Utility Payment Plans and Autopay to Reduce Late Bills | Forteautomated payments
Reduce Late Utility Payments with Automatic Reminders and Recurring Autopay
CSG Forte TeamAuthor
Key Takeaways
Thoughtful utility payment plans plus recurring autopay can reduce delinquencies without sacrificing fairness or compliance.
Multichannel reminders —email, text and automated calls—work best when they’re timed before due dates and written in a supportive, action-oriented tone.
Unifying bill presentment, payment channels and revenue-protection tools like account updater and NSF recovery helps utilities cut call volume and manual collections work.
When residents fall behind on utility bills, it doesn’t just hurt cash flow. It drives more billing questions, more payment-plan negotiations, and more tense conversations about late fees and shutoffs.
Many utilities respond by tightening collections, but there’s another path: combine flexible, well-structured utility payment plans with smarter, automated reminders and recurring autopay. Done right, this approach can reduce late payments and call volume while staying fair, compliant and secure .
This guide outlines how utility leaders can modernize payment plans and communications—without overhauling core systems or putting revenue at risk.
Why residents fall behind on utility bills
Most delinquencies are not about refusal to pay. They’re usually about timing, friction and confusion . Common drivers include:
Mismatched billing and pay cycles: Residents get paid weekly or biweekly, but bills are due on fixed dates that may fall just before payday.
Bill shock and seasonality: Weather extremes, usage spikes or rate changes can push even reliable payers into arrears for a month or two.
High-friction payment experiences: If residents must mail a check, stand in line or navigate a clunky portal, it’s easy to procrastinate. Internal guidance notes that outdated, single-channel portals often drive abandonment, unpaid bills and more calls instead of self-service.
Payment failures residents never see: Expired or reissued cards can silently break existing autopay arrangements, creating “mystery delinquencies” until a shutoff notice or large past-due balance appears.
At the same time, customer expectations have shifted toward digital, low-friction payments . Federal Reserve data from 2024 shows that nearly 70% of consumers prefer paying bills digitally instead of with checks or in-person payments, and more than half of U.S. consumers say they prefer mobile apps for utility payments.
These preferences create an opportunity: make it easier to pay on time, instead of focusing only on penalties when payments are late.
Designing flexible payment plans that still protect revenue
A modern utility payment plan should help residents succeed and safeguard the utility’s revenue. That balance comes from standardization, automation and built-in safeguards .
Standardize plan types and eligibility
Instead of one-off arrangements that depend on which agent answered the phone, define a small set of plan templates, such as:
Short-term catch-up plans (e.g., 2–3 installments)
Extended plans for larger arrears (e.g., 6–12 installments)
“Current + arrears” plans where residents pay the new bill plus a fixed amount toward the past-due balance
Eligibility rules—like minimum/maximum balances, number of plans allowed per 12 months and hardship flags—can be configured in billing systems or payment platforms so frontline staff are applying policies consistently.
This kind of standardization is echoed in internal playbooks on payment plans best practices , which recommend a limited set of options with clear parameters so staff can enroll residents quickly and fairly.
Make plans easy to execute, not just easy to approve
Affordability on paper isn’t enough; residents also need low-friction ways to follow through. Best practices include:
Scheduled payments: Let residents choose specific draft dates that line up with their paydays.
Recurring/autopay for installments: Encourage residents to put installment amounts on a recurring schedule—either card or ACH—so they don’t have to remember each payment manually.
Multichannel access: Offer online, IVR/phone and in-person options, all connected to the same account balance.
When residents can enroll and manage plans through self-service channels, you reduce pressure on contact center staff and shorten call times.
Prevent and repair “silent failures”
Recurring plans often fail because payment credentials change. Instead of waiting for declines and manual outreach, utilities can:
Use stored credentials with tokenization so cards can be updated centrally without re-keying each account.
Add an account updater service where available, so expired, changed or reissued card details are refreshed automatically.
For example, Hall’s Culligan Water activated an account updater add-on and, in the first month, processed $258,000 more in payments—a 3% increase in successful collections—completed over 4,000 cardholder updates and recovered $193,000 from cards that only needed expiration dates updated.
For utilities, similar tools can keep autopay and installment plans running with far less manual work.
Bake in security and compliance
Because utilities handle sensitive financial data and serve broad populations, payment flexibility must sit on a strong security foundation, including:
Tokenization to secure recurring transactions and keep card data out of utility systems
PCI-validated encryption so payment data is protected from the moment it’s entered
ACH account validation and NSF recovery that align with Nacha rules for ACH debits and retries
These capabilities help utilities offer more options and automation without expanding compliance risk.
Using reminders wisely: channel, timing and tone
Reminders are powerful, but if they’re poorly designed, they can feel intrusive. The goal is to send fewer, more relevant messages at the right time and on the right channel.
Channel: meet residents where they are
The right payer engagement platform should combine email, SMS and automated calls to reach more diverse populations.
Email for full bill details, plan confirmations and receipts
SMS/text for short nudges—“Your bill of $X is due on [date]. Pay now: [link]”
Automated voice/IVR for residents who prefer or rely on phone payments
Timing: intervene before penalties and shutoffs
A typical cadence might include:
Upcoming-due reminders 3–5 days before the due date
Day-of nudges with a one-click or one-tap path to pay
Early past-due notices (1–3 days after) that clearly explain options, including payment plans
Installment reminders a few days before scheduled payments so residents can confirm funds
Tone: supportive and action-oriented
Especially in essential services, tone matters:
Focus on information and options , not blame
Clearly state amount, due date and what to do next
When past due, highlight ways to avoid interruption— Pay now , Schedule a payment , or Set up a payment plan
This approach respects residents’ circumstances while still driving action.
