Up until now our electricity bill has been due every three months. The charge has also been based on actual usage for that three month period. With electric heating and Finnish winters this means the Q1 winter month's bill can be up to three times as much as what we pay during the much warmer summer months.
Recently our electricity company introduced new plans where we can pay monthly fixed fee based on estimated yearly usage. So no more huge bills that always come as a surprise as they come so rarely you usually just forget them.
I was a bit hesitant at first. We used to have similar billing years ago with another company. Back then however the actual usage was only checked once a year and the estimates ended being on the lower side almost every time. So in addition to those monthly payments there was still always that huge surprise bill.
The new system adjusts the payments and estimates on real time and the bill is always adjusted for the running 12 months. In addition the plan also offers 3 months of interest free payment option. Nice and predictable, you can even choose to have those bigger bills every now and then. But this time they shouldn't come as a surprise.