For further information about the Horizon IT Scandal, please visit our corporate website

Common bill payment and top-up questions

Available services

  • You can pay energy, council tax, water, housing, rent and other bills, including the major utilities. You can also top up your mobile phone and buy SIM cards, buy tickets for the Health Lottery, LottoSocial and National Express coaches, and manage online gaming accounts. Find out more about our bill payments services.

  • You can top up ALL major mobile network pay-as-you-go mobiles at any Post Office branch or Payzone store. View the full list of networks.

    You can top up in two ways:

    • E top-ups: buy instant top-ups using a top up swipe card that’s linked to your mobile phone (check with your mobile provider for more details)
    • E-vouchers: buy a voucher you can activate and top up your phone with. Your E-Voucher will have a PIN printed on it. Enter the PIN into your mobile phone to activate the top-up.
  • When you pay bills at the Post Office and Payzone stores, there’s no fee in most cases. If we do need to charge you a fee, we’ll tell you before taking payment. It’s free to use debit or credit cards, but your bank may charge their own fee. Contact your bank to find out more.

How to pay bills or top-up

  • You can find your nearest Post Office branch with our branch finder. If it’s closed, you can access bill payment services through Payzone. You can find your nearest Payzone retailer using Payzone's store locator tool. It will show you which services the store provides, as well as its opening hours.

  • You can use this service any time your local Post Office branch or Payzone store is open. Go to your local Post Office branch or Payzone store and we’ll take it from there. Just bring what you need and tell us how much you’d like to pay. You can pay by credit or debit card and we’ll give you a receipt for your payment.

    • For pre-paid energy meters, please bring your electricity key and/or gas card
    • For mobile phone top-ups, please bring your top-up card or ask for an e-voucher
    • For any other type of bill, please bring your bill or budget card

Missing or incorrect payments

  • If you’ve paid your bill but your provider hasn’t received the payment yet, this may be for a number of reasons.

    Our teams take great care when processing transactions, but occasionally an account number may be entered incorrectly. Equally, an incorrect payment amount may be entered in error.

    If that’s the case for a payment you’ve made and the information on your receipt is correct, you should first check with your bill provider as it’s proof of your payment to them.

    If you already have or the information on the correct is incorrect, please let us know using our online contact form.

    We’ll need you to provide the following:

    • Your name and contact details
    • Your Post Office receipt
    • Name of the branch where the transaction took place
    • The date and time of the transaction
    • Whether your bill is a barcode or magnetic card
    • The supplier you made the payment to 
    • Your Automated Bill Payment reference number (usually 16 digits, either under the barcode on the bill or printed across the front of the magnetic card)
    • The amount paid and the payment method
    • The amount incorrectly entered, if applicable

    If the information on your receipt was correct and you’ve checked with your bill provider, we’ll investigate and see if the payment has been reversed.

    If the receipt information is incorrect, we’ll investigate the issue and get back to you. This process usually takes 5-6 working days.

Contact Post Office about in-branch services

If you have a question, feedback or complaint about your experience in branch, here’s how to tell us.

For enquiries about specific bill payment services, please contact the service provider directly.

Send us a message

Please complete our enquiries form to tell us what you’d like to know or share feedback on your experience.

Make a complaint

If you’re not happy with your Post Office experience, please let us know and we’ll do our best to put things right.