How to Review a Past-Due Balance on a Utility Bill

Quick Answer

A past-due balance is the amount a utility says you owe from earlier bill periods, and the date printed on a disconnection notice — not the balance itself — is the deadline that matters. Reconcile the account, verify the notice, line up assistance, and get a payment agreement before that date.

Help exists year-round: LIHEAP assists roughly 6.7 million households with heating and cooling bills [2], and the CFPB tells customers to contact a local LIHEAP office or call the National Energy Assistance Referral Hotline at (866) 674-6327 [1].

Step 1: Reconcile the Account First

Compare the current statement with the prior statement and your payment records — how utility billing cycles work explains why the two statements can cover different day counts. Record:

If a payment doesn’t match your own records, the next move is how to dispute a utility bill — open the review before you pay anything you can’t verify. In Texas, a utility cannot disconnect you for disputed charges until the dispute is resolved and you are notified of the outcome [5].

Step 2: Verify the Notice and the Deadline

Every state sets its own notice framework — the pattern is notice, then a waiting period, then disconnection:

Your state’s public utility commission publishes the equivalent consumer rules; read them against your notice rather than assuming any other state’s timeline. For the whole arc — notice types, waiting periods, and what utilities may and may not disconnect for — see can a utility shut off your service?.

Step 3: Line Up Assistance Before the Deadline

CFPB directs customers to year-round utility-bill help through the local Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) office, or the National Energy Assistance Referral Hotline at (866) 674-6327; for help finding options, contact 211 [1]. LIHEAP runs through state block grants paid to local agencies, and the funds are targeted specifically to prevent shutoffs and assist with heating and cooling bills [2]. For the full landscape of programs — LIHEAP and beyond — see utility assistance programs: LIHEAP and other help for bill payments.

Confirm with the program:

• Eligibility — what income or household rules apply to you.
• Deadlines — whether the program can act before your disconnection date.
• Required documents — what to gather before applying.
• Payment routing — whether payment goes to you or directly to the utility.

In Texas, if your REP receives notice by the final due date on the disconnection notice that an energy assistance provider is forwarding sufficient payment — and you’ve handled any balance the assistance doesn’t cover — your service cannot be disconnected for non-payment [5].

Step 4: Dispute and Protect Service at the Same Time

Ask for a payment agreement before the disconnection date, not after. Texas customers who have received no more than two termination notices in the past year are eligible for a deferred payment plan [6]. Under Minnesota’s Cold Weather Rule, a utility also may not charge a new deposit or delinquency charge to keep service when you’ve entered a payment agreement (or appealed a payment-agreement dispute to the commission) [3].

If a specific line is wrong, open a review using the utility-bill dispute process while keeping the payment agreement — disputing a charge does not put the rest of the bill on hold. Know the downside before you decide: utility reconnection fee: what to expect after shutoff covers the cost side if a shutoff does happen.

Keep a Written Record

Keep bills, notices, payment confirmations, and case numbers together. Ask for the next review level and the oversight authority if the utility can’t resolve the question — investor-owned, municipal, and cooperative utilities answer to different regulators, and Minnesota customers can appeal a payment-agreement dispute directly to the state commission, which must decide within 20 working days [3]. As you build the file, how to read your electric bill line by line is the reference for decoding the statement behind the balance.

A disconnection notice is recoverable: reconnection after shutoff explains the fee side, and the full shutoff-and-notice lifecycle explains when utilities can disconnect at all. Deposit demands often arrive with a new past-due situation — how to review a utility deposit.

Where to go next: Work the four steps above against your own notice today — reconcile the account, verify the deadline, call LIHEAP or your utility for a payment agreement before that date, and keep every confirmation in one file. If the balance itself doesn’t match your records, hand the statement to how to dispute a utility bill and keep the payment agreement running while the review is open.

Related Reading

• Utility reconnection fee: how to restore service after shutoff — the cost side of getting service back.
• How utility deposits work: when you need one and how to get it back — deposit demands that often arrive with a past-due situation.
• Can a utility shut off your service? The full process explained — the complete notice-and-disconnection lifecycle.
• How to dispute a utility bill: step by step — the formal review process, without losing service.
• Utility assistance programs: LIHEAP and other help for bill payments — the deep dive on payment help.
• How utility billing cycles work: why your due date isn’t always 30 days — why statement periods, and deadlines, shift.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Get help paying rent and bills (retrieved 2026-08-29)
2. LIHEAP — Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (retrieved 2026-08-29)
3. Minnesota Statutes 216B.096 — Cold Weather Rule; Public Utility (retrieved 2026-08-29)
4. Minnesota Statutes 216B.097 — Cold Weather Rule; Cooperative or Municipal Utility (retrieved 2026-08-29)
5. Public Utility Commission of Texas — Know Your Rights (retrieved 2026-08-29)
6. Public Utility Commission of Texas — Electricity FAQs (retrieved 2026-08-29)