VENT: Leisuredays Insurance. Wot's your Mum's maiden name?

PhylPho

Leisuredays is an online offshoot of a caravan insurance specialist. It concentrates on static caravans and park homes, as distinct from insurers who think caravan = tourer.

I've no idea if Leisuredays is any good because to get a quote from it you are required to give your mother's maiden name as part of a compulsory process to set up a password-protected account.

Don't give the name, and you don't get the quote.

As an example of commercial stupidity, the Leisuredays concept of online selling ranks high: you're looking for a single quote for a single specialised financial product, not seeking to establish a longstanding relationship with a supplier of multiple items whose site you may well repeatedly visit. Why d'you need an online account?

But it's Leisuredays' glib request for a critical item of personal information that's particularly troubling: the "mother's maiden name" information is regularly offered as an optional ID checker when setting up major accounts such as online banking.

And it's certainly a key piece of information any scammer would dearly love to have.

Of course it's perfectly possible to provide Leisuredays with a fictitious name. . . but what's the betting that some prospective users won't do that?

Leisuredays is another instance of a commercial website insisting on a prospective customer opening an online account before a quote is provided, or a purchase completed, when it would be much fairer (and more sensible) to make account opening an option.

I wish MSE had some kind of 'business best practice' campaign to high-light those companies that refuse to sell or quote unless a customer has joined up first.

Yes, sensible folks will likely walk away from a site such as Leisuredays, but not all consumers are that savvy. So right now, just how much personal information about "your mother's maiden name" is being stored by an obscure, minor insurer. . . relating to individuals who got the quote, didn't like it, and went elsewhere?

Grrrrr. :mad:

lincroft1710

The reason for asking prospective customers opening online a/c is so they and "associated companies" can bombard you with emails about products/services you don't want.

PhylPho

But don't some companies do that anyway -- whether you've agreed to go through the hoops of an account opening or not? I know they're not supposed to if you've checked (or unchecked) some box or other, but once they have your email address -- pretty much essential in online trading -- then they're good to go.

In this instance, the insurance company could just as easily not compel an account opening or seek important personal information. It could just have a prospective customer's email address and start an email bombardment regardless. . .

* That said, I'm not sure nowadays about effective spam mail is. Once upon a time it was a major problem, but I doubt if I get one spam email a week now in my POP3 inbox.

I use server-side spam filtering at both my ISP's email addy and on all my gmail accounts. As an added precaution, in case server-side protection ever fails, I have Windows Mail (Vista) to block senders / domains in the Junk Mail section.

The days of an easy life for the spammer seem finally to have gone, thank Gawd.

lincroft1710

I agree with you 100%. There is no need for them to have your MMN. If I were contemplating doing business with this company I'd probably send them an email saying "As you do not need my MMN and I have no intention of divulging it at this early stage of my enquiry, I shall take my custom elsewhere".

Robert2009

I have a brilliant suggestion for people who don't want to give out their mother's maiden name, DON'T.

Give any name you want. The company has no way of knowing what your mother's maiden name is.

I have a different name for each of the companies that want one. Best security there is.

Simple, am I the only one who ever thought of that?

Rob

lincroft1710

Robert2009 wrote: »

I have a brilliant suggestion for people who don't want to give out their mother's maiden name, DON'T.

Give any name you want. The company has no way of knowing what your mother's maiden name is.

I have a different name for each of the companies that want one. Best security there is.

Simple, am I the only one who ever thought of that?

Rob

No, I'd thought of it, but wouldn't use it as I'd probably lose the piece of paper I'd written all the different names on as I couldn't remember them all.

CHR15

Why do people see a box and think they MUST obey what it says???

I have just got a quote for £411 using random details. My mothers maiden name was kjklhjkhkj, my email address was [EMAIL="spam@home.com"]spam@home.com[/EMAIL]

Seriously, on ANY quote page for ANYTHING, just slap the keyboard about with any old junk. If you like the quote and want to take it out, simply go back and put your correct details in.

Your Details

Name
Dr. Jhgjhg Jghjhg
Telephone Number
01173255477

Correspondence Address
11 Happy Street,
Exeter,
Devon,
EX1 2RD


Holiday Home Details

Your Holiday Home Type
Static Caravan

Your Holiday Home
Arronbrook Eclipse

Year of Manufacture
2007

Skirted
Yes

Alarm Fitted
Yes

Cover Details

Cover Basis
New for Old

Holiday Home Structure(s) Values
£25000

Contents Value
£10000

Personal Effects Value
£500

Main Residence
No

Hiring Cover
No

Legal Expenses Cover(£10 additional premium including 5% IPT)
Yes


Your Quotation

Your Annual Premium* 12 Monthly Instalments** £411.00 £36.99

Leisuredays_Insurance

Thankyou for your comments, and apologies for the time it has taken us to respond as unfortunately we have only just become aware of this discussion.

There are two main reasons for our system being programmed to setup an account when you begin a quote.

Firstly, we didn’t previously enforce account setup on our older online quote systems but found that this was causing issues for customers wanting to re-access a previous quote.

Secondly we of course take data protection and identity fraud seriously and want to prevent your details being accessed by other users hence the need for a security question.

The rigidity of our current quote software meant that mother’s maiden name was the only security question available. We agree that this is not the best question to use, and as such will be replacing this by asking for date of birth, which is required in the quotation process anyway.

As one of the above posts suggests, you don’t have to necessarily enter your actual mother’s maiden name as we certainly don’t validate the information provided but it’s advisable to enter something you remember if you are planning to return to the quote.

If there are any doubts about the credibility of Leisuredays, please note that as a trading name of Caravan Guard Limited we have been in operation for 16 years and insure 70,000 caravan and motorhome owners. We were also voted the UK’s best insurance broker for customer service at the 2010 UK Broker Awards. Our online quotation facilities use the most powerful level of SSL encryption to ensure any sensitive data you submit over the web is kept secure. We certainly do not share your data with third parties. To date 78% of users surveyed rated have rated our online quote and buy facility for static caravan insurance as “easy” or “very easy” to use.

I hope this goes some way to putting your mind at ease.

Kind regards

Neil Walker
Leisuredays

aheaton46

Sits back and waits for someone to jump down your throat for posting here...

SpammyTheSpammer

I always use something obscene when prompted for this.

It's hysterical if they call you up:

Them

"What is your Mother's Maiden Name please?"

Me:

"It's oriental - LapMyMuffin"

pimento

lincroft1710 wrote: »

No, I'd thought of it, but wouldn't use it as I'd probably lose the piece of paper I'd written all the different names on as I couldn't remember them all.

Why not give your great great grandmother's maiden name?

I've been known to use my husband's great great grandmother's maiden name.