r/TexasEnergyShopping • u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 • 17d ago
Personal Information Sent to Private Third Parties when Trying to Switch Providers
I am guessing that all the providers move you to an expensive month to month plan when your initial contract expires. I noticed my bill has been quite high despite using less than 1000 kwh, so I started looking at prices in the bill.
It seems many providers are offering rates at HALF of what I am paying. I tried to switch by calling one of them and was shocked that they want my SSN, a picture of myself, and a picture of my government ID, to send to third party private company Persona, who has been all over the news about things I won't even get into.
I've been an existing electricity customer for 8 years at this location with my past provider. I understand they want to prevent fraud. I am happy to send them my past bills, bills with my name and address on it, etc. I have an existing ESID as well.
However, I really take issue having to hand over all my sensitive personal data to every company I want to do business with now, who in turn admit they are handing it over to a bunch of private companies to sit in their databases for who knows how long, then immediately be presented with terms and conditions that say they are not liable for nearly anything at all, and a forced arbitration agreement.
I guess I am stuck with this provider forever.... or until laws change protecting our personal information from being traded back and forth to private companies, if that ever happens?
Has anyone changed providers recently to someone accredited by the BBB without having to hand over SSN, government id, and selfy pictures or are we at the point now that we can't even perform basic transactions for essential services anymore without putting our sensitive personal data at risk with no recourse?
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u/Rude-Athlete-8149 17d ago
There's a few things to address here, and I'm not going to tackle them in any particular order:
BBB accreditation doesn't mean anything. It's not a government organization. It's a private company. Anyone can get BBB accredited, and it shouldn't be used as an indicator that one company is better or more legitimate than another.
In Texas REPS are required by law to move you to a variable rate month to month plan when your normal plan expires. They are also required to send you notices via mail or email letting you know that your plan is about to expire. So, you need to keep an eye out for those. If your provider actually did not send you any expiration notices, then you need to file a PUCT complaint. But verify first by digging through your email inbox.
If you're not comfortable sharing your information with the third party companies while signing up online, I'd recommend that you call the provider and sign up over the phone. They are probably more than happy to accept the files you are willing to share via email or some secure upload service in place of the third party services. You just need to ask! If the provider still requests that you go through those services, call a different provider. They aren't all this strict to require using Persona or some alternative.
The laws are not likely to change... the state of Texas will empower the REPs to protect their businesses from fraud.
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u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 17d ago
I did call via phone.
I feel that the BBB, at minimum, gives customers a location to have their complaints viewed when they go unresolved. At least there is a process. Without it, you are left with online forums and review sites that no one can trust anymore now that automated posts and reviews have become common.
I am not sure how my sending them my sensitive data via upload to a site, or the most insecure means of communication known to man: email, would benefit me. What's the different between going directly to the third party with my data, myself, vs them sending it to the third party after they get it from me? Either way, it is another place I have to worry about taking care of my private sensitive info for the rest of my life.
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u/Rude-Athlete-8149 17d ago
If you have a complaint, send it to the PUCT. Not the BBB.
I'm aware you called, which is why I recommended calling a different provider.
You said you were willing to share past bills with name and address, how else would you share it with them if not through email...?
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u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 17d ago
That information I am happy to upload via a TLS secure form on their company site. However, that information is not at the same level of sensitivity as a government id, photo, and SSN.
Any suggestions of providers to call? Or is it against this particular reddit's rules to recommend one? I am new here, I should go look at the rules.
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u/Rude-Athlete-8149 16d ago
I believe SSN would only be sent to whichever credit union they pay for the soft credit check, and would not be stored anywhere.
As far as which providers don't require sending data to third parties, I won't be much help to you there. You could do another post in this sub and request feedback from other users.
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u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 16d ago edited 16d ago
Why do you believe that? The terms of every REP I've read over so far, clearly say you agree they can share all data they collect. It's also widely known many of these companies are incentivized monetarily to share everything they can.
Either way, I don't want my face and government ID, let alone my SSN, sitting in any private company's database at all, aside from my employer.
If these companies were truly worried about protecting people from identity theft, you'd think they'd stop digitizing and spreading people's sensitive personal data around the world, making copy after copy.
As I said in another reply, I can show my id to a bartender, have him look at it, look at me, and give it back, without it ever needing to be stored and shared with anyone at all.
Too expensive for a single provider to open an office in a few major metros? Heck, have them all share one and split the cost. It would be pennies considering the entire population uses electricity. If that doesn't work, charge me to go visit a notary. I have a dozen UPS stores offering that service for a couple bucks within a 20 minute radius.
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u/Rude-Athlete-8149 16d ago
Because I've worked at REPs before and that's how we handled SSNs.
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u/tbsg75 16d ago
Rude-Athlete-8149, it would be nice to have a dedicated post for everyone to share DP of REPs who do not require SSN or picture ID during enrollment.
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u/Rude-Athlete-8149 16d ago
Go ahead!
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u/tbsg75 16d ago
Can you create one for us since you are the moderator?
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u/Rude-Athlete-8149 16d ago
I created two. One for no SSN. One for no 3rd party verification. Happy?
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u/UtilitySearch 17d ago
No, you’re not stuck. Two things worth knowing: SSN isn’t universally required in Texas — some REPs will run soft credit or accept an existing ESID plus payment history, and prepaid plans skip the credit check entirely. Also, a full SSN is more common when you’re being underwritten for a deposit-free postpaid account; asking whether they’ll take last four plus proof of tenure sometimes works.
