Summary of Electric Kiwi Residential Consumer Care Policy
Updated July 2025
This Consumer Care Policy sets out how we support residential customers. Our Consumer Care Policy complies with the Electricity Authority’s Consumer Care Obligations and includes our commitment to adhere to high standards of regulatory practice.
A summary of the policy and a guide to the different sections appears below. It explains how we support you as a residential customer and provides other useful information.
Electric Kiwi Customer Care Overview
| Section | Overview |
|---|---|
| 1. Our commitment to customer care | Electric Kiwi is committed to delivering great customer service. We treat our customers with fairness, transparency and provide proactive support, and adhere to the Consumer Care Obligations. |
| 2. Recognising the importance of our services | We understand that electricity, broadband and mobile provide an essential contribution to the wellbeing of residential customers. We are committed to providing information and support and helping customers maintain access to these services. |
| 3. Making Sure Everyone Gets a Fair Go | We want everyone to be able to access our services. That means making sure no one is left out or treated unfairly because of things like: language, ethnicity, education, culture, gender, disability, age, health, income and wealth. |
| 4. Clear and accessible communication | We will communicate with you in a respectful, collaborative and constructive manner. Our communications are understandable, timely, clear and accessible. |
| 5. Contact Us | You can contact us in multiple ways: via Live Chat on our website, by e-mail, or request a call back. |
| 6. Joining Electric Kiwi | This section explains what happens when you are thinking of joining us as a customer. If we don’t accept you as a customer we will give you reasons why and give you the names of other organisations that may be able to help. |
| 7. Keeping your information up to date | Please let us know if your information changes so we can update our records and support you. |
| 8. Our relationship | This section explains where you can find our terms and conditions that govern our relationship and a link to our website with information about our different plans. Our terms and conditions require each of us to do certain things. |
| 9. Authorised Persons, Support Persons and Alternate Contact | You may appoint an authorised person, support person or alternate contact when you join us, or at any point after, to help support you. |
| 10. Assistance with Choosing the Best Electricity Pricing Plan | This section explains how you can obtain information about the most suitable pricing plan for your circumstances. Please contact us to discuss your plan. |
| 11. Track your usage on our mobile app and website | We give you tools to improve your experience and put you in control. You can manage your plan and monitor your electricity usage through our mobile app and website to help manage your bills. You can also set alerts and request electricity consumption data from us at any time. |
| 12. Energy Efficiency: Reducing your usage | Reducing consumption saves you money and the environment. This section and our website explain ways you can reduce your electricity consumption. |
| 13. Payment Methods | This section sets out ways you can pay. |
| 14. Support for electricity customers experiencing payment difficulties | Our policy and website explains how we will work with customers experiencing payment difficulties and some of the support we can provide. Please contact us if you are experiencing issues. |
| 15. Working with Support and Health Agencies | We can refer you on to support and health agencies if you provide us with permission to do so. We will work collaboratively with support agencies. |
| 16. Electricity Disconnection and Reconnection | We do not like disconnecting customers for non payment and view electricity disconnection as a last resort. Our priority is to work with you to avoid that outcome. This section sets out the timeframes relating to disconnection. |
| 17. Medically Dependent and Vulnerable Customers (Electricity) | Please let us know if someone in your household relies on electricity for critical medical support. Please provide us with a form signed by a medical practitioner to complete the process. Medically dependent customers should have an emergency response plan if power is lost due to extreme weather, accidents or technical problems. Please also let us know if you are vulnerable. |
| 18. Family Violence | We provide support for customers experiencing family violence. |
| 19. Fees, Discounts and Bonds | Further details about our fees, conditional discounts and any bonds. Our fees meet fee requirements under the Consumer Care Obligations. Fees charged do not exceed reasonable estimates of our costs. |
| 20. Continuous Improvement and Policy Review | We are always trying to do things better. We review customer experiences and complaints to continually improve and keep our policies and staff training under review to support our customers. |
| 21. How to make a complaint | We want to provide a great customer experience and do what we can to get things right. If you have a billing or service issue, please contact us. We have a complaints process that you can follow if you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service. You can complain to Utilities Disputes (for electricity) or the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution Scheme (for broadband and mobile) if you are dissatisfied with our response. Please raise complaints with us in the first instance to enable us to respond. |
| 22. Other organisations that can help you | Contact details of the Electricity Authority and other information. Our website also contains detailed information about organisations that can offer you support. |
Electric Kiwi Customer Care Policy
Updated July 2025
1. Our Commitment to Customer Care
At Electric Kiwi, we are committed to providing great service. We treat our customers with fairness, transparency and provide proactive support. We believe in working respectfully, collaboratively, and constructively to ensure our services remain accessible, affordable, and suitable for your needs.
