Paying bills in Hungary

We own our property. Heat mostly with wood. So recurrent bills are: electricity, Internet, phone, water, various property taxes.

Property tax and water is sent yearly.

Electricity is now every three months (they send three bills).

All others are monthly.

Due dates are on every bill.

I pay them all on-line from my bank account.

Usually in cash with yellow giro slips at the Post Office.  Could pay online but decided we'd rather do it manually.

The providers collect it automatically from the bank account, in our case.

We pay in cash at the post office.
When we are out of HU for long trips over 6 months we go into each office and ask them to stop services, they still charge for a service fee for paperwork each month but we pay up all due bills and a few bucks more just in case before we leave the country.
We pay have direct payments with our bank for our apts. common costs each month.
When we return to HU after a long holiday away, we go in person to each office and make sure all is in order and have them restart the services.
We just don't want allot of mail in our box when we are gone.
We  also pay up front for our national health insurance before we leave the country, can't use it in the US but we like to be all paid up with everyone and owe nothing before we leave.
Not exactly fun to shell out a ton for 6 or 7 months of payments and not be able to use it, etc. but that's the way it goes.
After one trip away the electric co. never sent us a bill for months, over 6 months, we went into their office several times to ask why we weren't getting a bill. They said they would send it out but they never came, then we got one huge bill at once.

There are several ways to pay bills in Hungary. Online, bank transfer, and by check at the post office.

How long have you resided in Hungary?

The easiest way is to set up auto deduction with your bank account. One thing we learned before and learned again when changing banks is the bank needs an A number for each company in order to set up the auto-payments.

Sometimes this mysterious number is on your statement, but not always. I had to hunt down the A number for our electric and gas bills recently, so Magnet Bank could set up the payments.

Hello Priscilla,

Paying bills is straightforward in Hungary, more so if it can be arranged for them to be paid online, via dijnet.hu, for example, or over the iCsekk app, which I haven't tried personally, but both of these allow you to overcome queues, and staff that may not speak English at either the company's branches or the Magyar Posta post offices. Virtually all services are billed monthly. Either you or your landlord will receive bills via mail and you should take them with you when you pay, or the landlord could have them paid for, and get you a receipt to pay them back.
The various bills you may encounter may be for gas, hot and cold water, electricity, heating, internet and phone bills.

In some cases, probably for heating, you could be charged the same amount each month, and either be required to pay or receive an adjustment at the end of a calendar year, depending on actual usage. I have not experienced penalties for missed payments, but there has to be unpleasant consequences of missing deadlines, which can even be up to two weeks after receiving bills.

All the best

Abasiam wrote:

.... I have not experienced penalties for missed payments, but there has to be unpleasant consequences of missing deadlines, which can even be up to two weeks after receiving bills...

My old landlord lives in Austria and doesn't come to Hungary very often.  We've checked the post box for our post and found out he hasn't paid his gas or electricity bills or water since May and nothing has happened at all.  The neighbours tell us that it's all still on and still being used even though the place is empty.  I think it takes a lot to get disconnected and probably isn't actually allowed during winter.

One year. I  am a Hungarian American. I was bor in Hungary. After I stopped working  I have moved here. For me its easyer because me speaking the Language and my family educated me before I moved. Still its hard to adjust  but I am doing ok now. Any help I can provied just ask me.
Gabi

Abasiam wrote:

I have not experienced penalties for missed payments, but there has to be unpleasant consequences of missing deadlines

Have missed a few E-On (electrical) bills over the years. They just send another bill and a 250 HUF fee for not paying the last bill on time.

For what it is worth, 250 HUF currently is about 1 USD or about 0.80 Euro. So no big deal. And not dire or unpleasant. This is Hungary, not Hades.

I use my bank card (direct debit) to pay some things online, and dijnet.hu for recurring living expenses like utilities.

I find it to be very convenient.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I think it takes a lot to get disconnected and probably isn't actually allowed during winter.

If you recall my electricity was recently cut off whilst fully up to date with bills. I have still not been given an explanation but it was cut off in March 2016.

fidobsa wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I think it takes a lot to get disconnected and probably isn't actually allowed during winter.

If you recall my electricity was recently cut off whilst fully up to date with bills. I have still not been given an explanation but it was cut off in March 2016.

Yes I do now. 

There's a lot of confusion about meters in HU.   

We've had our meter changed multiple times and we didn't even get a water bill for 3 years.   We get them since last year but only since it froze up and broke and they had to come around and fix it and it was then "in the system".

Years ago they cut off our gas.  As it turned out, we'd been paying the neighbours bill and he'd not been paying ours - we had the wrong meter numbers on our bills. 

It took Mrs Fluffy about 5 trips to the gas company to solve it.

