I heard this story on NPR this morning and it raised my blood pressure about 100 points. A great way to start a Friday:
Following the lead of finance companies, insurers and even prospective employers, TXU plans to use credit scores to determine rates for customers in areas outside of its original Dallas-area market.Maybe this seems okay to folks that live in a the-bottom-line-is-all-that-matters kind of world but I find it a despicable attack on the poor.The change, rolled into a recent rate increase that TXU says is needed to cover higher natural gas prices, means customers with bad credit will pay more for electricity. In some cases, the difference will exceed the 8 percent to 10 percent savings TXU promised customers who switched, according to the Wall Street Journal. Link.
We're not talking about people who run up credit cards and don't pay off the debt - the NPR story featured an interview with TXU wherein their spokesperson said the credit rating was based solely on on-time utility (cable, phone, electricity, and gas) payments. Given the fact that most folks who don't have substance abuse problems or life-threatening medical expenses tend to prioritize their spending on food, shelter, and utilities (in that order), it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this policy penalizes people for being poor, not irresponsible. It's like raising the taxes on the poorest Americans to keep the rates low for everyone else.
Draining the limited resources of the poor to shore up your profit margins is unconscionable and should be rejected by the public vociferously. Write TXU, the papers, and your state reps - we can't allow TXU to set a precedent with this kind of immoral corporate citizenship.
Posted by sarah at September 10, 2004 9:35 AM | TrackBack