SmoothPay

SmoothPay lets you sidestep unexpected bill spikes by evening out your payment across the whole year. You can pay weekly, fortnightly or monthly – whatever works for you.

 

Smooth out your payments

easy payment

Equal amounts

We work out your energy use across a year, then divide it into equal amounts based on how often you want to pay.
easy payment

Easy payment

On the chosen day, we deduct the amount from your account by direct debit. You’ll get monthly bills to keep track of it all.
easy payment

Keep on track

Every so often we'll check your usage is in line with your payments. If we need to adjust, we’ll give you at least 10 days’ notice.

Frequently asked questions

SmoothPay is available to residential and business electricity customers, natural gas and reticulated gas customers.

If you’re already with Contact, message us to sign up to SmoothPay. Or if you prefer the old school way, downloadand fill in the application form. Then post it to Contact Energy, Free Post 164487, PO Box 624, Wellington 6140.

For new customers, first you’ll need to choose a plan and sign up with us. You can go on SmoothPay with any of our plans. 

Then message us to choose SmoothPay – this is the quickest way to get going. You can also send us an application form if you prefer, details are above.

SmoothPay payments must be paid by direct debit from your nominated bank account. SmoothPay does not allow payments from a card.
You can choose how often to make payments, whether it’s weekly, fortnightly or monthly. If you choose monthly, we can’t put through your payment on the 29th, 30th or 31st. But there are still plenty of days to choose from.
Your SmoothPay payment amount will be reviewed periodically and may be adjusted to ensure the regular payments closely match your estimated annual energy costs. If your payment amounts are adjusted, we’ll let you know at least 10 days prior to the new amount being paid from your bank account.
If you decide that SmoothPay isn’t working for you any more, just give us a call, and we can arrange another payment method for you. We need 2 business days’ notice to cancel your SmoothPay agreement. If you’ve used less electricity or gas than you’ve paid for, this will show as a credit on your next bill. If you’ve used more electricity or gas than you’ve paid for, we’ll advise you of the outstanding amount, and you’ll need to pay that within 14 days.

In the first instance, we’ll try to estimate your SmoothPay payment amount based on any previous usage data we may have for the property. The amount of usage data we have will determine how accurate the estimate is. After a few months we’ll check that your usage is in line with your payments and adjust accordingly if required. We’ll give you at least 10 days’ notice.

As any data we have available may not relate to when you were in the property, it’s important if you think the initial estimate amount does not look right (based on your previous power bills), you change the amount to a more accurate figure, or give us a call and we’ll help you work out a more accurate amount.  If your payments are set too low initially, you may receive a large increase when we review your payments to cover the underpaid amounts.