As your retailer we understand the role electricity plays in our customers’ lives. We are committed to helping you manage your energy costs, and staying connected.

This Consumer Care Policy sets out our service promises to you. It is not a legally binding document, but one which guides how we operate.

Our Consumer Care Policy is aligned to The Electricity Authority’s Consumer Care Obligations here.

Important things to remember

• WISE Prepay is a “pre-pay” only electricity retailer and we do not have any “post-pay” electricity offerings. You must have a smart electricity meter to join WISE, and you must have a mobile phone and email address to receive alerts and emails from us.
• Our pre-pay electricity rates (which can be found on our website for your property, and in your Welcome Pack when you are signing up) will differ from the post-pay electricity rates offered by our related retail brands Megatel and Nova Energy.
• We strongly recommend you do not use Wise Prepay if you or any other member of your household is (or becomes) a Medically Dependent Consumer (i.e., dependent on electricity for critical medical equipment or support).
• There is no joining fee or bonds, but your first top-up must be at least $50. This will be credited to your account for power consumed during the switching process. After you are connected, the minimum top-up amount is $10. See below for how to top up and our payment methods (fees do apply for some methods).
• It is very important to retain a minimum balance of $10 on your WISE pre-pay electricity account to avoid being at risk of electricity disconnection. If your account drops below this $10 minimum balance:
  1. ▫ We will notify you by TXT and by email reminding you to top-up (or you be at risk of disconnection). See below for more info on our balance alerts.
  2. ▫ If you do not top-up within 48 hours and your balance drops to $0 (zero), then disconnection may occur at 11:30am Mon-Fri.
  3. ▫ To avoid disconnection, either top-up your account or get in touch with us as soon as possible to advise you are having payment difficulties (see below for more on this topic).
• If your balance drops to $0 (zero):
  1. ▫ There is never a fee for disconnection.
  2. ▫ Remote reconnections are free, provided your account has been disconnected for less than 7 days. If your account has been disconnected (due to your account balance running out), then reconnection fees do apply. See below for more information on these fees.
• You can contact us at any time to talk about your situation, ask questions about this policy, or to give us feedback. Our website FAQs can also be quite useful!

As your electricity retailer, we want to make sure we:

• Listen and respond to your needs and concerns with respect
• Work with you collaboratively and constructively to solve problems
• Are proactive in offering assistance to meet your needs
• Communicate with you in a timely and clear way
• Make sure you have every opportunity to choose the best pricing plan to meet your needs
• Make sure all our customers have access to support regardless of language, ethnicity, educational achievement, culture, gender, physical and intellectual ability, age, health, income, and wealth
• Work with you to resolve payment difficulties and, with your permission, can link you to one or more support agencies or social agencies to assist you
• Should your pre-paid power run out (account in arrears -$0) disconnection will be scheduled, however we can work with you to make an arrangement to keep the electricity connected and/or arrange reconnection of power

If you use electricity from us, we will try to communicate with you clearly about your rights and the choices you can make, even if you have not signed a contract with us yet.

We offer all our consumers a variety of advice and support, ranging from helping with decisions on the best pricing plans for their consumption and connection type through to payment plans.

While we might not always get it right, we are committed to learning continually from our experiences to improve the support we offer our customers.

In providing you with electricity and related services, we need some information from you. We will ensure this information is stored securely and only used for its intended purpose.

We ask that you ensure your details are correct and let us know if anything changes.

You can find out more about how we manage your personal information in our General Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Policy on our website.

Our current electricity plans and payment options are available online, or you can contact us to go through which plan, and payment option meet your needs.

Before you become a customer, we may ask you questions about yourself and your situation. We will also get your permission to do a credit check and consider this along with all other information provided.

If we do not accept you as a customer, we will tell you why. If you are having a hard time finding an electricity retailer, we can refer you to a financial mentor or give you advice on what you can do.

If you would like a place to check energy prices, you can go to the Powerswitch website.

We offer a range of electricity plans designed to suit different households, usage levels and to provide extra services you might like to receive.

To help you decide which electricity plan might suit you best, you should tell us about how you usually use energy in your household and your past electricity consumption.

All ours plans include a daily fixed charge and variable electricity usage charge, which are based on your meter type and your network's pricing category.

You can manage your account anytime via our handy Mobile App, which can be downloaded directly from Google Play or Apple's App Store.

You can also manager your account online by signing into your Wise Dashboard.

The Wise App and the Dashboard let you keep an eye on your electricity usage, your account balance, make payments, and update your communication details.

At level 2 and 1 you will receive balance alerts via text and emails too.

You can ask us to communicate with you using an alernative contact or authorised person. They could be a family member, friend, support person, or community worker.

• Authorised contacts can help manage your account and/or make decisions for you in relation to helping you manage your account (for example they can help top up your account, advise us of payment difficulties, request a short-term disconnection hold and update your contact details).
• Alternative Contacts can help you communicate with us (and vice versa) when we are unable to reach you. This person cannot make any decisions or act on your account.