This Consumer Care Policy adheres to the Electricity Authority’s Consumer Care Obligations and sets out our commitment to adhere to high standards of regulatory practice.
This policy does not apply to business or commercial customers. We may have regard to similar principles though in delivering those services.
2. Recognising the Importance of Our Services
We understand the importance of electricity, broadband, and mobile in daily life and are dedicated to helping customers stay connected. Electricity is an essential service that is critical for wellbeing, safety and health.
3. Making Sure Everyone Gets a Fair Go
That means making sure no one is left out or treated unfairly because of things like: language, ethnicity, education, culture, gender, disability, age, health, income and wealth.
We want to reduce barriers to accessing our services and improve our practices to support our customers.4. Clear and Accessible Communication
We seek to ensure that our communications are understandable, timely, clear and accessible. We adapt communications to individual needs, where possible, taking into account disability and communication preferences. Please let us know if you have specific requirements.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, speech-impaired or vision-impaired, the New Zealand Relay Service is a free and secure service that can help you communicate. Learn more at www.nzrelay.co.nz.
If we don’t speak your language, you can use a support person to help you. If this is not possible, please contact us and we will try to assist you.
5. Contact Us
You can contact us in multiple ways, including live chat, email and phone support (where a callback is requested). Communicating with us early is one of the best ways to resolve any problems.
Our website and mobile app contain lots of useful information about our services and online self-service options.
6. Joining Electric Kiwi
We need certain information from you to support you and to provide our services. Before you become a customer, we may ask you questions about yourself and your situation, including how you use power.
As part of your sign up, we will run a credit check using the information you give us. If we do not accept you as a customer, we’ll tell you why and give you information to help connect you with support agencies who can offer assistance.
We seek to store your information securely and to use it for its intended purposes, in accordance with privacy requirements.
7. Keeping your information up to date
Please let us know if anything changes to ensure our records are accurate or if you need any help.
8. Our Relationship
All new customers agree to our terms and conditions which govern our relationship. Our terms require you to do various things as a customer to enable us to support you.
Our plans, pricing and terms and conditions are updated from time to time and appear on our website:
If there is any conflict between this Policy and our terms and conditions, then the latter will prevail.
9. Authorised Persons, Support Persons and Alternate Contact
If you require support, you can add an authorised person, support person or alternate contact to your account. This should be someone you trust. A summary of these different support roles appears below:
| Type of contact | How can this person assist you? | Can Electric Kiwi disclose your account information to this person? | Can this contact person make changes to your account? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authorised Person | An authorised person can help manage your account and/or make decisions for you in relation to your account. | Yes. Consider first whether you trust someone to have this access. | Yes – An authorised person can do most things with your account. However, they cannot do some things, for example, opening or closing an account in your name. |
| Support Person | You may appoint one or more support person(s) to assist you with any help you may need (such as language support or payment issues). This could be a family member, friend, or social agency. They may also help a medically dependent consumer living at your address. | Yes – but only if you are present in the communication and agree with any steps taken. | Yes – but only if you are present in the communication and agree with any steps taken. |
| Alternate Contact | This enables important information to be communicated if you are unreachable. | No | No – An alternate contact cannot act on your behalf, they can only pass on information. |
Please contact us to discuss these options or to remove or change any contact. Any person appointed must agree to act.