Coordinating billing, customer service and collections
Reducing late payments isn’t just a collections problem; it’s an end-to-end payments problem. Utilities see the best results when billing, customer service and collections teams share one playbook.
Billing: clear presentment and unified channels
Move more bill presentment online with EBPP (electronic bill presentment and payment) to send invoices electronically so customers can view bills and pay on their own, which speeds payment and reduces customer service calls.
Consolidate payment channels into a single, integrated platform to reduce errors and confusion from fragmented systems.
Ensure bills (paper and digital) clearly call out self-service options and how to enroll in autopay or payment plans.
Customer service: resolve issues and close the loop
Frontline agents need tools that let them help residents in a single interaction:
Quick access to standardized plan options and eligibility rules
The ability to send secure payment links during a call , so residents can complete payments on their device without reading card or bank details aloud (this also reduces PCI scope).
Visibility into whether reminder emails, texts or calls were sent, to avoid confusing experiences for residents
Collections: focus on true non-payers
When plans, reminders and autopay are working, collections teams can:
Spend more time on genuinely at-risk accounts instead of routine delinquencies
Use analytics (e.g., frequent NSFs, chronic non-response) to prioritize outreach
Work more closely with billing and CX to refine upstream policies and scripts
Real-world examples from adjacent sectors show what this looks like in practice. WasteWORKS , a solid waste management platform serving utilities and waste facilities, integrated CSG Forte to support online, in-person and card-on-file payments. Facilities now process payments “in seconds,” see fewer manual errors and have a seamless experience at every touchpoint, processing more than 144,000 payments each month through CSG Forte.
That same model—flexible channels with strong back-office integration—translates directly to utilities.
How to measure the impact on delinquencies and call volume
To prove the value of flexible plans and smarter reminders, track changes across three dimensions: delinquencies , operations and customer experience .
1. Delinquencies and revenue metrics
Percentage of accounts 1–30 , 31–60 and 61+ days past due
Average days sales outstanding (DSO) or equivalent receivables aging
Adoption and completion rate of payment plans
Autopay enrollment rate (overall and among previously delinquent segments)
Card and ACH decline rates before and after implementing tools like account validation, account updater and NSF recovery
2. Call center and operations metrics
Total billing- and payment-related call volume
Calls specifically about past-due balances or payment plans
Average handle time for payment calls
Self-service containment (what percentage of payments occur without an agent)
Manual work effort in collections (for example, hours spent manually updating cards or chasing declined payments)
Hall’s Culligan reports that after adding CSG Forte’s Account Updater, staff saved significant time because more than 4,000 cardholder records were updated automatically in the first month, rather than through 15–20-minute calls per decline.
3. Customer experience and fairness indicators
To ensure your approach is both effective and equitable, track:
Complaint rates related to billing, fees and shutoffs
The share of residents using digital channels vs. in-person/phone, segmented by demographics where possible
Re-default rates among residents who completed a payment plan
Qualitative feedback from surveys or community forums about payment communication and options
Over time, you can adjust plan structures, reminder timing and channel mix based on what improves both on-time payment and satisfaction.
Bringing it all together with modern utility payment solutions
The most effective strategy doesn’t treat payment plans, reminders and autopay as separate projects. Instead, it weaves them together into a single, modern payment experience:
Clear, electronic bill presentment and self-service access
Standardized, flexible utility payment plans tuned to resident realities
Scheduled and recurring payments that align with pay cycles
Automated, multichannel reminders with respectful language
A secure, compliant infrastructure that protects both customer data and cash flow
CSG Forte’s utility billing and payment solutions are designed to support exactly this kind of approach, with omnichannel acceptance (online, IVR, in-person), payer engagement capabilities for reminders and flexible payment options, and secure electronic bill presentment.
If your organization is ready to reduce late payments, lower call volume and improve the resident experience, it may be time to revisit your payment strategy.
FAQs
What is a utility payment plan?
A utility payment plan is an agreement that lets a customer pay down a past-due balance over time—often in fixed installments—while keeping current bills paid. Modern plans can be managed online, over the phone or in person, and may support recurring or scheduled payments.
How do recurring autopay options reduce late utility payments?
When residents enroll in recurring payments for their monthly bill or plan installments, they no longer rely on remembering due dates. Combined with card updater and ACH validation tools, autopay can significantly reduce missed or declined payments.
What channels should utilities use for payment reminders?
Best practice is to combine email (for detail), SMS/text (for quick nudges and pay links) and automated phone/IVR for residents who prefer to call. CSG Forte’s payer engagement and utilities solutions highlight this multichannel approach to reduce delinquencies and support diverse customer preferences.
How can utilities keep flexible payment options secure and compliant?
Utilities should work with providers that support tokenization, PCI-validated encryption, ACH account validation and Nacha-compliant NSF recovery. CSG Forte emphasizes these controls across its utilities and bill presentment solutions.
What metrics show that payment plans and reminders are working?
Track past-due rates by aging bucket, autopay and plan adoption, card/ACH decline rates, billing-related call volume, and complaints about billing or shutoffs. CSG Forte case studies, like Hall’s Culligan and WasteWORKS, demonstrate how the right tools improve collections and reduce manual workload.