Before you give us your alternative or authorised contact details, make sure you ask this person first. Then, if they agree, let us know their name and contact details.

If your Authorised or Alternate Contacts advise us that they no longer agree to act in their capacities we will notify you or their decision and seek your advice regarding new contacts.

If you would like to speak to us in a language other than English, we will try to help.

You can use an alternative contact or authorised person to talk with us instead.

Another option is to use a different communication method that suits you. For example, you could receive information from us in writing.

You can top up your account via:

• The Wise Mobile App (available from the App Store or Google Play)
• Online by signing into your Wise Dashboard.
• The Recharge Cards we supply at one of our participating merchants(Payment fees apply).

And you can pay by using:

• Credit card or debit card (payment fees apply)
• Internet or telephone banking
• Automatic Credit Card payment

Bank Deposit or Online Transfer through Banking App may take up to one business day to process and be applied to your balance.

It’s important we work together to help you manage your payments and keep your account in credit, particularly if you are having difficulties.

Sould you ever require payment assistance, please call us to discuss.

We will also get in touch with you through your preferred contact methods when we see you are frequently running out of credit and getting disconnected, or if we notice any severe spikes in your electricity usage that is not explained by known circumstances (for example, seasonal changes).

Here are some ways we can help:

• We can check to see you are on the best plan for your usage.
• Provide you with power saving tips.
• If you are a beneficiary with Work and Income NZ, we can send you a support letter to forward to WINZ requesting assistance with your electricity supply.
• We can look at making a ‘one off’ special arrangement that suits - such as a special repayment plan for overdue amounts owed to us, and agreeing an "IOU" / "disconnection hold" if you are soon to be disconnected (see further below).
• We can put you in touch with social agencies and free budgeting advice agencies. More on this below.

If you are struggling to keep up with your payments, with your consent, we can connect you with support agencies, who will help you with things like keeping your electricity account in credit.

Once contact is made, we will give you some time to talk to these agencies and receive help without disconnecting your electricity supply.

We will work with you and your support organisation as a partnership, making sure we all use agreed ways of communicating with each other.

The following organisations may also be able to help with financial assistance and/or free budgeting advice:

Social agencies
You may be able to get extra assistance from Work and Income, the Citizens Advice Bureau, your local Mayoral Fund or Age Concern. The Work and Income number is 0800 559 009 or, you can visit online at www.workandincome.govt.nz.

Budgeting advice
If you are finding it difficult to keep your electricity account in credit, you can seek free financial advice from Money Talks on 0800 345 123, SMS on 4029, or email help@moneytalks.co.nz.

The health and wellbeing of our customers is very important to us.

If you or someone living with you (even for a short period) depend on electricity to run critical medical support equipment, then you are considered a "Medically Dependent Consumer" ("MDC"). Examples of critical medical equipment include ventilators, renal dialysis machines, oxygen concentrators, and ventricular assistance devices, as well as other non-medical equipment which may be needed for critical medical support (e.g., a microwave oven to heat fluids for renal dialysis).

We strongly recommend you do not use Wise Prepay if you or any other member of your household is (or becomes) a Medically Dependent Consumer (i.e., dependent on electricity for critical medical support).

However, if you or someone living at your property is medically dependant, or if you think that you or someone in your household, may be, or become medically dependent on electricity, you should get in touch with us to let us know as soon as possible.

Once you have let us know all we will register this status on your account. We will also share this information with certain third-party providers, for example, your network and metering companies and our field services staff, so they are aware if they are working at your property (e.g., checking or upgrading your electricity meter).

The medical dependency will need to be verified by a qualified Health Practitioner (e.g., your doctor, District Health Board, Private Hospital) at your own cost unless we ask for a re-verification. We may ask you to get your doctor to return a completed form that confirms your Notice of Potential MDC status, or potential MDC still applies.

If we do not receive the required verification from you, or your Health Practitioner by the date we’ve outlined, we may remove you from our Medical Dependency Register and change your account status accordingly.

Disconnections and reconnections are automated with Wise Prepay, based on the amount of credit you have in your account.

In the event of disconnection, you will need to top up your account via our website, Mobile App, or using your top up card at a participating retailer. (you can find all of this on our website under "How to Top up").

You can avoid disconnection by:

• Ensuring you always maintain a balance of at least $10
• If your balance drops below $10, topping up within 48 hours of receiving our reminder text and email notifications.
• You can also contact us to request an "IOU" / "disconnection hold". This means we will apply a $5 credit to your account and "hold off" any disconnection until 11:30am the following day. Please note that:
  1. ▫ Requests for a "disconnection hold" need to be made between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Thursday.
  2. ▫ To request a "disconnection hold", your account does not have a negative balance of -$15 or more

Once you have topped up, your power will be reconnected automatically within 30 minutes of the arrears being cleared.

If a communication fault occurs (meaning we can't reconnect your property remotely), a serviceman will attend to do a manual reconnection. In this case it may take up to four hours to reconnect.