Natwest and CPP scam

NelMac

I contacted you and to my satisfaction you have stated you will provide a refund and remove my information from your database. I'll wait till I see the refund and until then I can only thank you for dealing with my complaint in a rational and sensible manner. It still makes me worried my details were somehow compromised in the first place though. I'll be changing all accounts shortly and I'll again praise you for the professionalism in which you seem to have adopted in dealing with my complaint. Till then......

dizzy_davidh

I got given the hard sell this morning having called to activate a NatWest credit card.

The card came as an eventual replacement for one which had naturally expired over ten week ago and which I had to call 6 times over those ten weeks (one of which was before the expiry asking why I hadn't received a replacement yet) before they agreed to send the new card to me via recorded delivery 'because of the inconvenience' but that’s a whole other story!

Anyhow having activated my card and been put through to what I thought was a NatWest employee; after all they had all my details right?

Now don't get me wrong, from all the details provided as to what was covered and what wasn't covered I was sort of interested and kind of managed to acknowledge most of it with 'ah huh' and 'yup' but because of the repeated question '...is that OK for you Mr x?' I got suspicious and so the penny finally dropped as I realised I was in fact speaking to a sales rep from what I later found out to be CPP.

The Person I spOKe to for whom I didn't take any details as I thought I was just activating a credit card seemed to hang on my every word waiting for me to say 'yes' or 'ok' so that they could use it as an false affirmation that I wanted their services which I did not.

I proceeded to do what I normally do under those circumstances and asked if details of the service could be posted to me before signing up, as I am a strong believer that no one should sign-up to something without reading the small-print, to which she responded that they can't do that as it would cost too much to send the information to customers.

That is a terrible answer for one and secondly shows how easy it would be to ensnare customers. If you consider that the cooling off period is 14 days after agreeing to the service that presumably starts as soon as they push a button during your call, you could say very clearly 'NO', they start the process off falsely and the first you know about them having signed you up is when your posted info pack turns up via Royal Mail.

Now I'm not going to start having a go at Royal Mail but it is easy to imagine an A4 document envelope taking a week or more to get to you under normal circumstances but given the two bank holidays in May, one of which was yesterday, the fact it could realistically be posted second class and that I would have no idea when it was posted by CPP, I would easily not get the documentation well after the cooling off period meaning I had already made one payment.

An all too common get-out now employed by companies such as CPP is to direct you to a website that has all the details so they could argue you've been given the chance to read the information. In the case of my phone call the sales rep actually asked if I had access to the internet and gave me the site address as if it was a tick-box that could check off on a script they were reading or possibly even a confirmation box that I had agreed to read the website for their 'proof of entrapment'.

I ended the conversation having said that I would read the information on the web-site and then decide whether I want to take up their services but the whole time that same question kept being asked '...is that OK for you Mr x?' I felt as if I should have had to state 'No, I do not wish to take up your services, thank you!'.

The last part of the story is that having been intrigued by what was covered by CCP's services (It's just occurred to me that CCP is very close to CCCP which makes me wonder if the two are related especially given the way I felt so as if I was being forced into some sort of oppressive regime) and so I checked out the 'protectmyidentity.co.uk' website and thought I would then see if there were any reviews of the service which naturally lead me here.

Woh! I thought when I saw the stories about people saying no CCP and yet still being sign-up and charged.

I very quickly rang both CCP and NatWest in turn to exclaim that I did not sign-up to the services of CCP which was acknowledged by both parties, I have to say without any argument but the only confirmation I could get from CCP that no wheels had been set in motion was that 'there was nothing in their system's records' for my postcode and house number.

I did at least get a person at CCP who very clearly gave me their name as a point of reference and so I have that in the event of any dispute and they did go so far as to say that the call could be listened to if needs be.

Under the circumstances I couldn't expect NatWest to have done too much other than record the reason I had called them and when, which they did but they did helpfully advise that if I was charged by CCP that I should dispute the costs like any other that might appear on my card which is good advice but considering it is their affiliation with CCP that raised my concerns in the first place it is a fairly hollow method of calming my fears.

