First, we gave you access to spot prices, and fair, transparent pricing. Now, we’re bringing you a better way to pay for your power! (#winning)
Introducing Bill Smoother, a clever budgeting tool designed in-house (by our cool computer friends) to help you budget and save a little for those times when power bills move upwards. Just what our Flicksters have been asking for!
So, let’s get into the nitty-gritty.
What is Bill Smoother?
Bill Smoother’s a tool tucked inside your Flick app and on your dashboard. It lets you choose a regular dollar amount to pay to Flick when you pay your bill so that you can build up credit on your account that’s only used when your bills reach a certain amount, chosen by you.
By paying slightly more than your typical weekly, fortnightly or monthly bill, you’ll be stashing money away so that when you have a bill that’s higher than normal you can automatically dip into your Bill Smoother to help pay for it. And because you’re paying a regular amount on a regular basis, it’s nice and easy to manage your household budget.
We’ve really aimed to make Bill Smoother as user-friendly as possible. As we mentioned above, it’s easy to set-up in your Flick app, and you can see when you’ve added to it, and when it’s been used.
How do I use it?
To set up Bill Smoother, you simply need to choose a minimum payment amount and an amount at which you’d like to use your Bill Smoother credit.
The minimum payment amount is the amount you’ll be paying when you pay your power bill, and should ideally be 20% higher than your typical weekly bill. Any money that’s left over from your payment amount – once it’s covered your weekly bill – will be put into your Bill Smoother credit.
The amount that you select for when you’d like us to use your Bill Smoother credit is a threshold that notifies us to take money from your credit. So, when you get a bill higher than this amount, we’ll use your credit to pay anything over that amount. We’d recommend setting this at double your typical bill, so that you’re more likely to have credit tucked away for when you need it most.
There are a couple of ways you can use your Bill Smoother to help pay for bills:
Like to pay the same amount for bills throughout the year? Set it to match your minimum payment amount. Just make sure enough is going into your Bill Smoother account to cover any higher bills, otherwise your payments may still vary.
Like to use your Bill Smoother only for the most expensive bills? We recommend making it about double your average bill cost. Bills that cost less, but are above your minimum payment amount, will be paid as normal.
How do I get my money back?
If you want to request a refund of the credit in your Volt, call one of the friendly Flickers in our Cool Centre on 0800 435 425 or flick us an email at hello@flickelectric.co.nz. We’ll check out your debt balance, the timing of upcoming bills and how much is in there, and make a plan with you to get it sorted. Check out the Terms & Conditions of Volt for more details.
How long do I have to lock in Bill Smoother for?
You don’t have to lock it in! Like everything with us, you have the power. That means you can open, pause or close your Volt at any time. And you can change your payment amounts from week to week easily in your app. You’re the boss!
We created Bill Smoother as a win-win for Kiwis: you get the benefits of fair and transparent pricing, with the surety of regular payment amounts and a growing stash of credit. We hope that this clever combination will help some families manage their power bills during tougher times.