Deposit waiver with letter of credit history
How do we waive or reduce a deposit on a customer's good-payment letter from a prior utility, with the letter checked on arrival and the decision written to billing?
Make the letter a document the process reads against the tariff. When an applicant offers a letter of credit history from another utility, Callvu tells them what the tariff accepts (the prior utility's name and contact, the account period, the payment record over the look-back, the letterhead or the verifiable source), requests the letter through a link (or requests it from the prior utility directly where the customer consents), reads it on arrival and checks it against the tariff's waiver criteria (the period of service, the number of late payments allowed, no disconnection for non-payment, the recency), verifies it with the issuing utility where the policy requires, routes a letter that is incomplete, old or borderline to the credit desk in the Decision Desk, and writes the waiver, the reduction or the refusal with the reasons to the billing system and tells the applicant.
In scopeComplex: multi-party handoffsCallvu moves: chase and verify, decide, write back
Last updated November 7, 2026.
The problem today
The applicant mailed a letter from their old utility; it was filed, the deposit stayed, and the refund took a commission complaint.
The tariff gives a new customer a way to avoid a deposit: a letter from a prior utility showing good payment. In practice the applicant does not know what the letter must say, the prior utility sends what it sends, the letter arrives after the deposit has been billed, and nobody compares it with the criteria. The waiver the tariff promises is a benefit few customers get.
The tariff sets the criteria: the length of the prior service, the look-back, the number of late payments tolerated, no disconnection for non-payment, and how recent the service was; the utility's policy sets how the letter is verified. The letter is a document with elements a process can read, and the decision is a comparison with the criteria.
A letter read on arrival is a deposit that never gets billed.
How it runs
From the requestto the system of record.
An applicant in a start or transfer request (or a customer with a deposit on file) says they have good payment history with another utility. Callvu opens the waiver request.
- Applicant or customer
- Provides the letter through a link, or consents to the request to the prior utility, and receives the decision.
- Prior utility
- Issues or verifies the letter of credit history.
- Credit desk
- Decides incomplete, old or borderline letters in the Decision Desk.
- Callvu
- Lists the requirements, chases, reads and checks, verifies, routes and writes.
List what the tariff accepts
The applicant is told exactly what the letter must contain under the tariff: the prior utility's name and contact, the account holder's name matching the applicant, the service address and period, the payment record over the look-back (late payments, returned payments, disconnections), the date of the letter and its recency, and the signature or the verifiable source; where the customer consents, the request can go directly to the prior utility.
Chase and verify the letter
The letter is requested through a link and chased until it arrives (with the deposit held pending for the tariff's period where the rules allow); on arrival it is read and each element is checked against the criteria: the service period meets the minimum, the late payments are within the tolerance, there was no disconnection for non-payment, the letter is recent enough, and the name matches; the letter is verified with the issuing utility where the policy requires (a call to the contact on the letter, a reply to a verification request).
Decide
A letter that meets every criterion waives the deposit by rule, and one that meets the tariff's reduction criteria reduces it by rule; a letter that is incomplete, older than the tariff allows, from a service not comparable, borderline on the late payment count, or unverifiable goes to the credit desk in the Decision Desk with the letter and the checks and only the allowed outcomes (waive, reduce, request a corrected letter, or refuse with the reasons and the deposit alternatives).
Write back
The waiver, the reduction or the refusal with the reasons is written to the billing system against the deposit record (the deposit removed, reduced or confirmed, any amount billed reversed or refunded), the letter is retained with the account, and the applicant is told the decision with the alternatives where refused (installments, a guarantor, the refund after good payment).
Where it ends: The applicant knew what the letter needed, the letter was read against the tariff's criteria and verified where required, and the billing system holds the waiver or the reduction with the reasons, with the letter on file. The Decision Trace shows the criteria, each element's check and any decision; the Audit Trace shows the request, the letter's arrival, the verification and the write with time.
Runtime enforcement
What is enforcedwhile the work runs.
The regulations preloaded in Callvu Studio and the bank's own policies, applied as steps that run, not lines in a binder. A step that breaks a rule does not run, so a completed run was compliant.
The handoff
Between the front doorand the back office.
The front door
Inside the start or transfer request, or from a deposit on file, in any channel; the letter arrives through a link or from the prior utility.
The back office
The credit desk decides only incomplete or borderline letters; billing reverses or refunds from the write.
The Decision Desk
- An incomplete, old, non-comparable, borderline or unverifiable letter goes to the credit desk in the Decision Desk with the letter and the checks and only waive, reduce, request a corrected letter, or refuse with reasons and alternatives.
Proof
In scope.Proof at scale, not one process at a time.
The kind of process Callvu runs in production for customers in this industry. Ask for a reference on this exact process. The results below are the industry's published proof; each claim code links to its record on agents.callvu.com.
More than 1,000 processes are live across Callvu customers.
Across Callvu customers
PSEG Long Island runs start, stop and move service on Callvu, live in 4 weeks.
Across Callvu customers
Questions
What buyers ask next,answered plainly.
What must the letter show?
The prior utility's name and contact, the applicant's name, the service address and period, the payment record over the look-back, the date, and a verifiable source; the applicant is told this before asking.
What are the criteria?
The tariff's: a minimum period of prior service, no more than the tolerated late payments, no disconnection for non-payment, and a letter recent enough; a record that partly meets them may qualify for a reduction.
What if the deposit was already billed?
It is reversed or refunded on the next bill when the waiver is written to billing.
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