What to Do If You Miss a Utility Bill Payment

Posted on September 2, 2025 by David Beltrán Barajas | CUB Oregon
Tags, Oregon Utilities 101, Energy, General Interest

Hand holding a bill with past due notice in red

Dealing with a utility disconnection is a stressful and miserable experience. I personally went through it when I was between jobs last year. And over the past few months, I’ve been hearing a ton from community members who are having to navigate the process.

What I’ve learned from my own experience and those from folks I’ve talked to is that disconnection is not an easy hardship to deal with.

Read on, and I’ll share what I’ve learned so that you can manage to deal with a disconnection warning or a utility disconnection for non-payment. Note that the protections and programs in this blog only apply to Oregon’s for-profit utilities (PGE, Pacific Power, Idaho Power, NW Natural, Avista, and Cascade).

You Missed a Bill… Now What?

Missing a payment to your utility happens, but it does not have to lead to a disconnection.

In the days after a missed bill was due:

If possible, pay the full amount from your missed bill as soon as possible
Ask for an extension on your bill due date (you’ll still have to pay for the amount you use going forward, but this can buy you a little more time)
Make a partial payment to keep the amount you owe as low as you can*
If you need to spread out the amount you owe, contact your utility’s customer service to set up a payment plan

*Each utility has a different amount in its policies for how much a customer owes before it will move forward with a disconnection. These amounts can range from $50 - $200 in past due bills.

Two weeks after a missed bill:

If you can pay your full bill, this is always the best option
Contact your utility to set up a payment plan, spreading out the past-due amount for as long as possible**
Seek out energy bill assistance from a local provider (funds are limited and may be difficult to find outside of the winter)

**Utilities may offer a payment plan that lasts two months or more. The most common length is 12 months. Remember that these payments are added to your monthly bills going forward, increasing your balance each month. A longer timeline will add less money to each bill. You can ask your utility for a longer timeline, though the utility may not agree to more than 12 months.

One Month Could Be Nearing Disconnection.
At this point, you may have already received a 20-day disconnection notice from your utility warning of a disconnection if payment is not received. A utility must give you a formal Notice of Disconnection at least 20 days before they shut off your power or gas. If you have received this notice, you need to pay the bills (either yourself or through emergency bill payment assistance funds) or set up a payment plan, or you will be disconnected.

Utilities must also send a 5-day Notice of Disconnection. It is best to seek emergency bill payment assistance at the 20-day notice to better ensure your chances of obtaining assistance to avoid disconnection.

Disconnected Happens
If you are disconnected, the only payment options available in order to have power reconnected are:

Pay off the past due balance in full
Pay off half of the past due balance and put the other half on a 2-month payment plan

You can seek emergency disconnection support from local energy assistance providers through 211, though these funds are very limited.

Once you’re disconnected, your options are extremely limited. This is why it is important to ask for a payment plan as soon as you realize you are unable to make the payment in full!

Seek Help At The Start Of Your Hardship Period

I see a pattern with most of the community members calling in about their disconnections, which I experienced. Folks are being laid off, struggling to find new jobs in this market. Others can’t work at the same capacity for medical or family reasons. All the while, bills continue to stack up. So when I say seek help before you actually need it, I mean seek help before things get out of hand.

A disconnection can add costs and make it harder to find help. Late fees and reconnection fees make the total amount you owe continue to grow. To get reconnected, utilities may request more money from the past due amount upfront, and emergency funds are limited, especially outside of the winter.

You really need to get started on all these steps as soon as you’ve stopped collecting income or have a hardship that would cause you to miss payments on your bills.

Start With Your Utility’s Bill Discount Programs

The easiest step is signing up for all of your energy utility income-based discount programs. :

Electric Utilities:

Gas Utilities:

Don’t see your utility listed? Check out your utility’s website and see if they have an economic assistance page; their bill discount program applications will usually be housed there.

Ask for a Payment Plan on Your Past Due Balance

If you’ve already started building up a past-due balance, the next step you’ll want to take is calling your utility and requesting a payment plan. This will split what you owe and break it up over a couple of months to a year. The payment plan makes it a little easier to manage your balance, better protects you from disconnection, and protects you from having to make a large payment to get your utility back on.

The reason this is important is that you can only set up a payment plan before your utility disconnects you. Once your utility shuts off your power or gas, you won’t have the option available. You will need to pay half of your past due balance upfront, and commit to a 2-month payment plan for the other half, to get reconnected.