All I can do now I guess is to wait to see if an envelope from CCP turns up but if it does I shall not only dispute the cost with NatWest but also be straight on the phone to CCP to have them pull the call and prove to them that I did not agree to their services.

You never know, perhaps my having written my story here at MoneySavingExpert.com might go some way in proving my innocence if they do claim that I agreed to their services...WHICH I DID NOT (sorry had to state that again just in case it was misunderstood).

Thanks all and thank you MoneySavingExpert.com for pointing out the 'scam'

Cheers,

Dizzy

sookipeaspud

Natwest for a high street bank are great.
Granted the likes of Coutts are much better but then you would need alot of wonga to bank with them. I have a Natwest private account and they bend over backwards for me.
95% of the public dont have enough money to receive a quality service from hte likes of Cotts or the like. I have CPP for free through my account which also covers all my other cards once registered. It is easy.

Ok, 79 year old being sold CPP is a tad naughty but what if the seller was 79 and half years old? I think your being ageist by using her age as a marker to imply CPP / Natwest are taking advantage of the elderly. I know of plenty of people 79+ who are more able minded than someone aged 40.

No reponses please. I have made up my mind and I stick with Natwest. People may have horror stories against Natwest as people will have for other banks but for me, I get a good service.

dizzy_davidh

sookipeaspud wrote: »

No responses please.

Are you having a laugh!?! :rotfl:

Rather missed the point of the thread and it's responses on several fronts there haven't you.

1. This is a discussion thread who's purpose is to discuss and promote a conversation regarding a given subject which depends on replies for its existence.

2. Just because NatWest is in the title of the thread it doesn't mean that anyone is directly complaining about them, in fact others have already pointed out that many companies employ CCP to perform the same services to their customers.

3. There was no ageism being implied other than CCP seem to have taken the opportunity to take advantage of an elderly person. Elderly people are not always so vigilant in managing their finances and so could be seen as an easily target when the hard-sell approach is applied especially when people are, for want of better phrase, fraudulently signed up to a service by default even when they clearly state they don't want or need it.

4. The name of the site is 'MoneySavingExpert.com' which with your boastful attitude you seem to flaunt when discussing your private banking experience and perks, it sounds very much like you don't need tips on saving money as you have loads you can afford to loose.

:mad: I don't want to sound overly aggressive but, a bit like this reply, your response in the thread does nothing to further the conversation except to extol that 'Your alright, Jack'!

dfh

Thanks to the OP for bringing this to light.I shall avoid CPP at all costs.

umair.mir

Unfortunately, I did not go through this or it was not there in dec 09 and Jan 10 when I subscribed for this crapiest account. This number to the manager where no one responds....CPP is the biggest scam, they dont say no to your claim so that you can drag them to the courts or regulating bodies neither do they say yes....I got mugged and reported it to the police and my service provider. It has been 1 month, I have provided them with all the documents they asked for and they cannot deal with the it asking me for another document or makin another excuse wanting another 5 - 10 working days.

Where should I go, can anyone advise me, please.

