Kokua Line: Hawaiian Electric has payment plans for households and businesses with overdue bills

Question: Are the electrical bill payment plans only for residential customers?

Q: How much longer will Hawaiian Electric hold off cutting the electricity for nonpayment?

Answer: No, Hawaiian Electric’s payment plans are not limited to residential customers. Commercial customers facing financial hardship also may request extended payment plans on all islands the company serves. As to the second question, Hawaiian Electric’s moratorium on disconnections for nonpayment lasts until Sept. 1, a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left Hawaii’s economy reeling.

Hawaiian Electric urges any customer who is past due — residential or commercial — to contact the company now to set up a payment plan. There is no financing fee, and late fees will be waived for customers who qualify. Otherwise, late fees are scheduled to resume after Sept. 15, it said. It spells out the various plans — four options for residential customers and two for commercial ones — on its website, at 808ne.ws/ payplan.

All the payment plans require the customer to pay the past-due amount in equal installments over a period of months and to keep current on new charges. The timeline ranges from four to 12 months for residential accounts and from four to six months for commercial accounts.

Eligibility and requirements vary according to a customer’s account status. For example, a commercial customer with an account balance of $5,000 or more and no more than one pre-COVID disconnection notice could pay the past-due amount in six monthly installments without fees or penalties, as long as future monthly bills are paid on time. A residential customer with an account balance of $600 or more and no more than one pre-COVID disconnection notice could do the same.

To be clear, the pre-COVID credit history covers the period from March 2019 to February 2020, before the pandemic disrupted Hawaii’s economy. Hawaiian Electric suspended disconnections and collection activities in March, when many people lost their jobs and businesses shuttered.

Hawaiian Electric says the quickest way to request a payment plan is by filling out a form online, at 808ne.ws/hielform, and emailing the completed form to paymentarrangement@ hawaiianelectric.com.

Be sure to read about the available payment plans first, at the website mentioned earlier in this column. The website also has links to the request form in Japanese, Chinese, Marshallese and Chuukese. On the website, see the purple box in the left column for those links.

Q: I want to do a vehicle transfer by mail, but I don’t know how to calculate the fee.

A: If the registration expires within 45 days of the transfer, you’ll have to pay the new registration fee plus the applicable transfer fee. Honolulu County provides step-by-step instructions on how to the calculate the fees at 808ne.ws/trans.

Mahalo

A belated mahalo to Janice and another young lady (I’m sorry I didn’t get her name) who assisted me when I fell at Pearlridge. After sitting me down and seeing that I had no injuries, she offered to pick up my order at CPK and walked me back to my car. How blessed we are to have young people show kindness and care for their kupuna. — Grateful senior

Mahalo

Mahalo to a woman named Christine, who helped me lift my mom to her feet after my mom fell at Hawaiian Memorial Park on the afternoon of July 11. I could not have done it without your help, Christine. Your kindness and willingness to help, despite the threat of COVID- 19, are sincerely appreciated. May God bestow many blessings upon you and your family. — Grateful daughter

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.