Mis sold identity theft insurance

mikeapple

Hi all,

I recently opened a business bank account with Alliance and Leicester.
I received my debit card etc and needed to ring up and register it.

Whilst registering the debit card the person on the other end of the phone tried to sell me identity theft insurance.
At the time I said that I didnt want it but would like to be sent some information on it as I don't want to buy something after a 2 minute sales pitch.

I've not been sent any information and upon checking my account I noticed at £89.99 had been taken out!

I rang the bank and they gave me the number of Homecare Insurance.
I rang them and they said that they would have to investigate it before cancelling the policy and giving me my money back.
They said I had 21 days from the date the policy was taken out to cancel. That's fine but I didn't want the policy in the first place and I still havn't received any information about what has been bought for me.
They said they took the phone call as a verbal agreement which in my opinion is shocking.


Thats the background, now for my questions (if you don't mind).

What rights do I have if they say they are not going to give me my money back?
Who do I lodge a complaint with as I think this way of selling is disgraceful.

Thanks for your help

max2009

I know someone who worked for them and they got £1,500 commission for selling someone insurance.Incentives like that create mal-practice like the above.

dacouch

It looks like there is a problem at A&L with the sale of these policies as I answered a similar post recently here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1567373

I assume this is the same Homecare Insurance (There are 2 on the register)

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmBasicDetails.do?sid=56791 and this is a list of the senior staff http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmIndivSearch.do?sid=56791

I cannot find their website but I would recommend you contact Home Care and ask for the "Compliance Officer" and explain the situation. They should investigate the matter and sort it out.

If you take out a Policy you should be entitled to a 14 day cooling off period

The Financial Services Authority are very consumer focused and their main concern is that customers are sold policies that suit them and have access to information on the product so they can make an informed decision etc etc. One of the FSAs main ideas is "Treating Customers Fairly" (TCF), this is a link to the basic principles...
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/Regulated/tcf/index.shtml

If you get nowhere with Home Care speak to the FSA as they will be very interested in how you have been sold a policy and / or how they have treated you afterwards.

Companies selling Insurance in this way really annoy me as the vast majority of people in the Insurance Industry are professionals and genuinely want the customer to have a suitable policy at a price they can afford. They would not even think of dealing with a customer like this

mikeapple

Thanks dacouch thats just the sort of information I was after.

They said that they are going to investigate it and get back to me after listening to the telephone conversation again.

I will post again when they get back to me in case anyone else is going through the same issue.

mikeapple

I've heard back...

They told me that they have listened to the original phone call and agreed that I didn't agree to buy identity theft protection.

They have now refunded the money and actually gave me an apology which was nice.

I'm just disgusted that I had to go through this in the first place. Banks should educate its customers and allow them to choose based on accurate information instead of trying to confuse and force products on people to make a quick buck.

Thanks again for you're advice, I'm glad I didn't need to use it and take this any further.

dacouch

The staff are on quote good commission to sell the product so without proper supervision there is always the chance of miss selling etc