Gabi, if I can ask you a question or 2. I am in the US bought a Flat which I love and it’s next to Boscolo Marriott Blaha stop. I have been working on rehab 3 years which is a long story , very challenging and not being allowed to come back to the EU and Budapest makes it harder.
On the subject of paying bills. To set up gas, electric and water on line it’s difficult for me to understand how this is done. In US we just type in each utility account number and then pay on line when the bill comes. I would rather deduct from Hungarian bank but I do not have one yet so I will have to wait until I am allowed back into the country. When this happens , as I do not speak Hungarian, how will I go about each one, gas, water, electric? What bank do you find the best exchange ? I was going to pay a property manager to handle this for me and to check on Flat. Do you have recommendations on a good company? Thank you

I understand fully about the gas company. They owe me over $300.00 usd for over charge. They tell me to take a picture of meter reading and come to office. I do that and they say , yes we owe you a lot of money. I wait ,no refund. I then get a notice to once again pay the high gas bill even though I do not use it as I am in the US. They say now I need to be in Flat when they come. I was there they never showed up. Love the country but very disorganized on utility service. House Fee is the only one that seems to be on top of their game. How about property tax on your home or Flat? I have not received that yet in 2 years, why not? Thank you Ed

Wjy quote dollars?

@Priscilla

I pay all my bills at the post office but in recent years most companies constantly inform me that they would  prefer direct debits or payments on line.

    @Priscilla
I pay all my bills at the post office but in recent years most companies constantly inform me that they would  prefer direct debits or payments on line.
   

    -@anns

This thread is pretty old - over 4 years.

Situation will have changed no doubt.

@anns I would direct debit preferred

    @anns I would direct debit preferred        -@cdw057

We're still old school too

We save all the "yellow cheques" up and pay for them in one lump using debit card at the Post Office. 

We have to go to the Post Office all the time anyway because for some reason, the PO has stopped delivering some packages for everyone.  They are usually  these very small items sent from China.  The kids are buying stuff on AliExpress.  The PO here is daft as a brush.  They have the time and energy to put a note in the postbox but not the actual items.

I always thought postage in HU was door to door but apparently not. I know from other countries, postage is only from PO to PO.  You have to go to the PO to collect your ordinary mail.  This seems to be what they are adopting more and more here.

I personally would like the PO here to send us text messages and we can pick up any mail at any one of the collection box locations.  We've just seen them installing multiple collection boxes 300m from our house. It would be very convenient to go there instead and struggle with parking.

My husband has stared paying with his phone lately but still pays a few bills in person.

He is thinking of going back to paying all bills in person at the post office.

He just hates having his info out there in the cloud.

Many companies have stopped giving out the yellow checks to pay with. They seem to be forcing people to do it all online.

What he noticed which I think is a bit screwy is our auto and flat insurance is with the same co. but they trick people with not informing them the due date at the end of the term year. They want the policy to roll over before you have a chance to change companies if you wish to.

They also are due about a month apart while we opened the 2 policies at the same time. Confusion if you are not on top of things.

    My husband has stared paying with his phone lately but still pays a few bills in person.
He is thinking of going back to paying all bills in person at the post office.
He just hates having his info out there in the cloud.
Many companies have stopped giving out the yellow checks to pay with. They seem to be forcing people to do it all online.
What he noticed which I think is a bit screwy is our auto and flat insurance is with the same co. but they trick people with not informing them the due date at the end of the term year. They want the policy to roll over before you have a chance to change companies if you wish to.
They also are due about a month apart while we opened the 2 policies at the same time. Confusion if you are not on top of things.
   

    -@Marilyn Tassy

We have to keep on top of those car insurances as well.   The basic insurance is easy. It's the extra "Casco" where we end up with lots of research and negotiation.  The insurance companies think people are lazy and will roll it over on a higher price. Mrs Fluffy spends ages on that kind of thing.

Paying online is obviously a cost saving measure.  It probably costs overall the Post Office $10 for an in-person visit just for the yellow checks.  But  if one pays online, is informed by e-mail etc, maybe it costs $0.50.  It's a no-brainer really for them.

We went in person yesterday to pay the auto and apt. insurance.

We paid the apt. coverage a month early but better then forgetting about it.

I know whenever we leave Hungary for an extended amout of time we go into each office and give them a meter reading aprox. of what we expect it to be on the day we leave.

They will not shut off service but we let them know anyways.

We still get a monthly service bill for their time spent on paperwork or whatever they charge for .Just a few bucks each month.

When we return we just use it again and go back within the week and inform them.

I am not sure they turn off service for long term none payments or not.

We never owned them.

A few times we were slightly overcharged and they sent us credit, no cash refund.

My husband, the hoarder just tossed out some old payment  stubs from 15 yeaers ago.

Each month like a good book keeper he makes notes of the meter readings and how much we paid and how much we used each month etc.

He does not trust them and he can back up any claims he has with his stubs and book keeping.

They we have found usually do not make major mistakes in billing, everything is usually balanced and correct with billing.

Recently they removed the electric meters from inside the flats to outside the front door.

In some ways it is easier because they can check the meters without having to enter the flat but then again, anyone can mess with the readings now.

That alone was a scam, we paid for the new meters ourselves while they belong to the electric co.

The idiots in our house just went along with whatever the management told them to pay.

My husband was the only one with questions about the cots of new wiring and meters.

We were charged by how large our flat is.

Our cost was $700. some paid that amount and some more.

Our neighbor had a guy come for some clean up around her new meter and she asked him how much he thought the cost for new wiring and meters should of been for her. Her flat is the same size as ours is.

She also paid $700.

Well, the guy said they job probably cost no more then $150.!!

Knew it, our manager is a scam artist and crook!