Hard sell from activation people

darkeyes_2

@johnt: There are legitimate reasons to have this protection, and of course, legitimate reasons to sell it. If you are calling to activate a card, does it not make sense to offer and at least make you aware of the card protection and/ot identity protection products?

Now, CPPgroup plc used to sell card protection (CPP used to mean Card Protection Plan), and many people are aware of this service. So, the agent asked you who your protect is with for one of two reasons:

Either a) You say 'Sentinel', in which case the agent will say 'but do you realise that only covers loss and theft, but this is ID cover' (true enough wouldn't you say?) or

b) (assume you're activating a Barclaycard) you may say 'I have my identity covered through the Yorkshire bank thank you very much', in which case the agent will simply respond 'Yorkshire Bank? Well, we at CPP actually provide our services to the Yorkshire Bank, so you are already covered with us, that's excellent. Your new Barclaycard is now activated sir. Is there anythig else I can do for you today?'

Do not assume the agents are trying to be cheeky. I have done similar jobs before. Agents are trained to ask question to see what is appropriate to you and then offer you the product. Admittedly, it is a sales centre, so some agents do get over-exuberant with the pitch, but invariably they're targeted on low cancellations as well as high sales, so upsetting their customers won't make them friends with their manager or earn them any bonuses!

On the topic of ID theft itself, the consumer credit act (as the name implies) only cover credit - credit cards, loans, mortgages etc - not money drawn out of bank accounts (although many bank will cover you less a legal liability of £50-250) and of course not all ID theft is card- or bank-related. I'm talking here about number plate cloning (racking up speeding fines, getting free petrol, incurring London Congestion charges etc), getting goods from DFS, Brighthouse and other buy-now pay-later stores, new mobile phone contracts (I heard of someone who had 15 Virgin mobile contracts in his name) and even these 6,000%pa short-term "pay-day" loans. It's not all about your bank!

darkeyes_2

Kavanne wrote: »

Pssst it's 29pa or 70 for 3 yrs.

No, that's card protection. Identity Protection is around £80 p.a. The sooner people realise the difference between themselves and their cards the better.

methusala wrote: »

Barclaycard are not alone. I have never successfuly activated a card via the auto system, it ALWAYS fails or pretends to fail and says please hold while we connect you with an agent, then comes the hard sell.

As for activation failing, you CANNOT activate on the auto service with Santander credit cards or A&L debit cards - they all need to be done by the agent. However, all Barclaycards are active when they arrive - no need to call! Check for 'activation' vs 'confirm the safe-receipt' of your card

Breezy85 wrote: »

I lost count of the times I told them I have a Cap One card and get this for free.

No, Capital One give Equifax silver credit monitoring (I have it) - no protective registration, no fraud expert, no insurance if it all hits the fan etc. I have CPP Identity Protection Alerts as well, as I now cover both bases (Experian and Equifax) for £69.99, with assistance if anything goes wrong.

lisyloo

Surely people with speech impairments or deafness

To be honest it sounds like his problems extend beyond that.
I just listen to them and then just say "no thanks".
If he can't hear what they said then he needs to ask them to slow down/speak up/repeat.
It shoudl eb that simple for someone with speech or hearing problems.
The panic sounds like there is a psychological problem as well.

If he was my OH then I'd find out the proceedure BEFOREhand and not put him through this.
Or give him a card on my account, may be a practical solution.
Or get one with a local branch and ask the local manager to help.