We have just had one of those delightful conversations with an insurance company. It went along the following lines:
Me: Hello, I would like to cancel my insurance policy and receive its surrender value.
Them: Can I just confirm your
identity: what is your policy number?
Me: [reads out the number]
Them: What is the first line of
your address?
Me: [gives it]
Them: What is your date of
birth?
Me: [gives it]
Them: When did you start this
policy?
Me: (reading from a letter they recently
sent me) February 1988
Them: How much have you been
paying monthly?
Me: I think it is about £18 a
month
Them: OK, I shall send you a
form to close the thing down … we will need evidence of identity for both you
and your wife.
Me (thinks): So you have been
taking £18 a month off us for over 25 years and only now, when we want OUR money back, do you even
think to ask us to prove who we are. What if we had been funding this policy by some criminal activity all these years?
