Companies ringing and asking for your details

jjpep

My insurance company rang today to see if I was going to renew with them this year, told them I wouldn't as I got a better deal elsewhere. Person on the phone then asked for my dob, address etc. When I told him I don't give that info to people who ring me, he was a bit put out and told me I could expect more calls from his company.

Is there not some kind of best practice or regulations from the data protection commission about this? Surely with the amount of scams etc (see this week's news for a warning from the gardai) companies should not realistically expect people to hand over identifying information to cold callers?

alig123aileen

Hi there. Well spotted on your inbound call from your insurer.

All financial service companies are obliged to ask Data Protection questions to illustrate they are sure they are talking to the right person as opposed to a spouse family member etc.

I agree with scams that you should not disclose this info and you are not obliged to divulge this.
Under the Regulator Consumer Code of Conduct you are entitled to ask them to write to you to advise they will be calling you by phone in the coming week on a marketing call and actually they are supposed to do this prior to calling you anyway.

So ask them to confirm by letter they will be calling you and they are not allowed to call you after 9pm or before 9am daily and no calls on Sundays or bank holidays. Marketing calls are usually just about selling you something anyway. Hope this helps. A

delahuntv

You are a customer, so it's not cold calling - he was seeing if you were renewing. When you said you were buying elsewhere he was probably just checking if any small changes to policy details could give a better quote.

Imagine an opposite scenario and you forgot to renew your insurance and there was an incident that required a claim - you'd be rightly annoyed that you didn't get a call!

ohnonotgmail

i generally just tell them i will call them back on the number i have for them. i would ask them for a reference number i can quote as well.

jjpep

delahuntv wrote: »

You are a customer, so it's not cold calling - he was seeing if you were renewing. When you said you were buying elsewhere he was probably just checking if any small changes to policy details could give a better quote.

Imagine an opposite scenario and you forgot to renew your insurance and there was an incident that required a claim - you'd be rightly annoyed that you didn't get a call!

I would call it cold calling as I wasn't expecting the call and didn't recognise the number - I do get your point though. I did get text messages the week before asking was I going to renew and I replied saying no and to opt out of getting any more communication from them.

I get your point about confirming details etc but when I said I didn't want to do that the guy got a little bit miffed sounding. Surely the thing to say or do is (as another poster suggested) give a reference number to quote and let me ring them back. This wasn't offered.

endofrainbow

I was plagued with calls for about a month before my renewal date for my house insurance last year.

finally told them to take my number off their data base and not to make contact with me again unless I initiated the call - seemed to work.

daheff

I have to say that i do find it unbelievable in this day and age that service providers will call you and ask for personal details over the phone. People keep getting scammed by fraudsters who call asking for personal data.


Personally, unless I initiate the call (and can verify that i'm calling the company's official number) or I had just filled out an online application form (eg car insurance) I wouldn't provide my information to people over the phone.

TheDoc

daheff wrote: »

I have to say that i do find it unbelievable in this day and age that service providers will call you and ask for personal details over the phone. People keep getting scammed by fraudsters who call asking for personal data.


Personally, unless I initiate the call (and can verify that i'm calling the company's official number) or I had just filled out an online application form (eg car insurance) I wouldn't provide my information to people over the phone.

Well I know in my case, using Android, there is a facility now whereby an inbound call from a random number, if a business, shows that business name and information on my phone.

Business can submit details to google, so they can be clearly identified to android users. It's actually been a nice feature as typically I'd never take a call from a number I don't know or was private, but this year already took two cold calls from business who'se numbers appeared on my phone, and were identified, and I got two good deals out of it.

Bazmo

TheDoc wrote: »

Well I know in my case, using Android, there is a facility now whereby an inbound call from a random number, if a business, shows that business name and information on my phone.

Business can submit details to google, so they can be clearly identified to android users. It's actually been a nice feature as typically I'd never take a call from a number I don't know or was private, but this year already took two cold calls from business who'se numbers appeared on my phone, and were identified, and I got two good deals out of it.

Is that a feature of your phone (and if so what phone do you use) or an app (and if so, what app is it)?