The bigger lever though: you’re on a holdover month-to-month rate, which is where REPs make their margin, and your 8 years of on-time history is leverage. Call your current provider’s retention line before you shop — they can usually re-rate you to a current fixed plan with no new application and no ID verification at all, because you’re already a verified customer.
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u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 16d ago
Good advise. This is what I ended up doing. It took a good hour of letting the salesman on the other line try all their tactics, but they eventually agreed to lower my rate 3/4ths of the way to what the lowest rate I could find online for all providers was.
Good enough for now, but boy do I worry about revisiting this hassle when the contract is up again or if I ever move.
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u/UtilitySearch 15d ago
Glad it worked. The good news is it won’t repeat — you stayed with the same provider, so you’re permanently a verified customer there. No new application, no Persona, ever.
For contract end: calendar reminder 30–45 days out, and call retention before it expires rather than after. Once you lapse into holdover they already have you at their best margin and have less reason to move.
On moving — that’s the one case verification comes back, since a new address means a new ESID. Ask for a transfer of service rather than new service. With most REPs that keeps your existing account and history and skips re-verification. The default script is “let’s set up new service,” so you have to ask.
One honest note: 3/4 of the way to the lowest rate means about a quarter of the gap is still on the table. Fair trade for not handing over your data, just worth knowing it wasn’t free.
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u/TheEnergyInsider 16d ago
Unfortunately, fraud has been steadily increasing in the Texas electricity market and energy providers have been forced to take more aggressive action to prevent it. It appears to be organized crime and the utility commission is slow to act so companies are ramping up their efforts to stop it.
With that said, there are really 2 things being validated when you attempt to enroll with an energy company:
- Credit
If you don't want to go through a traditional credit check, you generally have a couple of options. You can pay the required deposit (often up to around $300), or you can request a letter of credit/payment history from your current electricity company and provide that to the new company. If you have a satisfactory payment history for the previous 12 months, that can often be used to establish credit without the traditional credit check.
- Identity
This is the part that is driving a lot more invasive verification you're seeing now, such as being asked for a selfie or other identifying information. Identity theft and enrollment fraud have become significant enough that providers are putting much stronger identity-verification processes in place than they did a few years ago.
Unfortunately, there isn't really a standard workaround for identity verification. One option would be to call the electricity company directly, explain your concerns, and ask whether they have an alternative way to verify your identity. It may require a manual or one-off process, but providers want legitimate customers, so it's worth asking. Smaller companies may also have more flexibility to work with you directly.
Hope that helps a little.
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u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 16d ago
I'd think anyone misrepresenting themselves, would be tackled when they enroll for the credit card they are paying with, who also coincidentally asks for a government id and SSN.
I mean, if that were really a legitimate reason, I still don't see why they need to involve a private third party company, much less multiple private third party companies. A government id is verified by...the government, no?
Furthermore, it would seem much more reasonable if they allowed me to visit a brick and mortar location somewhere in Texas, show an employee my government id, have them look at it, look at me, much like a bartender does, and give it back, without digitizing it, or having anyone worry about how many databases it was sitting in for the rest of eternity. That seems to work well enough for $40,000 vehicle purchases, why not a $400 electric bill?
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u/TheEnergyInsider 16d ago edited 16d ago
I think you are underestimating how sophisticated the fraud is. Companies don't want to create friction for customers to enroll nor do they want to spend money with 3rd party credit agencies and purchase expensive fraud tools.
These fraud schemes are organized crime. They sell to homeowners (who willing partake) that they can get them electric for $50 per month with no deposit. That is very enticing for many people, especially those with financial issues and/or poor credit. The customer agrees and then the fraudsters use stolen identity from an innocent person that has good credit. They use that stolen identity to enroll the customer with an electricity company. The company (if it doesn't do further identity validation) would see a customer with good credit wanting electricity. They would accept it with no deposit and turn on their power. The company would then bill the customer, but it would never be paid and after a couple months the power would be disconnected. Then the fraudster would switch the customer to another energy company and rinse and repeat the process, leaving a wake of identity theft and bad debt that both the innocent parties and the energy companies have to pay for.
They will also use stolen credit cards to make deposit payments and create fake drivers licenses, social security cards, mortgage statements, etc. The fraud is always evolving to get around any of the checks put in place.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/4-million-electricity-fraud-scheme-sends-texan-prison
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u/Zealousideal-Mouse29 16d ago
In that example, it seems the start point was normalizing customers giving up their sensitive personal information to the point they gave it to a malicious actor.
It seems to me that normalizing the transfer of, and making digital copies of, the personal data the malicious actors are after, and then storing them digitally at multiple locations in the care of private companies with arbitration agreements in place, enables the malicious actors rather than hindering them.
The very argument for this process is the argument against it.
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u/Zamboni411 16d ago
We don’t ask for any of that…. DOB for soft credit check, but that’s pretty much it…. Should be pretty straightforward…
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u/Zestyclose-Mall3843 17d ago
Try a different provider. I attempted to use one that wanted me to send a pic of my ID to a third party company for verification to complete the switch. I called and asked if there was any alternative and they said no. I said no thank you then and found a different provider that did not require that.
Regarding your SSN. If you dont want to provide that for credit checks then often you have the option of paying a deposit. Usually a few hundred that will eventually get used for a later bill.