As the National Credit Act (NCA) finally offered some freedom to frustrated South Africans that were plagued by daily telemarketing calls offering all sorts of credit, a new scourge seems to be emerging – insurance.
Because the banks (or anyone for that matter) are no longer allowed to recklessly offer credit to every Tom, Dick and Harry, companies need other ways to con people out of their money and using scare tactics to sell any type of insurance seems to be it.
There was a time – culminating last year – when it seemed that you could get a credit card – or any form of credit for that matter – from nearly every shop/company/fish & chip shop in existence in South Africa.
Airlines, cosmetics stores, clothing retailers, grocery stores and even the cellular networks all launched their own brands of Visa or MasterCard credit cards – and, in a flurry, tried to sign up as many poor saps as possible before the NCA kicked in.
Now that they can’t do this anymore, it would seem that the next BIG thing in financial services is personal short-term insurance – and not any type of insurance, but accident, hijack and road insurance (hence the use of scare tactics).
Although it was a tough thing to do and it took a lot of threatening and complaints on Hello Peter I opted out of every single list that I was on but colleagues of mine who aren’t so lucky are now being targeted by these ruthless insurance companies.
I even overheard one of my colleagues saying that she was told by the telesales agent that “You could die in a hijacking tomorrow” after she had turned the offer down. Um. Yes, that’s ethical sales practice… wish she remembered the name of the company because I’d like to name and shame it.
The next time you get a phone call with that all-too-common “Mr. XYZ, we have great news for you. You have been pre-selected…BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!” – guaranteed it’s going to be someone trying to sell you some kind of insurance.
Hopefully the NCA will be amended soon to include the insurance industry and useless insurance products that duplicate what we already have through death & disability cover anyway (Ed’s note: check your policies! You may be paying for duplicate cover across multiple policies).
I fear that soon South Africa may be in the situation again where it’s not only credit cards and personal loans but also ridiculous insurance products that you can buy at the corner cafe too.
In the mean time, do yourself the favour and complain as much as you can about insurance telemarketing. Prices and interest rates are going up and the last thing you need is to commit to that extra R60 or R75 a month for something you really don’t need.