If you get on a payment plan, you need to keep up with it. Missing these payment plan payments will re-issue the disconnection process to begin again.

Reach Out To Community Organizations Early

If you’re not able to afford a payment plan or your past due balance continues to climb, there are still options. You’ll want to reach out to energy assistance providers in your local area to seek help.

To be frank, this process can be a slog, but we encourage you to power through! 211 will provide you with a list of agencies that serve your local area, as well as their website and contact information. You will have to call each one and inquire about the resources they’re offering and if they have energy assistance available, and if your household qualifies to receive it. The process is time-consuming, so you’ll require some patience and persistence.

Get Help with Bill Payment Assistance

The goal is to get you signed up for energy assistance programs like OEAP (for qualifying PGE and Pacific Power customers), OLGA and GAP (for qualifying NW Natural customers), Project Share (for qualifying Idaho Power and Avista customers) or LIHEAP (for qualifying customers of any energy utility who is a US citizen), or any other assistance program for another utility you have, like water.

Added Disconnection Protections

For all customers, disconnections are limited to certain times and days. Utilities are not allowed to shut off service for past-due bills Friday-Sunday or the day before or day of any Oregon or utility-designated holidays. You also cannot be disconnected from energy before, during, and even after certain qualifying extreme weather events.

Extreme weather events include:

A winter storm warning, issued from November to March
Forecasted temperatures of 32 degrees and below from November to March
Poor air quality (air quality index above 100)
Wildfire evacuation level 2 and 3 notices
Heat advisories, extreme heat warnings, and extreme heat watches.

Importantly, if you were disconnected ahead of one of the extreme weather events, you should call your utility to be turned back on—with no upfront cost allowed!

Read More: New Protections Against Summer Power Shut-Offs (2025)

For low-income customers, there are additional protections during extreme weather and year-round. You qualify as a “low-income customer” if you have received energy bill assistance (LIHEAP or OEAP), are enrolled in a bill discount program, or have an income at or below 60% of the State Median Income.

Stronger Protections for Low-Income Households:

No Deposits for Low-Income Households
No Late Fees for Low-Income Customers
Limited Reconnection Fees for Low-Income Customers

Think Holistically To Ease The Burden

The fact of the matter is that if you’re behind on your utility bill, you’re probably behind on all your other bills. No one just chooses to fall behind. These are symptoms of a challenging economy and underfunded safety nets. So you must think of holistic solutions because you’re likely taking hits in other areas of your life. For me, that looked like:

Utilizing the food bank from the community garden that I helped maintain
Allow my community, friends, and family to help me financially and with day-to-day tasks
Utilizing free resources in my community to help me in the process of being disconnected

What they may look like for you:

Finding a friend to stay with you or help split larger costs in your household
Getting food from a food bank, community garden, or neighbors
Reaching out to mutual aid projects to cover necessities and free up money for your bills or reconnection
Connect with a church or community center for other resources or aid that might reduce your financial burden
Utilize your local library for access to the internet, phones, and printers (some libraries even have crisis social workers!)

Don’t Turn Away! Don’t Feel Ashamed! Lean Into Community!

The biggest lesson I learned from my own disconnection was not to hide from the problem. The financial stress and fear of continuously falling behind can make you freeze up. We know we’re behind on our bills, that growing balance can feel scary, and then you stop opening the bills altogether.

I missed my disconnection notice because I was afraid of all the past due notices I kept getting for my mortgage, gas, electric, phone, and car bills. Everything I owed caused me to close my eyes, and then one day, the power was cut.

What was worse than all the fear I felt through this process was the shame. The shame prevented me from asking for help sooner. Lean into your community and reach out for a helping hand. Intervention before your problem is dire pays off. There is never any shame in asking for help.

Advocate, Get Involved And Share Your Story

A hardship period is time-consuming and stressful. But once you’re stable and back on track, the final step is shifting from advocating for yourself to advocating for others, using your experience to fight for fair protections for all Oregonians.

It’s through the stories and advocacy of community members just like you that we’ve been able to fight for affordable energy and disconnection protections. This year, we passed the FAIR Energy Act, which will focus on making utility rates more affordable. We also secured more funding for Oregon’s Energy Assistance Program (OEAP). Community members who have felt the sting of disconnections and passed-due payments made their voices heard and helped create policies that address the rising trend of disconnections in Oregon.

We need you, too! If you want to help in shaping policy for the better, share your own energy and disconnection story.

Share Your Past Due Bills Story

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