geordie1976

hi guys well i'd like to start off by saying i used to work for cpp in sales and if any of you ever called me directly im very sorry lol just to put a few things straight about cpp and what they do and etc, ok cpp mainly is a card protection and identy protection company but their their other main role is to safe recipt card and activate cards, activation is a must on your bank card otherwise it won't work, if it say ' call to safe recipt your card' this means very little really you can use your safe recipt card from when it becomes valid , which is stated on the card, also banks liek you to do this for security, when you call them you should one speak to one person, but you will speak to a machine first which you give ur card number to then you will be passed onto a sales rep who will ask you questions and we can select what we want to ask you, bear in mind all the questions we ask you are already on the screen for example it may say your birthday is 24/ 11/ 1965 on our screen and we will ask you for your birthday and comfirm you are the correct person, unless your card is an activation card and thats when we are given specific questions to ask you, this is actual proper security. now once either your card has been safe recipted or it has been activated the sales rep will then go for 'permissin to market' this is were they will say ' i can no confirm the activation/safe reipt of your card ad there is one other mater i would like to discuss with you, whe has been asked by - insert bank name- to tell you about the protection that we at cpp offer to help prevent you from becoming a victim of identity theft/card fruad (now here is the interesting bit they may say 'ok' which your automatic reaction is to say ok or they may go 'is that ok' which is were most people say NO), this is the permission to market , and you MUST get permission to market before going into a sales pitch if you say no however they will then say 'ok i can appriciate that not many people do realise how they may be at risk is it ok if you just take a few minutes to explain what those risks are and how the protection we offer can assist?' if you say yes they can go into the pitch if you say no they cannot go into the pitch if they do and then get a sale this can mean the sale could be canceled if the call is picked up or the customer complains. so basicially say no twice and they should leave you alone, no the other thing is the facts that they will give you we all have fact sheets which get updated every month or so these facts always lean in favour of cpp , saying identy fraud is on the increase blah blah blah , however if you go onto the bbc website you may find differently, so they will real through their script until they end when they will say, 'so should we set that up for you on that basis or somthing similar depending on the person and how they have altered their script. if you say yes they will take to through the 'wrap' if no then they will objection handle you and trust me they can handle alot of questions, your only supposed to handle 3 objections if your dealing with a certain banks customers, however if these objections are possed as a question then you can handle as many as possible. once into the wrap you get to all the legal stuff, there is no signing on any dotted thing the customer agrees to the policy over the phone and THAT IS IT, before you agree however yo will be asked a few question ' i just want to check your over 18? and that your a resident in the uk? and you dont have an existing cover like this in place?' they will then say how much you have agreed to pay ' so the total of £35 will be debited from you so so account in or around the next 10 days but this will apear on you next or even you subsequent statement, so can i set the policy up for you on that basis? if you say yes the policy is put through no account details are taken off you as they are passed on from the bank to cpp unless teh system has crashed and they will ask for your info, once that little button on their screen is pressed there is o going back , you should also recieve a text message pretty much immediatly if your taking out id protection, they will then run through a few mor things with you such as giving you your policy number and/or your user name, your are then passed onto a recorded message which 'tells you inportant information about your policy so please listen carefully' after that everything is sent out in the post, alot of the time htough people assume the stuff which is sent out is their contract which has to be signed and sent back but oh no its nots its a piece of paper saying hey you've got a policy blah blah, by saying 'yes' when they ask you if you can set up the policy on that basis you are agreeing to the contract which is totaly legal, as they have gained your permission twwice so far to set it up amd you have agreed to the security questions as well, so there is no way out unless the rep has not mentioned something, but as a customer you wouldn't know that anyways, so there you have it that is the whole mess but just to change the tone slighty which i will probably get shouted at for, the prodcuts they sell aren't that bad, you do get alot for your money and if it something you are worried about it is a good idea to take it out they are not the cheapest, as sentinal are the cheapest but they do give you more bang for your buck compaired to sentinal, i annoyingly took out he policy when i left cpp just cos i have 2 young daughters ho constantly loose their bags with all their keys and cards in and cpp have replaced them 3 times since i have had the policy and i have not had to pay anymore than what i paid for the first time, so the products aren't bad nd the majority of the people aren't bad either will in tamworth there tnot that bad i dn't know about the other sites lol but people do not realise the pressure they are put under by their bosses so please try and take it easy on them when you get through to them next time but just don't take any crap from them either lol, hope this has been helpfull, if anyone has anyother questions don't hesitate to ask

catch_me_if_you_can

#28

If you put some paragraphs in, it makes it easier to read

dinglebert

Sorry lost the will to live quarter of the way through post 28. If you can't use paragraphs its unreadable.

dacouch

I would add that as it is an Insurance product you can back out, you have 14 days from the date you RECEIVE the policy documents, some Insurers (I'm not sure if CPP do) will make an admin charge for cancelling it.

If you get someone selling to you, they will often use a line long the lines of "If I can show you a way to save money / protect your identity etc etc would you be interested" This is a set sales line which is worded so your only answer can be yes, however you can have great fun with the salesperson if you so no as they are often not trained in dealing with this answer. I find it highly amusing doing this and listening to them squirming when they don't have the experience to overcome the objection