Identity Theft, Insurance, Morgan Stanley

ossian

Hi!

I have a Morgan Stanley credit card. It is used almost entirely for food shopping by myself and Mrs Ossian who is a secondary card holder. Even though Mrs Ossian shreds everything in site, doesn't buy things online, and is more paranoid than Mr Ossian someone has gone on a spending spree, spending large amounts of money in various other countries through web sites and stores.

Fortunately MS Security Dept contacted Mr Ossian and verified that this was the action of some evil doers. We were shocked yet grateful. The very helpful and well mannered Security person told us everything would be fine and that we shouldn't use the card until they sent us a replacement. So far so good.

Yesterday Mrs Ossian received the replacement which I had to activate. I tried to activate it through the IVR system but it failed and directed me to a MS employee. This employee questioned me on the history of my recent problems, checked the transaction history, postponed activating the card and instead tried to hard sell Identity Theft insurance.

I told him I wasn't interested. He told me that was surprising and irresponsible given that my wifes identity was compromised. He pointed out that I would be liable if I couldn't prove that I hadn't carried out the charges and that my liability wouldn't end there. He said that these people try to open numerous financial accounts and run up debts which you will not be protected against saying all they needed was a name and address and date of birth. Siteing recent newspaper stories of lost laptops he said this information was freely available and suggested that my attitude towards it was cavalier (my word not his).

By this time I was upset. All I wanted was to activate Mrs Ossians card and then go back to making her a lovely valentines meal as the magic of the flowers was now displaced as she could tell I was receiving some very hard selling instead of simply activating the card.

Ultimately the chap at Morgan Stanley activated my card. I refreshed my memory by then visiting MSE and verifying that these insurance schemes are unnecessary.

I then ordered a Capital One credit card, the cash back and ID Fraud insurance one. I intend to cancel my MS card and never do business with them again.

Have I made the right move? Will I have problems taking out a new card given the recent fraud? Should I have taken out the ID Theft insurance that MS were pushing or was I right to feel that I was being preyed upon? I must say I hate being hard sold to although I am always polite to people even when they are bullying me.

I am a reasonable earner (say upper 10% in the UK salary bands) and have no debt other than a small mortgage that will be gone in 5 years time. I have reasonable savings and pay off my cards every month. You will have to take it on trust that I am honest.

I'd appreciate some words of wisdom.

Mr "Upset" Ossian