First, enter your address to see if you have the right type of meter:
First, check if you're eligible.
Already with Contact?
Call us on 0800 224 424 and we can change you to PrePay on the spot. It's that easy!
New to Contact?
It's easy to join online. Just choose one of our electricity plans, and if you're eligible, you'll be able to choose PrePay as your payment option.
To be eligible, you need to:
Subject to satisfactory credit check. When you sign up, we’ll check all of this and let you know if you’re eligible.
Medically dependent customers:
If you are medically dependent on electricity, for safety reasons we strongly recommend that you do not use Contact PrePay. To avoid the risk of self-disconnection, post-pay is the better option. If you still want to choose PrePay, please discuss this with your health practitioner for their advice. Please phone us on 0800 80 9000 to discuss.
Contact PrePay is not available:
You can do this:
And pay using:
Payments may take up to one business day to process and be applied to your PrePay balance.
How much do I need to top-up?
Your first top-up amount must be at least $30. There is no minimum amount for subsequent top-ups, however, if you receive a low balance disconnection alert or when you have been disconnected, you must top-up so that your balance is at least $30 in credit. There is no limit to how often you can top-up.
You will need to first register a credit/debit card against your account by calling us on 0800 80 9000. Then you can top-up your account via text whenever you like, from wherever you like, and we’ll credit your account with the payment from your card. Note that payment fees will apply for each top-up you make.
To make a top-up, text the following to 2018: TOPUP [account number] [amount]
E.g. if your account number was 501183757 and you want to top-up by $50, the correct format is: TOPUP 501183757 50
The top-up amount needs to be a whole dollar amount, no cents. E.g. 50 not 49.99 (including a $ sign is optional).
Tip: make sure you put a space between the words 'TOPUP', your account number and the amount.
Invalid text top-up notification:
If you receive a text from us saying that your text top-up is invalid, it means that you've entered in the wrong information or have used the wrong format. Please check the details are entered in correctly.
To find your account number, go back to the welcome email we sent you when you first joined Contact PrePay, or sign into My Account or the Contact app.This will depend on the payment method:
You can check your balance anytime via:
How to check your power usage
You can access your usage by navigating to the Usage menu item in the app or My Account.
Electricity and broadband
For electricity and broadband, you will be able to view monthly, daily and hourly usage. You'll always see your monthly usage first, and can choose daily, or hourly using the buttons at the bottom of the screen. There is also a toggle to see your usage in dollars as well as kWh.
The meter data can take a few days to load, so your usage graph will be a few days behind your current consumption.
Standard or non-communicating meters
If you have a standard or non-communicating meter, you can see your monthly usage in kilowatts only.
To view different usage periods
You can select different months on the usage graph to see different usage periods, and if you wish to view daily usage for a month, just tap on the month bar and click ‘day’ or ‘hour’ at the bottom of the page.
If you run out of electricity, it’s easy to get reconnected. Simply pay the full amount owing and top up your account so your balance is at least $30 in credit. Then call us 0800 266 861 during our call centre hours (7am–6pm Monday to Friday). For your safety, someone over the age of 18 years must be at home to get reconnected.
In most cases, reconnection will happen the same day you request it, as long as it’s during our call centre hours. Reconnections outside of these hours may take longer. While you are disconnected any charges that are billed daily will still apply.
You will get a refund of the credit on your account when:
Any other refunds are at our discretion.