Dec. 12, 2011 —In 2011, CUB helped save consumers more than $94,000 by exposing utility mistakes and erroneous charges. At the top of the list was Carl Baker, who one day got an $8,108 ComEd bill.

Turns out his daughter's debt was wrongly tacked onto his account. ComEd said he had to pay it, but Carl got a different reaction when he called CUB.

"She was wonderful," Carl said of Consumer Rights Counselor Moraima Fuentes. "She listened to everything I said." Moraima contacted ComEd, and the charge was erased.

"I'm so appreciative to CUB for getting me out of this mess," said Carl, a 73-year-old Chicago retiree who's on Social Security. "I probably would have been dead before that bill was paid off."

While CUB in 2011 fought nearly $2 billion in higher utility rates, counselors like Moraima helped scores of individual consumers who had problems with their electric, natural gas, and phone bills. The savings from those individual cases totalled more than $94,000, or nearly $8,000 a month. Savings in the top 25 cases ranged from around $1,000 to Carl's $8,100.

Got a question, concern, or complaint about your utility bills? Call CUB's consumer counselors, toll free at 1-800-669-5556, for some guidance between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

If you like the service you get from CUB, please help us fight for your bottom line against the big utilities. We've saved consumers more than $10 billion in rate-hike battles over our 27-year history.