10. Assistance with Choosing the Best Electricity Pricing Plan
You can contact us at any time before you join up or afterwards to discuss your options and whether you are on the right plan. To help you decide which electricity plan might be best, you should tell us about how you use energy in your household and your past electricity consumption. When choosing pricing plans it is also important to consider any changes that might occur to your usage (e.g. a growing household) or adjustments that you are willing to make to your usage (for example, moving power off-peak can reduce bills on some of our plans).
All our plans include a daily fixed charge and a usage charge based on the amount of energy you use. We currently offer a low-user and standard-user tariff, as well as different pricing plans. Following a change to regulations, the low user tariff is being phased-out by energy retailers across NZ over a 5-year period until 1 April 2027.
To help you make informed decisions, we provide:
- Information about pricing plans and options on our website.
- You can request information about your electricity consumption to make an informed decision about which pricing plan best suits your needs.
- You can also visit Powerswitch to obtain a free and independent energy comparison of pricing plans provided by us and other electricity retailers.
11. Track your usage on our mobile app and website to manage your bills
We provide tools and information to put you in control and improve your customer experience. This helps you manage or reduce your usage and to avoid unexpected bills:
- Customers can review electricity usage data and manage their plan themselves at any time through our mobile app or by logging onto our website.
- You can review your electricity usage by day, week or month, and check your plan and balance.
- You can change payment methods and make one off payments to your account at any time.
- You can set your own notifications to enable you to manage your budget and expenditure and avoid any surprises. Our mobile app and website enable you to set an alert to receive an email or app notification when your bill reaches a specified threshold.
Staying informed enables you to manage usage, particularly if you are on a tight budget.
12. Energy Efficiency: Reducing Usage
Being efficient in how you use electricity is good for the planet and your budget. Our website contains advice about energy efficiency and practical steps you can take to reduce your power and environmental impact. This includes advice about improving insulation in your home, turning off unused appliances and switching to more efficient LED lighting and appliances.
Electric Kiwi requires our customers to have smart meters enabling accurate tracking of usage. Meters record the actual amount of electricity used every half hour, and the data is sent to us once per day. This usage data is available to you through our website and mobile app.
- Our plans are designed to enable you to manage your costs. Some of our plans provide a cheaper price for off-peak electricity which enables you to load shift usage onto an off-peak rate to save money.
- Some of our plans also offer a free Hour of Power. You can choose 60 minutes of off-peak power that suits your lifestyle. All electricity used during that hour each day is free, enabling you to put the washing machine, dryer and dishwasher all at once.
- Our website also contains advice about metering options and load control which also have the potential to adjust your costs.
For more energy-saving tips, visit these websites:
Gen Less
Gen Less is a government website which provides advice and tools on reducing energy usage.
EnergyMate
EnergyMate is a free energy coaching service for households at risk of energy hardship that are struggling to pay their power bill or keep their home warm, delivered by the Electricity Retailers’ Association.
Eco Design Advisor
Improving the comfort, health and performance of New Zealand homes.
CEA (Community Energy Action) - Canterbury and West Coast
Energy hardship and efficiency
Sustainability Trust - Wellington
Advice on energy efficiency and installation
Community Energy Network
Energy efficiency and healthy homes community-based specialists.
Please let us know if you’d like us to refer you.
13. Payment Methods
Flexible Billing Timeframes
With Electric Kiwi you can choose to pay monthly, fortnightly and even weekly to suit your lifestyle. All new customers will default to a fortnightly direct debit from either your bank account or credit/debit card. After your first bill you can change how often you pay and you can choose the day of the week or month when the money leaves your account.
How to change when I pay?
Changing when you pay is easy. Just use the app or log in to your online account and head to 'When you pay' on the account screen to update your billing frequency.
