Insurance for your credit card....the big scam
Jul 04 '01
The Bottom Line Credit card insurance is a scam
I worked as a telemarketer for a few months. It was definately not the most glamourous job I've ever had and eventually I quit for ethical reasons. One of the accounts we were working on was Visa and we were assigned to call existing cardholders in the attempt of signing them up for credit card insurance.
I was given a script. I would sit in a cubicle while the automatic dialer would call people. When they answered the phone I was instructed to speak in such a tone that would give the person the impression that I was deeply concerned about something and perhaps something was wrong. The conversation went like this:
"Hello?"
"Yes, hi, this is Amy and I'm just calling on behalf of your Visa account...Listen I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time but unfortunately there have been some problems with credit card theft and fraud...what we're trying to do is basically get in touch with as many of the Visa cardholders as we can just to let them know what's been going on and to see if you've gotten your credit card insurance yet."
"No I haven't. I had not been told about this. What should I do?"
"Well we need to go ahead and get you signed up for the insurance ASAP. It's a 50 dollar charge to your card annually but that covers your card and what they are doing is going ahead and covering any other cards you might have as well. So I need to just verify your addres..."
The way I was told to approach this conversation was to give off an impression that it was NOT a sales call. I was to act as if there had been a sudden rash of stolen cards all over the place and to give the person the impression that we were trying to do damage control. It was unbelievable how many people fell for this tactic. Then it was sad. There were many old people who would say "Honey just go ahead and do whatever you need to do...I don't know what to do..just go ahead...".
I had one customer tell me that he would not buy it because there is a federal law stating that if your credit card is stolen you are only responsible for up to 50 dollars of the charges. So why would he buy the insurance for 50 dollars? If it gets stolen he'll pay the 50 then. Why pay it now? It was a scam.
I asked my supervisor and she told me that that was in fact true but hardly anyone knew it and so they would continue this campaign to get them to purchase it.
I know everyone hates to be phoned during dinner by a telemarketer who can't take no for an answer. If you think they are trying to get the best of you..you're right. On the other hand they are probably just trying to make a living at a minimum wage job. I know I was stuck in a cubicle for hours at a time and only given a bathroom break once.
Did you ever wonder why they can't take no for an answer? At my job there was a rule that you had to have a customer tell you no 3 times before you could get off the phone. Our calls were monitored and if we were caught letting a customer go after only one No we could get fired.
So do them a favor...say NO 3 times really fast...they want to get off the phone as much as you do!!!
As far as credit card insurance goes....don't buy it because you don't need it.
In fact...chop up the credit cards all together and live wihtin your means! There is no better feeling that debt free living!
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Epinions.com ID:
armywife
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Location: White Sands Missile Range, NM
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
Army wife, Stay at home Mom and Graduate student in Professional Counseling.
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