PLANS Topic 402 The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) - Lowering your Utility Bills

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What is the Citizens Utility Board (CUB)?

Since 1984, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) has been Illinois premier nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer-advocacy group devoted to lowering your gas, electric, and telephone bills.

What is CUB Energy Saver?

CUB Energy Saver is a free online energy advisory service provided by the Illinois Citizens Utility Board (CUB). CUB Energy Saver is the first online service that provides personalized energy savings recommendations and rewards you based on how much energy you actually save!

How does CUB Energy Saver work and how do I earn rewards?

CUB Energy Saver provides personalized energy savings recommendations based on the ways in which you use energy. CUB Energy Saver evaluates energy savings by analyzing past bills normalized for changes in weather. Points are awarded based on your energy savings and redeemable for rewards from local, national, and online retailers.

How much does it cost to participate in CUB Energy Saver?

CUB Energy Saver is free for everyone! Participation is limited to residents of Illinois.

I use much more energy in the summer than I do in the winter. Does this mean that I cant earn points when the season is transitioning to warmer weather?

CUB Energy Saver accounts for weather and climate factors when analyzing your energy usage, so you are not penalized due to changes in season or drastic weather effects. Because your savings and points are based on comparing your bill to your past behavior and to your neighbors behavior, we control for changes in weather. This means you can still earn points regardless of weather effects.

Im concerned about privacy and sharing my energy usage information. Can I still participate in the program?

CUB Energy Saver only reads your total kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage on a monthly basis and does not share this information with anyone else. All savings recommendations are estimates based on assumptions that rely on your usage history, publicly available information, and any other information you provide.

Privacy settings for personal information can be edited by visiting the Settings page on the CUB Energy Saver website. To participate in the rewards program, you must agree to share your kWh usage data with CUB Energy Saver by linking your ComEd account. Personal privacy settings do not have any bearing on whether you earn rewards.

On the Settings page, you can decide whether youd like people in your neighborhood to see certain information about you. This includes your recent actions to reduce energy costs, your estimated annual savings, your home location on a neighborhood map, and your basic personal profile. Again, no usage or billing information is ever transmitted among customers.

How do I close my CUB Energy Saver account and leave the rewards program?

To close your CUB Energy Saver account, please write to help@cubenergysaver.com. To leave the rewards program, visit www.Recyclebank.com or call customer service at 1.888.727.2978.

Vincent C. Ragland is owner of PLANS. Mr. Ragland can be reached at (312) 286-6886 and by Email at vncnt599@sbcglobal.net.

Consumers borrow more for student loans, new carsMartin Crutsinger

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. consumers borrowed more money in February to buy new cars and attend school, but they cut back on using their credit cards to make purchases.

Borrowing increased by $7.6 billion, or 3.8 percent, in February, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. It was the fifth consecutive monthly gain.

All of the strength in February came in the category that includes car loans and student loans. That increased 7.7 percent. Borrowing in the category that covers credit cards fell 4.1 percent. That has risen only once in the more than two years since the 2008 financial crisis peaked, a cautionary sign for an economy in which consumer spending drives 70 percent of growth.

Still, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said it may actually be a good thing that fewer Americans are charging goods on their plastic.

``I think households have done a good job of getting their financial books in order and that will lay the foundation for more prudent borrowing going forward,'' Zandi said.

The gains pushed total borrowing up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2.42 trillion in February. That's 1 percent from the three-year low hit in September.

Households began borrowing less and saving more as they struggled to cope with the severe 2007-2009 recession. But economists expect that the period of belt-tightening is ending. They see consumer spending being supported this year by increased borrowing, rising employment and the Social Security tax cut that is giving households more after-tax income to spend.

The Fed's monthly consumer credit report covers auto loans, student loans and credit card financing but excludes loans secured by real estate such as mortgages and home equity loans.

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