Couple of thoughts - some which overlap with some ideas I've seen here.
Usage - this should be available for your total lifespan as a customer. e.g. we've been with AGL since 2015 - therefore usage should be easily visible for that whole time.
12 month rolling usage - this should be shown on your Usage charts. This helps balance the heating/cooling periods of the year - and this projection should be used in a transparent way to calculate your Bill Smoothing.
Billing - after a period (say 12 months) there should be options for the user to request a refund/change to payment - where in credit by more than one billing periods worth.
Plan/Contract dates - these should be clearly visible to the account holder on each page (Overview/Billing/Usage) - an e-mail reminder facility would also be helpful.
Given the amount of problems that i've had with AGL's inability to estimate my usage/bill (I think it's been cancelled three times now in order to provide me with refunds for the gross overpayments) - even though it's been highly predictable and there's ten years worth of data - here's my view on how Bill Smoothing should operate:
- at commencement this should be: current debt/credit + annual projection / no of billing periods (e.g. 12 for monthly). This should not change for at least 9 months.
- a threshold should be set (i'd say about 1 months worth) - for debt or credit which should automatically trigger a review and adjustment of the Bill Smoothing.
(e.g. if you're paying $200 per month, and end up, over time, more than $200 in credit, or debt, then there's a recalcution done automatically).
