The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) urges customers to utilize automatic payment schemes when settling their electricity bills as part of its efforts to push for their safety and convenience, while promoting ease in doing business.
Through a webinar held on July 20, Meralco provided an avenue where corporate customers and Meralco’s bank partners were able to discuss the processes and benefits of auto-payment arrangements (APA) offered to businesses.
Under the APA, corporate customers — or those with electricity consumption of 500 kilowatts and above — may enter into an automatic debit arrangement with accredited banks, or an automatic charge setup with credit card companies.
Customers only need to coordinate with their bank and must have no outstanding bill at the time of enrollment. On or before the due date, the bank will automatically debit or charge the total amount. When payment is successful, it will then be posted on the customers’ Meralco account.
“We evolve because the needs of our customers continue to change, adapting to the times. And as an end-to-end energy solutions partner, we want to continue creating value and innovating, to enable our customers to operate or expand their businesses as quickly as possible — as well as simplifying means of doing business,” said Meralco Customer Payments Manager Wilson V. Manzano.
“We are opening this up to our customers to help ease the burden of paying bills. Simply put, customers can link up their existing bank account to partner banks who are participating in the automatic payment arrangement program. This way, the monthly payment of dues is seamless. Apart from keeping the lights on, we are striving to give our customers a convenient user experience,” said Engineer Ma. Cecilia M. Domingo, vice-president and head of Meralco Corporate Partners.
Customers may also contact their dedicated Relationship Manager for their inquiries on bills consumption and history, paperless billing subscription, request for authorized withholding agent (AWA) tagging, submission of creditable withholding tax (CWT) forms, report of a power outage or incident, and application for additional service.
When the pandemic hit the country two years ago, Meralco found the need to leverage on online platforms to offer hassle-free solutions to its customers. Besides APA, Meralco also introduced the Online Customer Appointment, Virtual Customer Assistant, as well as SMS reminders of bills, payment confirmation, and service bulletins, among others.
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