Stay Ahead Billing
Turn Stay Ahead on and your account will top-up automatically when your balance reaches $0.00. You set the top-up amount at $50 or greater and we do the rest. Stay Ahead has the added benefit of zero fees across both direct debit and credit card payments.
Instant Payments and Balance Alerts
You can also make instant payments to keep your account in credit, or set a balance alert and we'll notify you when your unbilled charges go over the amount you've set.
14. Support for Electricity Customers Experiencing Payment Difficulties
We understand that financial challenges can arise, and we are committed to working with you to maintain access to electricity. We monitor for customer payment difficulties and send invoice reminders to alert you to missed payments. You can monitor invoices, usage and set alerts through our mobile app and website.
Please contact us if you are experiencing payment difficulties to discuss ways we can help. We will engage constructively and without judgement, recognising financial hardship can affect anyone.
We take our responsibilities seriously and want to avoid making a customer’s position worse by allowing further debt to accumulate. For this reason, we move customers who are behind with payments to weekly billing so customers can track usage and manage accumulation of debt (mitigating also sudden increases in consumption).
We encourage customers to contact us to discuss whether they are on the right plan, and to check if savings can be made. An independent comparison can also be undertaken at www.powerswitch.co.nz.
It may be useful to know that any part payment of an invoice will be allocated to the oldest charges first, and against electricity charges if you have other services with us.
Payment Plan
Please contact us to discuss setting up an electricity payment plan or to explore other solutions suitable for your circumstances to help you clear outstanding arrears. We will monitor any payment plan that is agreed to check that it is working well, and let you know if you miss a payment. Please also contact us if you are struggling to meet payments.
15. Working with Support and Health Agencies
There are various support and budgeting agencies that can also help if you are having financial difficulty paying your electricity bill.
A list of support agencies appears below.
- Money Talks
MoneyTalks is a free and confidential financial helpline that can connect you with community services and financial mentors. You can flick a text to 4209
Find more info here, call 0800 345 123 or you can flick a text to 4209.
- Work and Income
Work and Income provides financial support if you're on a low income or not working.
Find more info here or call 0800 559 009
- Citizens Advice Bureau
An organisation that provides free confidential advice and independent information on your rights and links to the services you need.
Find more info here or call 0800 367 222
- Powerswitch
A free price comparison site listing electricity and gas plans from retailers across New Zealand.
Find more info here.
Please let us know if you’d like us to refer you or if you have contacted these services directly. With your consent, we will seek to refer you within five business days and will cooperate with these services.
If you are actively engaging with support agencies, we will allow you reasonable time to work with them to find a solution, and would wait at least seven days before taking electricity enforcement or disconnection steps.
16. Electricity Disconnection and Reconnection
We view electricity disconnection as a last resort. However, we may disconnect you if you fail to pay your bill in full or you default on a payment plan we have agreed with you. Our priority is always to work with you to avoid getting to that point.
Before Disconnection, we will:
- Make multiple contact attempts using your preferred communication method, and reach out to any nominated support person or alternate contact (if you’ve appointed one).
- Provide at least 10 business days’ notice in writing, including information about how to avoid disconnection and support options available.
- Issue a final warning between 24 hours and 10 days before the disconnection occurs.
- Provide details of how to access our dispute resolution process if you believe there’s an issue with your account.
We will not disconnect your electricity:
- If someone at the property is registered as a Medically Dependent Consumer.
- On a public holiday, or the day before a public holiday.
- If the outstanding balance is under active dispute.
Reconnection
If your power has been disconnected, our goal is to reconnect you as soon as possible once the issue is resolved. We will:
- Reconnect your electricity promptly—typically on the same business day—once the reason for disconnection has been resolved (e.g. overdue balance paid, or a payment plan is in place).
- Ensure it is safe to reconnect, which may require someone to be present at the property or confirmation that appliances have been switched off.
