Redesigning your billing experience

Over the next few months, you can expect to hear from us about the changes that may impact you as we prepare to deliver your new billing experience. Our aim is to make paying your water bill something you never have to think twice about.

What we're planning to do

We'll be looking at every step along the way to create a simple and seamless experience for you, whether you choose an email or paper bill.

That includes:

• redesigning your bill to make it easier to read and understand
• building a new-look online account to make paying your bill and managing your account easier
• rethinking how often you get your bill to help you manage your money.

We'd like to bring you on board for the journey. There'll be plenty of opportunities for you to provide feedback on the changes we're making to bring you a better customer experience. Visit the YourSay page for more information.

Changing your bill frequency

To make billing fairer and more equal for everyone, we're starting by looking at how often you pay your bills.

In January 2023, we shared our proposal to make some changes to how often you receive a water bill and how long you have to pay. We also asked you what support you'd need to make the change as easy as possible.

Following a strong response from our customers and community, and feedback from the Essential Services Commission (ESC), we're now preparing to implement the proposed changes.

From 1 July 2023, we began the process of moving customers across to quarterly billing with the first quarterly bills being sent in October 2023. If you're already receiving a quarterly bill, there will be no change to your billing cycle or payment period.

This change will not impact the cost of your water usage and service charges over the year. Receiving your bill more often should mean smaller bills as the cost is spread out over four bills instead of three.

As always, we offer a range of different payment options and will continue to offer support if you are experiencing financial hardship. We're also adding some extra support services for anyone finding the changes challenging.

Visit our YourSay page to learn more about how we're supporting you through these changes.

Simplifying the Parks Charge

As we streamline our billing processes, we're making the annual Parks Charge more straightforward. From 1 July 2023, we incorporated the annual Parks Charge into your GWW water bill. It is now separately itemised so you can see when you’re charged and for how much.

Property owners began to see the annual Parks Charge on GWW bills issued from July 2023.

If you already receive the Parks Charge as part of your GWW bill then there will be no change for you.

For more information about the Parks Charge, visit Parks Victoria.

What your bills pay for

In September 2023 we submitted our first price submission as GWW. A price submission is the plan which outlines what your bills pay for - the prices you will be charged, the level of service you can expect and the investment we will make between 2024-28.

This plan is submitted to the water industry's independent regulator, the Essential Services Commission (ESC), who review and approve it.

We connected with more than 8,000 customers and community members, as well as our people and partners, over two years to develop our price submission.

In early 2024 the ESC will release their draft decision on our submission, and you'll have an opportunity to give more feedback.

Visit our price submission page to stay up to speed.

Closing an old BPAY account

We're closing an outdated BPAY account (biller code 5694).

Our BPAY banking details changed some time ago but we understand that paying your bills online is often something you set and forget. That’s why we have accepted payments using the old details.

We're now closing this old BPAY account in preparation for the upgrade of our billing systems to make paying bills a simple and seamless experience for all our customers.

We've contacted a small number of customers who had made a payment using this account over the last 12 months. To continue paying via BPAY, please update the Greater Western Water details in your online banking before paying your next bill.

Upgrading our List Account service

As part of the billing system upgrade, there will be some changes for List Account customers.

These changes will see us move from a largely paper-based and manual service to a more automated, digital service.

To prepare for these upcoming changes, our Customer Experience team will call impacted customers to ask some questions to understand which service may suit your needs.

We value your privacy and security, and during the call we’ll ask to verify some personal information to help set up your new account.