I RELUCTANTLY signed up for a life insurance policy through a credit card issued by a finance company after repeated phone calls from the telemarketer. The policy was supposed to be for one year and a monthly instalment of RM33 would be charged to the credit card which had served me well for six years.
A year later, I found that RM33 was still being charged to my card monthly. When I called to ask about this, I was informed that I must write a formal letter to request that the charge be stopped. I was astonished because a verbal agreement over the phone was enough when they signed me up but now that I wanted to cancel, I must write a formal letter.
When the finance company was taken over by a bank, I decided to terminate the card. I went to one of the bank’s branches to get this done and specifically pointed out the monthly charge. The card was officially terminated and the insurance charge was automatically cancelled; at least that was what I was told.
A month later, I received a card statement with the amount of RM33 still being charged. I called the bank and was told the account was indeed terminated and I was assured that the statement was generated automatically by their computer system which was not yet updated.
The next month, I received another statement, this time showing that I owed RM66 on the card. I called the bank again and it was reiterated that my credit card had been terminated. I was also told to ignore the statement and that it needed a few months for the computer system to be updated.
Fast forward to almost a year and I was applying for a loan. There were problems getting my loan approved and when I checked, I found out they were due to an unsettled card account.
I went to the same branch of the bank and found out I had a credit debt of RM271.36, thanks to the monthly charges for the insurance policy that had not been terminated plus a penalty for late payment.
The bank denied any accountability but advised me to apply for a waiver, a process that would take a few months and I might still have to pay up in the end. So, to clear my credit list for my loan application, I paid the amount in full!
Learn from my experience. Never say yes to any credit card promotion over the phone.
Be alert for your credit status and check the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) or CTOS at least once a year.
AIMIR MA’ROF
Kuching
Hint: its easy to check your credit status, just go to BNM branches or AKPK branches, show your IC and get your free report. So easy!
These insurance companies get to sign up and charge you so easy meh, just agree via the phone BUT demand a letter from you to terminate, so double standard! The best way to get equal is to terminate the account or credit card that feed the payment, so that two accounts will be affected at once. When you do this, both company will generally need to spend 10 times more on marketing to gain you as their customer again. Silently teach them a lesson since we as a unit of customer can't win fighting them.
Do you remember the last case you win over them? If they value you, they should treat you well.
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| Cost of marketing a product is not cheap! |