- Explain any applicable reconnection fees clearly before they are charged. These fees reflect our reasonable costs and are published here.
- Support you post-reconnection with tailored payment options or guidance to help prevent disconnection from happening again.
17. Medically Dependent Electricity Customers
If someone in your household relies on electricity for critical medical support, they may be eligible to be registered as a Medically Dependent Consumer. To register, you will need to complete a form with your health practitioner. You can download the form from our website. Once submitted, we’ll update our records and ensure your account is appropriately flagged and will:
- Work with you to ensure continued power supply.
- Provide guidance on individual emergency response plans.
- Avoid disconnection, except in emergencies or as required by law.
If we know a consumer is medically dependent, we will not disconnect the electricity supply for non-payment.
Vulnerable Customers
If anyone at your property relies on mains electricity for reasons of age, health or disability and any disconnection poses a threat to their health or wellbeing, please let us know so we can understand your situation.
Please also let us know if it is genuinely difficult for you to pay your electricity bills because of severe financial insecurity, whether temporary or permanent.
We will seek to provide you with the right support or connect you with those that can help.
Emergency Response Plan
Despite our best efforts, occasionally electricity supply is cut because of extreme weather, accidents, or technical problems. It is important you have an emergency response plan for these situations. This could include:
- Ensuring you have a stand-by battery fully charged.
- Going to a friend or family member’s house with electricity or gas.
- Calling an ambulance if your circumstances are very serious.
For more information and help on preparing an emergency response plan for your household, visit the Electricity Authority’s website here: https://www.ea.govt.nz/your-power/consumer-care-obligations/if-you-rely-on-electricity-for-medical-reasons/
18. Family Violence
If you’re affected by family violence and need support, please contact us for assistance. Please call 111 in an emergency, if you do not feel safe.
We recognise that family violence may be a cause of payment difficulty. In such circumstances, we will work with you to try to find a solution.
There are external support services who may be able to help. Please let us know if we can make a referral:
19. Fees, Discounts and Bonds
We provide clear disclosure of all fees and conditional discounts upfront. A list of our fees is here: Electric Kiwi Electricity Service Fees.
Our fees are calculated to ensure they are reasonable and reflect our costs.
We do not currently charge bonds; however, if we were to require a bond in the future, it would be reasonable and aligned with industry guidelines.
20. Continuous Improvement and Policy Review
We are committed to improving our customer care processes by:
- Regularly reviewing customer interactions and feedback to identify areas where we can improve and enhance our support.
- Monitoring issues and complaints that arise and using these experiences to refine our approach.
- Adapting our policies, staff training and processes to ensure they align with best practices and changing customer needs.
- Reviewing this policy at least annually or sooner if required, to ensure it remains fit for purpose.
By doing so, we ensure that our customer care commitments remain relevant, effective, and support consumer wellbeing and access to essential services.
21. Making a complaint
We work hard to get things right, but sometimes things can go wrong. If you have a service problem or a billing issue, please contact us to discuss the issue.
If you wish to make a complaint, please contact us via:
- Live Chat on our website; or
- Email (via our contact page, you can request a call back in your email)
Our Complaints Process
- Tell us what’s wrong.
- We’ll investigate – Our team will listen and work to resolve the issue.
- You’ll get a response – We aim to resolve most issues within 5 working days.
- Need to escalate? – If the matter is unresolved, you can take it to:
- Utilities Disputes (for electricity): Free and independent. Call 0800 22 33 40 or visit www.udl.co.nz
- Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (for broadband and mobile): Free and independent. Call 0508 98 98 98 or visit www.tdr.org.nz
We will inform you about the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR) scheme:
- When your complaint is first made,
- If your complaint reaches a deadlock, and
- If we consider a complaint to be frivolous or vexatious.
22. Other Organisations that can help you
Electricity Authority
You can find the full set of Consumer Care Obligations and other resources on the Electricity Authority’s website: https://www.ea.govt.nz/