Privacy Policy Regarding: Collection and use of a Member’s Social Security Number
We obtain your social security number when you apply for service.
Your social security number is obtained because we will be extending credit to you by billing you after the services have been provided to you. We also use your social security number as an additional means to verify your identity, in conjunction with the payment of capital credits and otherwise, and distinguish you from other customers/members with the same or similar name. If you relocate owing us for services rendered, we will use your social security number to assist in locating you so the debt can be collected. We may also may use your social security number in conjunction with the administration of low income assistance programs or for permissible regulatory functions.
We are sensitive to your concerns that your social security number might fall into the wrong hands, which could result in identity theft or general access to your personal information by unauthorized persons. Your Application for service, and any other documents containing your social security number, are filed in a secure location to which only a limited group of authorized personnel have access. Intake personnel who receive your Application have strict instructions to immediately transport such documents to authorized personnel and to not permit such documents to remain on desks, in baskets or elsewhere in general work areas where they could be seen by unauthorized personnel. Personnel are prohibited from copying or in any way duplicating documents containing your social security number except duplication by instruction of authorized personnel for an authorized purpose. Your social security number is accessible on our network to authorized personnel. Firewalls, passwords and other safeguards have been installed in our network to prevent access to your social security number by non-authorized personnel. Employees authorized to have access to your social security numbers are prohibited from saving your social security number, in any fashion, on any personal electronic device. We will not include your social security number on any documents, such as monthly statements, for which it serves no purpose. We need your number on file for the purposes stated but will not use it unnecessarily so as to limit the opportunity for it to be inadvertently disseminated. All employees who will come in contact with your social security number are provided initial training before they are permitted to handle any document containing social security numbers and will be reminded, through periodical updated training, of the importance of protecting the privacy of social security numbers and our policies which have been designed to insure such protection, asserting the need to safeguard customer’s social security numbers. Before discarding any customer records, employees are to shred any portion of the records which contain a customer’s social security number.
Intake personnel, or clerical staff who open mail, may initially receive the documents containing your social security number. They are instructed to immediately transport these to the office of designated authorized personnel, where such documents will be filed and secured. Once the documents are secured, access will be limited to the General Manager and the staff members designated to handle delinquent accounts. If your account is turned over for collection purposes and the attorney/collection agency requests your social security number to assist in collection proceedings, we will provide your number to them as our agent. If we receive a subpoena or Court order compelling us to turn your records over to a law enforcement agency or investigator or to a party in connection with a legal proceeding, then we will release them, including your social security number, as required by law. If the subpoena is issued in a civil matter, you should have the opportunity to seek a protective order or to quash the subpoena to protect the confidentiality of your information.
We will retain your records in accordance with our record retention policy and this privacy policy. If we elect to destroy your records in accordance with our policy, the records containing your social security number will be shredded and any electronic records containing your social security number will be permanently deleted.
South Plains Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization providing safe, reliable electric service at the lowest possible cost to its members. We are owned and controlled by the members we serve in the counties of: Childress, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Floyd, Foard, Garza, Hale, Hall, Hardeman, Hockley, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley and Stonewall.
To report an outage, please call: 806.741.0111, text your outage, or report an outage though the SPEC app.
For Member Service: 806.775.7766
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Download the SPEC App to pay your bill and manage your account.
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Create an account and pay online.
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Call 806.775.7766 and select option '2' to pay by phone.
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Sign up for Co-op Power PrePay.
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Mail payments to: P.O. Box 600, Spur, TX 79370-0600.
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Visit one of our service offices:
110 N. I-27, Lubbock
6506 19th St., Lubbock
2741 Farm Road 836, Spur
1900 Ave. C NW, Childress
611 Hwy. 82, Lorenzo
Call 806.741.0111 or text to report an outage. You can receive up-to-date information on outages in your neighborhood though our outage map and Facebook.
Safety is everyone's business. Call 811 before you dig. If you see a downed line or other power emergency, call 911.
SPEC operates as a not-for-profit cooperative committed to selling power to its members at cost. View our rates here.
As your electric cooperative, we are your source for energy and information. Since interest in solar power generation is growing, we have information available to help answer your questions.
