Saturday 13 November 2021

CREATE YOUR OWN VALUES


 


We've had life insurance (they use the term assurance because it sounds more comforting) for more than thirty years.

It started out as seeming like a good idea and was sort of demanded by banks in order to obtain mortgages years ago. In the beginning it was relatively affordable but recently the premiums are quite onerous. There hasn't been any recognition for a history of paying premiums with no claims and more of a 'you're getting old and will die soon so the premiums are going up' mentality. What was a couple of hundred dollars a month at the millennium has now been increased to over $1400 a month today. This is over sixteen thousand dollars a year. Fuck that.

We've decided to cancel this immediately and to 'value ourselves' figuring that if either of us snuff it the other gets a mortgage free house and a bit of savings.

I went on-line today to set about cancelling but, surprise, surprise, the insurance company has no  CANCEL NOW link on its website. I sent them a message via their CONTACT US  tab but don't trust this. The terms of the policy say that cancellation has to be in writing (for the insured to cancel but those bastards, the insurers can cancel the insured's policy whenever they bloody like!) so I'm going to phone them on Monday and get the exact email details of the person to write to.

We have an automatic payment arrangement whereby the insurer robs our account each month (now more than $1400). I went to our on-line banking today and can find no mechanism for cancelling the payments. I sent them an on-line message as well but don't trust this either so will phone the bank on Monday.

I want to have this done before the 20th of November when the next month's payment is due. No doubt these bastards will have some kind of time clause in the small print. Oh well, at least I've started the process.



4 comments:

Richard (of RBB) said...

What a pile of shits! One would think that things should be getting easier. I had to cancel a payment a little while ago. The only way I could do it was to get the bank to issue me with a new Debit Card with a different number so that the old one would bounce and stop the automatic payment. Crazy!

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Banks, Insurance companies and similar are still living in the dark ages and cannot be contacted outside of 9-5 Monday to Friday.
Trying to get email letters to them is nigh on impossible. I know that when I try to telephone on Monday I'll end up in a holding loop but I have to do this to ensure that I get the right person.
As you say - things should be getting easier with modern communications but I regret they have only got worse.

Robert Sees Things in Sky said...

I think you mean direct debit. Automatic payments are easy to cancel.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Yes, you're right - direct debit.