Insurance Blog: 5/3/09

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Credit Card Companies - Don't you just love them?

Online businesses are at Serious risk from Banks and Credit Card companies

On the day that CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service announced that the number of cases of identity fraud in the UK in the first quarter of 2009 was up 40% on last year, Insurance Blogger has been taking issue with HSBC Business Credit Cards on this very issue, and I've got to warn you HSBC people - Insurance Blogger is FURIOUS!!

So think on this.....

I arrived at work this morning to see an email in my inbox from Experian - the UK's credit reference agency - informing me that my credit check account had been stopped because my HSBC Business card had been declined!

Now that is seriously bad news, having your credit card refused while trying to buy services to check credit!

So a puzzled Insurance Blogger phones the HSBC Busines Cards helpline located in downtown Banglahore or somewhere where it is midnight, to find out what is happening only to be told the following, horrifying news......

That my business credit card has been cancelled!

What!

" Sir, your credit card has been cancelled as it's number appears on a list of cards at risk of potential cloning, identified by the Intelligence team (sic) in our HSBC fraud department. We tried to telephone you two weeks ago to tell you that we were cancelling the card!"

WHAT? Are you telling me that you've been cancelling all my online transactions because you suspect my card has the potentiality to be used for fraud? And you haven't even bothered to put it in writing to us?

There then followed a very heated discussion where I was passed around different departments in the Asian call centre, where I tried to explan that we are an online company and as they can see very clearly from our statements, that there are many suppliers who take money ad hoc on a daily basis, in particular website hosting and intellectual property, and if these people aren't paid our business is at serious risk and ........we are going to hold you HSBC personally responsible for any business losses we suffer........

To make matters worse it turns out that the HSBC business credit card system cannot issue a new card for three to five days after the old one has been finally purged from the system.
I asked them, apart from creating days of work for us going through and changing credit card numbers on countless online accounts, what they were going to do to honour any payments that might get taken out, during the period where one card is cancelled and the other has not arrived?
I pointed out that all businesses need continuity - but the poor girl didn't really understand...

So this matter is still up in the air and our successful online business put in jeopardy by HSBC worried about something that might not happen and would be very easy to correct anyway -

Why is there online credit card fraud anyway? - Money doesn't just dissappear into thin air! There is always a papertrail!

HSBC you have seriously lost the plot and we can't be the only UK company that you have done this to.
How many cards on are on your stupid list?
You are seriously affecting online business and not helping in the fight to stop online fraud.

What was that stupid movie where crime was detected before it actually happened ?- GET REAL HSBC!

I'm currently drafting a motion for our company general meeting to change business banks - the problem is where do you go? All the British Banks are totally out of touch of the needs of the modern UK small business!

And as for the OUTRAGEOUS interest charges that these banks are ALLOWED to charge for the credit card service........enough said!!!!

Hey Mr Brown,
Do something about these credit card companies and Interest rates and you might even stand a dogs chance of getting re-elected!

Labels: card fraud, credit cards, HSBC, identity theft

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

What a bunch of Bankers! UK Banks challenge PPI ruling

Feelings are running high this morning in the Payment Protection Market and the consumer pressure groups with news that Barclays and Lloyds TSB are challenging the Competition Commission's ruling to ban the sale of Payment Protection Insurance at the time of sale of a loan mortgage or credit.

Insurance Blogger thinks this is outrageous after years of expenditure on the investigations by the FSA and Competition Commission and others, and the subsequent fines for misselling, that any institution, let alone a largely Government owned institution Lloyds Bank, should have the right to challenge any such decision!

Payment protection insurance lobbyist Sara-Ann Burgess from specialist payment protection insurance company, Burgesses confirms our viewpoint. She said "These institutions are without morals and intent on putting profit ahead of consumers' interests."
"This latest move is a bid by the banks to continue making billions of pounds in profits in order to prop up other failing business areas.
"We all know PPI mis-selling is rife amongst High Street lenders and their resultant profits are obscene. These delaying tactics, lodged to stop the ban going ahead in October 2010, only serve to prove just how shameless these firms are and the extent they will go to protect their 'cash cows'."

The UK Protection Insurance sector takes over £5 billion in premiums every year and around 90% of the premiums goes in profit to Banks and Building Societies.

In 2006, the Competition Commission reported the 12 largest distributors made profits of GBP1.4bn - before the recession kicked in and demand for unemployment insurance protection and income protection insurance policies grew.

After a lengthy investigation into anti-competitive practices, the Commission announced in January a series of measures to lower prices and widen choice in the PPI sector.

These included:
axing single premium PPI and replacing with monthly payments.
a seven day ban on selling cover alongside credit.
a requirement to offer PPI separately to credit.

The Financial Ombudsman Service predicted some 30,000 payment protection insurance mis-selling complaints would be received by the end of March this year and confirmed the majority of them can be traced back to High Street lenders.

It upholds at least 90% of cases and in the case of one lender, 100%.

Sara-Ann Burgess concludes: "How can you on the one hand say banks are working to restore confidence and then on the other have two major players challenging decisions in order to maintain gigantic market shares and prevent freedom of choice? Actions are certainly speaking louder than words. These lenders are damaging the financial well-being of consumers and will continue to do so. What's equally insulting is the fact that Lloyds is paid for by taxpayers and our money is being used to ensure we continue to be ripped off."

Insurance Blogger couldn't agree more! The banks created the current recession by the misselling of mortgages and piggybacked missold mortgage payment protection insurance, and now they are trying to retain their ill gotten share of a market that wouldn't exist if they had done their job properly in the first place.

BancAssurance is a French joke - Keep your noses out of Insurance - Bankers!

For those of you still in a job, we wholeheartedly recommend Burgesses Unemployment Insurance

Labels: Banks, income protection, income protection insurance, lifestyle insurance, loan protection insurance, mortgage payment protection insurance, mortgage protection, mppi, PPI, unemployment insurance