I called Met-Ed a month ago to set up electric (transfer out of landlord's name and into mine). They wanted a security deposit of $188 OR a cosigner who had lived in my area with an account in good standing for at least 3-5 years. Really? It gets better... They mailed me out a cosigner (they call it a 'guarantor') statement to sign and send back.
This month I called because it dawned on me I have good credit, why am I paying a security deposit? I called and asked if we should maybe 'run' my fiance even though my credit is fine? To which a guy on the other end of the phone was probably looking to find his scripted response which was:
"The security deposit has nothing to do with credit. The security deposit is based on past electricity usage at your address, it is 2 1/2 times the normal bill. It must be paid in full, but we will refund it if you re-send the guarantor statement"
So I hung up, mulled it over, and called back and talked to another person because I really didn't believe you could hit someone with a security deposit based on the address you're moving to. Wrong. She verified the security deposit is based upon the address I have moved to, but assured me it had nothing to do with whether or not the previous tenant was delinquent on their bills or not.
I asked her HOW they could come up with a security deposit based upon previous electricity usage if I had JUST MOVED IN. She said it was based on the history of usage at that address, not my personal usage. WHAT??? I asked her so if the people who lived here before used $500 worth of electricity per month, I would have to pay them $1250 just to have electric in my name? (Yup). Just because I moved there?
Not because of a credit score? Also, I've never had Met-Ed in my life, we had PP&L where we used to live and we never dealt with security deposits—so it's not like I've ever even HAD a Met-Ed bill before. I asked her if they ever waive the security deposit, and she said only people with excellent excellent (yes she said it twice) credit—as in 770 or higher AND they have to request it.
My credit's a 690, not bad, but certainly not 'excellent excellent'. But apparently the credit is BESIDES the point and now you just have to pay the electric company a security deposit just because of the address you choose to move to.By the way, I moved to a normal house on a normal street in an incredibly small town. Is this housing profiling lol? Really??? Is this legal???
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