit worrying about when or if I get my paper CFE bill. I simply put a reminder on my calendar for the next payment date each time I pay the bill. When that date arrives I see if I can download the current bill or just go and pay with and old bill. Your account number and the bar code you can scan never change so you can use an old bill without any problem.

If I am going to be out of town I go before I leave and make a "deposit" sufficient to cover the next bill plus a little cushion.

Right on Canuck Bob. The regulations says that any time you go back 12 or fewer months and you are over 3000 KWH, you go to DAC. It doesn't matter whether you are billed once per month or every other month. To learn more about the rates check out your account on line.

Here is what you will find for our region;

Our tariff 1 rates for November per month are/were

Cargos por energía consumida

Consumo básico $ 0.793 por cada uno de los primeros 75 (setenta y cinco) kilowatts-hora.
Consumo intermedio $ 0.956 por cada uno de los siguientes 65 (sesenta y cinco) kilowatts-hora.
Consumo excedente $ 2.802 por cada kilowatt-hora adicional a los anteriores.

Should you use more than 3000 KWH in a billing period of one year or less, you go to the high rate on each and every KWH plus a monthly fee.

Each and every KWH costs $ 4.324 plus a monthly fee of $ 98.04

ALSO not mentioned is that added to each and every amount you are charged is the 16% IVA or sales tax.

Bob/Pete, both absolutely correct.  DAC...nothing to do with one or two month billing, but everything to do with 3,000 kwh per year.

I humbly stand corrected on how the DAC rate is applied. The point I was trying to make was that with two month billing, one pays more for the same electricity than one would with two monthly bills. The second month's charge starts at the higher billing levels, not zero. It doesn't amount to much on my usage and probably not for a lot of folks unless you spend a lot more time in the $2.802 bracket, but if CFE does that for a whole slew of customers, it adds up for them.

It works out the same. During the first 150 KWH (2*75) of a two month period you are billed at the lowest rate at during the next (2*65) 130 KWH of the two month period at the next rate, etc.

That's good to know, thanks, Pete. I guess I hadn't scrutinized the bill details well enough.

If you skip a month paying other bills - like a credit card or a mortgage - you will almost certainly pay more for at least the next payment. Not sure it makes sense to expect to miss a payment and not have at least some additional cost. Just my opinion.

Since at least 1975 up to recent years, all CFE billing was bi-monthly.  Monthly billing is a fairly recent practice starting will solar energy availability and digital meters.
Monthly billing would certainly bring in the revenue quicker but ups the expense of reading conventional meters, paper billing and time spent manually receiving payments.
Digital meters, machines replacing tellers, and satellite payment locations changed their thinking.
Does anyone remember when all the CFE bills were brought to one location in SAT and
Ajijic and everyone had to go there to pay. The carniceria in SAT and Gus Sanchez's restaurant in Ajijic.

Armed robbers didn't have the patience to sit around and wait for the bills to arrive as no one ever knew what day or what hour.  Very few unfamiliar faces in the queue and not many people in the DAC rate, in those days either.

ferret wrote:There were a LOT of gringos with air conditioning and pools who lived there full time in those years. Our bill was regularly 15,000 pesos every two months from June through the end of October during that time frame. And we were still in DAC all year with the pool alone. Nobody had solar installations then either.

I was speaking of SAT, not San Pancho. Air conditioning didn't get "invented" here until much later than there.  I remember going to the playa and saying...."WOW!....air conditioning!!!....what's next? a land line in every house?....or the impossible....computers???"

slainte39 wrote:Armed robbers didn't have the patience to sit around and wait for the bills to arrive ...

The easiest way to handle your CFE, Telecable,and Telmex billing is to pay them a year in advance..We look at what our annual cost was for the previous year add a percentage and pay them..So far no issues as they are right on with their deductions..The only hitch was when Izzi bought out Telecable and they did away with the deal that if you paid a year in advance you got 2 extra months free..NO MORE with Izzi..pay for 12 and get 12 months of crappy service without the U.S. channels and sorry service...

I am not defending IZZI, because things are worse. And there are next to no English channels on analog cable. However the digital channels going from 100 to 999 have quite a few English channels.

Sorry I guess we should get back to CFE electrical bills.