You can register on the CFE website to see your electricity bills.
At present you cannot pay the bills directly on the website. The only place to pay online is on the online banking of a Mexican bank, such as Bancomer or Banamex. Still, the CFE website does at least show you how much to pay, and whether it has been paid successfully.
Registering your account
First, you need to set up a login account on the CFE website. The second step will be to attach your electricity accounts (bills) to this. You only need to do this once.
Go the CFE website: http://www.cfe.gob.mx/
On the left, there is an orange box titled Ingreso a clientes registrados (Entrance for Registered Clients).
Before you can log on with this, you need to register.
Click on Regístrate aquí (Register now) to the right of that box. Fill in the four boxes as follows:
- Nombre de usuario - Choose a username that you would like
- Contraseña - Password
- Confirma tu contraseña - Re-enter the password
- Correo electrónico Email Address
Then click on Aceptar (Submit).
Logging On
On the CFE website, enter your user id (that you chose when registering) in Usuario (User), your password in Clave (password), and press Entrar (enter) in the orange box on the right.
Switch to English
Once you are logged on, you can optionally switch to English by clicking on Inglés - the second main heading on the left column on the page. Not everything is in English, but at least the payment amount, payment date, and bill status (paid etc) will be in English.
Attach Electric Accounts
Once you have registered a login account (see above), you need to attach your electric account(s) - bills - to this. You will need a printed bill for each account that you add. This only has to be done once for each account.
Log on, then select Mis recibos registrados (My registered bills) from the left column, then the Nuevo (New) button under the (empty) list of accounts.
On the next page "My registered bills" you enter Nombre (Name) (exactly as shown on the printed bill) and Número de servicio (Service Number) (from the bill). Then click on Aceptar (Save).
You should now be able to see the bill details with Consulta tu recibo (Inquire your bill). (Maybe it will take a while for the account to appear, possibly even days. Please let me know in the comments whether you can see the account instantly or have to wait for it, and if there is a wait, how long.).
Bill Status
The bill status is shown in the first column under Recibo (Bill):
- (grey) Vigente - Awaiting payment
- (yellow) Recibo con Pagado No Disponible - Paid but receipt not available**
- (green) Pagado - Paid
- (red) Vencido - Overdue
** The "Paid but receipt not available" means it was paid in person at the office or machine, rather than online. This appears the day after the payment was made, and changes to "Paid" another day or so later. The same message may appear if technical problems on the CFE website stop the bill from being dispayed (even when it has not been paid).
Click on the little bill image in that first column to get a copy of the current bill. It looks the same as the printed bill.
Vencimiento is the due date, and Importe is the amount to pay.
On the Spanish version of the site, there are additional options under Solicitudes for opening new accounts etc. I haven't had a need to try any of these.
Logging Off
Click on Cerrar sesión (close session) on the left hand column.
Paying the bill
Paying the bill is another whole issue. Easiest way is to go into the CFE office in town with a printed bill and use one of the machines. It can also be paid online from a Bancomer peso account, which will be the subject of another post here soon.
(this article was updated on 2010-01-20 because CFE changed their web site layout).


Comments
Vivian Scott
Wednesday, January 6 2010, 13:45
Hi Rob,
I just wanted to let you know that I followed your instructions for viewing my CFE bill online, and they worked great. After I registered my account, I was able to see my bill instantly.
Thanks very much for providing this extremely helpful information, especially since the CFE website is not exactly user-friendly. I really appreciate all the good work you are doing to make life easier (and more understandable) for us Americans in San Felipe!
Vivian