My response to a letter from Glen Murray's office in Toronto...(about how huge the loophole is that the banks are given to sell insurance without an insurance license!)

7/18/2012

 
Hello & Thank You...

  The incidental exemption, or enrolling activity by the banks, is actually quite massive...

 Estimates are 2 million dollars a year per bank to administer, with a 20 million dollar profit per year...

 This is for the incidental enrolling...

 So the banks ARE selling insurance...

 That little afterthought exemption took $3,000.00 dollars out of my pocket...During the worst decade of my self-employed business life...

 There are probably tens of thousands of people like myself in Canada who were missold this exempted insurance by the bank, over the phone...

 Once you say yes over the phone, the money is automatically taken from your credit card without another word or any signed confirmation at all...

 Statistics on insurance state quite factually that in insurance "enrollment", the vast majority, over 90 per cent, of people who say yes to an insurance policy over the phone, do not or are not able to read or thoroughly understand/comprehend any written documentation that may or may not appear 10 days later in the mail...People who can say yes over the phone are not necessarily qualified to read or give informed consent to complicated & obfuscatory written insurance policies...

I have been through the entire ombudsprocess with the agencies mentioned...I have also attempted to use other intervention with other agencies not mentioned below...

 The insurance industry is making HUGE money on balance protection insurance...

As are the banks...

 Which is why I have not gotten my money back yet...They don't want to give it back...Even though they know that it is wrong...

 They all know they have taken money wrongly...But they are hurting too, so they have turned a blind eye...

 I have been in touch with a major Class Action law firm here in Canada...

 They are looking into a Class Action lawsuit against all the banks in Canada who have sold balance protection insurance...

 In The States & England this has happened already & ALL people sold a policy by a bank are getting a refund...ALL...ALL people who have EVER been sold a policy on a credit card by a bank...

 That is how bad this is...

Canada is the last country to correct this wrong...

It should be our government who initiates this action...Not a law firm...

But our government has been slow to act, because they are in bed with the banks...

The answers below sound good don't they?

But they are meaningless when one person attempts to jump through those hoops...

The incidental exemption is key...

Legislation is only regulating licensed insurers...

Nothing about the banks...

That is the loophole...It is a giant black hole loophole...


Sincerely, Sari Grove
grovecanada.ca

You can use this template letter if you need to get a refund on your credit card balance protection insurance: Just copy, paste & fill in the blanks...

10/21/2011

 
Hello -------- ------------ (name of person),

After a lengthy conversation with ------- ------ of GIO, the General Insurance Ombudsman(or whoever you spoke to), I am writing this letter now...

  My TD Visa(or whatever credit card ) account number is ---- ---- ---- ----

  The name on the account is my maiden(or whatever name on the card) name ---- ---- ---- ----

I am married now, & use my married name Mrs. Sari Grove in conversation & online...( my financials I kept separate because I am a sel-employed visual artist & as such a relatively public figure...) (explain if your name is different on credit card)

 I discovered an unauthorized charge on my TD Visa about 2 months ago...When I called to have it removed, I was told it was for balance protection insurance...

  I later found out that $2,684.70(insert your number) was debited from my Td Visa card(insert your credit card name) over the years...Plus interest...

 I asked for a refund immediately of course...

 I was told that this balance protection insurance began on my TD card in January of 2001(insert correct date)...

 I have been forwarded to the TD Insurance ombudsman's department by the Td bank ombudsman, as you can see in one of their attached letters...(or whoever sent you to this department)

 I have spoken with Assurant Solutions/ABLAC the underwriter(find out who your underwriter is), who have also directed me to TD Insurance...

 I have spoken to or written to the FCAC, as well as the Minister of Finance department on the federal level, as well as the OHLI, & FSCO, & the Consumer Protection Agency of Ontario...(probably several others, but it is late to list all the departments I have interacted with so far...)(write anyone you have spoken or written to)

 I am sure you are already aware of concerns with the selling & administering of this particular insurance product...

 Of note, an annual confirmation required in the administering of this product would prevent people like me from not even knowing this product existed on their credit card...

 10 years(or however long) is an awfully long time to be paying for something without any annual confirmation check on the part of the insurance company, isn't it?

 The fact that I am self-employed(or disabled, or a student, or seasonal worker...) is an obvious exclusion for the majority of any "benefits" that this product deems to offer...But more importantly I am concerned that money has been taken from me in a manner concurrent with "unfair business practices"...

 The facts of the transaction from the: 1) activation or reactivation of credit card bundled with sale of balance protection insurance is unfair...These two entities must be separated...

2)The lack of exclusionary or refining questions in the phone conversation is an unfair business practice...ie: Are you self-employed? Oh, then you can't qualify or make a claim for job loss, disability...

3) The lack of a necessity for a signed confirmation of acceptance after the phone conversation...If a written form is sent but not read, then what is the use of that form? A customer has to receive the written form, read it, & understand it, & then sign it, to indicate informed consent...Once that form is signed & returned to the insurer, then one has something of a contract...Calling a phone recording a contract is an unfair business practice...Stating that it is sufficient to send a form, without requiring it to be signed & returned is an unfair business practice...

4)Negative option billing in a general sense is an unfair business practice...

5)Lack of an annual confirmation is an unfair business practice...

6)Not giving a customer a refund if they say they didn't know they had this product, didn't receive any written documentation, didn't qualify since they are self-employed, is an unfair business practice...

7)Putting a customer through lengthy ombuds-processes, lengthy waits for final letters that were promised but never written or sent(one month before it was admitted that nothing was ever written or sent), lengthy runarounds & statements that this is the wrong department after 6 weeks of speaking to one office, is an unfair business practice...

8)Selling an insurance product that costs 2 million a year to administer, but earns 20 million a year in revenue, though everyone worldwide in the insurance industry agrees it is a completely useless product o the consumer, is an unfair business practice...

9) Not answering forwarded emails, phone calls or letters...Is an unfair businss practice...

I am still looking for a refund/annulment of this bal.prot.ins. to my Td Visa card...

 I hope that you can help to make this a speedy & positive process,

 thank you very much for your time,

Mrs. Sari Grove