By Kate Harvey
Content Manager | Pou Whakahaere Ihirangi
The news that Flick Electric is being sold to Meridian may have come as a shock to the smaller retailer’s customers. Flick, which had a market share of about 2% at last count, has been chosen as one of our People’s Choice power companies many times over the last decade.
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We’ve had a few Flick customers contact us by email and social media since the announcement, so we thought we’d put together our general advice.
Here’s what we know
Meridian told us this morning that the Flick brand will be retired once the transition is complete, which is expected to take 4–6 months.
Flick’s customers are currently being told they don’t need to do anything.
Meridian told us that it will be in touch with customers about the transfer in the coming months.
Meridian is one of the country’s four generator-retailers (gentailers) that both generate and sell electricity. It also owns the Powershop brand.
Meridian’s chief customer officer Lisa Hannifin said Flick customers will have “a choice of highly competitive plans”.
“This includes time-of-use products that can help reduce monthly bills, like that currently available through Flick,” Hannifin said.
Consumer NZ’s Powerswitch manager Paul Fuge said the announcement hasn’t come at a good time for those who like to be with a smaller power company.
“Some retailers have told us that due to challenging market conditions they have limited ability to take on too many new customers at the moment. It’s worth checking to see if any of the companies you’re considering switching to have the capacity to take you on,” Paul said.
Our advice
If you don’t want to be transferred to Meridian or want to check you’ve been given a good deal once you know what they’re offering, you can easily compare your options using our Powerswitch website.
Flick does not have any locked-in contracts, so you’re free to switch to another power company without having to pay a break fee.
If you decide to switch and have credit with Flick, for example, if you’ve been doing Bill Smoother, make sure you contact Flick soon for a refund.
Flick had been offering wholesale electricity prices for their solar buy-back rate. If you were one of these customers, you can easily compare other companies’ rates, including Meridian’s, using the Powerswitch solar buy-back rate comparison.
We are also in the process of collating the results of our 2025 power company satisfaction survey. We will have these live on our website at the start of June. This means you will soon be able to see which companies are doing the best job of keeping their customers happy.
Power companies must abide by the Electricity Authority’s Consumer Care Obligations. These obligations specify your rights as consumers. Find out more on the Powerswitch website about your rights under the electricity consumer care obligations.
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