With the latest maneuver against expensive bills, the government has also provided for the possibility of activating installment payment plans for families in difficulty. To make it possible to ground the installment mechanism, one billion euros have been allocated as an advance for the sellers interested in this track. But how does the installment work and when is it triggered? Let’s clear the field immediately from possible misunderstandings: the payment in installments is not automatic and above all it has been designed in favor of families in difficulty with bill payments, in addition to the other measures envisaged by the government.
1) Does the installment take place automatically?
It was the Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (Arera) that set, with an ad hoc resolution, the times and methods for implementing the payment plans in installments. First of all, the right can be exercised only in the event of defaulting payment for bills included in the period January 1st-April 30th. There are no automatisms, as mentioned, so if a family fails to pay an invoice within this time frame, it is the seller who must activate the path.
2) How is the payment in installments activated?
The resolution of the Arera states that the seller must insert in the reminder communication on non-payments or, in any case, in the notice of formal notice, the offer to the end customer of the possibility of paying in installments “without the payment of interest to be paid by borne by the user “. And the plan must have a periodicity equal to that of the billing applied in the ordinary way to the end customer. As for the number of installments, they must be at least equal to the number of bills normally issued in 10 months.
3) How much are the installments of the plan?
Then there is the issue of the amount of these installments. The Authority explains first of all that the first installment must be equal to 50% of the total amount of the installment plan and that the remaining 50% will be recovered in successive installments of the same amount. If the installments are less than 50 euros, then the number of installments can be reduced in compliance with the billing frequency, “no more than the minimum number necessary to determine installments of not less than 50 euros”. In any case, the resolution clarifies, the number of such installments cannot be less than two, even by derogating from the value of the amount.
4) Can sellers negotiate a different deal?
The final sellers can negotiate a different agreement with the final customer to better meet the customer’s needs within the limit, however, of what is established by the 2022 budget law. deferred payment.