Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Sale of insurance over the telephone

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sale of insurance over the telephone

Hi Mr. Tan,
A couple of days ago, my elderly mother received a call from AA (automobile association) promoting some personal accident insurance. I always believed that consumers should only get insurance that fits our requirements and needs, but the lady on the phone was just trying very hard to sell the insurance. I feel that it is not the right thing to do because:

1) My mom does already have a personal accident insurance when she did not really needed it.
2) The marketing person was highlighting the benefits, but did not talk about the fine prints
3) Consumer are not able to read the terms and condition for insurance sales over the telephone.

My mom has been paying for an insurance bought from a marketeer over the telephone and was charged monthly on her credit card. This is misleading and not fair to consumers who are not street-wise. Can anything be done to protect or educate the general public?

REPLY
I find it bad for insurance to be sold over the telephone. I am also against marketeers calling me on my mobile phone as they are intruding on my privacy and interrupting what I was doing. I will find some way to bring this matter up for public attention. I am quite angry that our government leaders and MPs do not seem to care about these types of issues.

4 comments:

silverybay said...: If only these telemarketeers has the phones numbers of the MPs and govt leaders....than perhaps this issue will get top priority, haha!; January 25, 2011 8:51 PM
Vincent Sear said...: Banks and insurance companies shouldn't be allowed to abuse their privileged position to make unsolicited sales calls to clients. They know the clients' particulars and how much they have by privilege of their customs and they're abusing it for own profits.

I can accept, e.g. a bank or insurance company sending confidential notices to clients informing their deposits or policies are nearing maturities, attaching some brochures of new products for consideration. If the clients are intersted, they can always call back themselves.

Not just over the phone but even over the counter. The banks are the worst offenders in this abuse of privileged client information. Making large sum transaction invariably comes with the teller recommending some unit trusts or structured investments.

This isn't a CASE consumer matter. It should be an MAS regulatory matter, if not a parliamentary legislative matter.; January 25, 2011 11:11 PM
Ray said...: Since FIs can employ these marketers to keep cold calling people to buy insurance, it leaves me to conclude either it must be too profitable for them, or their marketing costs too cheap. Or maybe the FI management is simply irresponsible.

I think we must make FIs pay all their marketing staff/ agents basic salary of $900, and guaranteed job for one year (irregardless whether the person hits target or not). Then let's see whether these FI still dare to hire and fire indiscrimately.; January 26, 2011 12:27 PM
Suresh.g said...: Thanks for the informative article! waiting for your next post.- health insurance policy; April 29, 2021 2:39 PM