Cynthia Keeler had just lost her husband of more than 58 years when OG&E told her she needed to pay roughly $400 to keep the lights on in the home they had shared for decades. Her water and gas accounts transferred into her name without a hitch. The electric account did not.
Paul Keeler died on August 20, and as his widow worked through the painful list of accounts that needed updating, she assumed the family's longtime electric service would simply shift to her name. Instead, as reported by KFOR, OG&E required her to open an entirely new account under her own name as the responsible party, and told her she would owe a new deposit on top of the one she and her husband had already paid years earlier. Keeler said she provided her name and Social Security number over the phone, only to be met with new-customer treatment that she felt was unfair so soon after her husband's death.
A Marriage, A Rug, and A Final Project
Paul Keeler was a Vietnam veteran who spent hours at the Vietnam center and, in his final months, poured his energy into a pot-warmer and potholder rug that went on to win first place at the state fair this year. He completed the rug just three days before he died, and Keeler said her husband spent his final weeks with family, enjoying life even as he had declined dialysis in an effort to save his own life. He and Cynthia had been married for 58 years, two months and eight days, according to the same KFOR report.
Keeler said she and her husband had shared the OG&E account for decades and had already satisfied a deposit requirement years earlier, which made the renewed demand feel especially galling. Deposit requirements can take prior property usage into account, and residential deposits may be as high as one-sixth of estimated annual bills.
Daughter's Facebook Post Surfaces a Wider Pattern
Keeler's daughter, Lucinda Eddens, posted about the deposit issue in a Facebook group to see whether others had run into the same problem. The response was immediate: many group members said they were dealing with the same situation themselves or knew someone who had. Eddens said the family could pay the deposit if it came to that, but argued that grieving families like hers should not have to.
Deposit requirements may factor in prior property usage and customer credit history. Oklahoma residents have also discussed deposit troubles on a Reddit thread in r/normanok.
State Rules Offer an Exemption, But With a Catch
Oklahoma Corporation Commission regulations under OAC 165:35-19-10 prohibit electric utilities from requiring a residential deposit if a customer has received similar service for 12 consecutive months within the past 18 months without a service termination for nonpayment or more than two late payments, according to the Legal Information Institute. State rules also cap residential deposits at no more than one-sixth of a property's estimated annual electric bill, the same regulation notes. The regulation describes this exemption in terms of a customer's service history, making the 12-month test central to deposit eligibility.
This is not a new complaint. In an August 2022 investigative report, Oklahoma outlet The Frontier found that OG&E calculates new-account deposits based on a property's historic energy usage even for incoming tenants, and requires the full deposit paid upfront rather than offering an installment plan. That same reporting noted OG&E is Oklahoma's largest electric utility, serving more than 820,000 customers across a 30,000-square-mile territory spanning Oklahoma and western Arkansas — a footprint so dominant that affected customers have essentially nowhere else to turn. Consumer reviews compiled by Consumer Affairs in 2026 echo the same frustration, documenting recurring complaints about OG&E's identity verification and deposit demands when customers open or transfer accounts.
OG&E Waives the Deposit After Media Inquiry
After KFOR's Dylan Brown began asking questions, OG&E said it had reviewed Keeler's account and waived the deposit requirement. The utility told the station that a new account may be subject to a deposit if the existing account already carried one, but did not explain to News 4 why it would not simply refund an existing deposit and transfer it to a new account already in good standing. OG&E told News 4 it expected to respond further by Friday after reporters sent questions late Thursday, and the company said it had since received reports of similar issues from other Oklahomans after the story first aired.
OG&E deposit interest rates are posted annually, according to the same filing with state regulators, OG&E's filing with state regulators. Longtime households like the Keelers may expect continuity rather than having to start over from scratch after a death in the family.
New Rate Filing Includes a Deposit-Free Option
The timing of Keeler's experience lands just as OG&E is proposing changes at the state level. OG&E filed a rate review application with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission seeking a $395 million rate adjustment on September 30, and announced it on Thursday, October 1, according to reporting cited from Oklahoma Politics Today. The same filing proposed expanding OG&E's $85 annual Senior Discount to all residential customers 65 and older, along with broadening its $13 monthly Low-Income Assistance Program — changes for seniors and qualifying low-income customers.
For now, the key policy question raised by Keeler's case remains unresolved: whether the Oklahoma Corporation Commission should mandate automatic spousal transfer exemptions so grieving families are not confronted with new deposit demands on top of loss.
