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RogerS

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Decided to opt for a bit more life cover. Filled in all the forms etc and waited for it all to happen. Surprised to get letter from the life company saying they are deferring a decision for three months. What? Come again? Am I missing something here..like I'm at deaths' door? Let me see now. One..two arms...check. One..two legs..check. Heart still there? Yup.

So conclusion is that either (a) my Doctor got me mixed up with some other poor soul or (b) more likely the live company got me mixed up.

But, and this is where this dear country has lost the plot, for me to find out why (so I can put it right and also expunge my records because now this dozy company has effectively declined me I now have to declare that on any new proposal I make to any other company ..so I've got to get that little problem sorted pronto)....I have to write to my doctor to ask her to write to Scottish Widows to write back to her so she can write to me giving their dumb reasons. I mean what a total and utter waste of her and my time.

It's my information so why the hell those dozy eedgits at SW can';t send me the information directly I don't know.
 
Put in a claim to them under the Data Protection act for a copy of all data held on yourself. Only costs something like a tenner and they are obliged by law to comply.
Think it'll probably be a right pain in the proverbial for them as well.
There should be a Data Protection website somewhere that'll detail your rights.
 
On this topic, I applied for life cover last year. Got told to go to the doctors for a check up, no problem.

Have had slightly OTT blood pressure for a little while, but the doctor isn't bothered by it - says it's just towards the top of the normal range and nothing to worry about.

Early last year the doctor said that these tornique arrangements are very hit and miss - some people (like me) don't like doctors surgeries. So she fitted me with a 24 hour monitoring device which measures the blood pressure every 30 minutes. The result of that extended test (which is carried out in your own home etc) was that I am perfectly normal.

Anyway, for the life insurance medical test she strapped the tornique on, confirmed that it was slightly OTT. She wrote to the life insurers advising them that I had no blood pressure problem despite that high reading, and gave them chapter and verse on how she had done the 24 hour monitoring and came to the conclusion she did.

Not good enough for the jobsworth at the life insurers. They overrode the doctors statement and ordered me back for another instantaneous test. Which I did - and was slightly OTT again. They got the result and ordered me back for a 3rd time. By this stage I was spitting blood about the way they were treating a potential customer so I hit them with a request for how to access the file they had on me under the DPA. That sorted things out, I was covered by them immediately when they realised I was serious about them trying to make out I'm at deaths door when I am no such thing.

The one thing I would advise anyone thinking of taking up life insurance is that on the form there is a box which says you should be copied on anything your doctor sends them. I neglected to tick the box, so I don't know what the doctor might have said to the life insurers. That was a mistake on my part, so anyone else should ALWAYS tick that box.

BTW, separate subject entirely but closely related, if you think it's bad now wait until the ID cards hit the streets. They will be recording all sorts of stuff on the ID card by way of reference and if it turns out that your grannies parrot had a severe case of mixamatosis which caused its beak to turn orange then your premiums will double....

Andrew
 
In case I didn't make myself clear - I am 110% against ID cards.

Didn't stop the 9/11 attack and in fact might have made it easier - the perpetrators were travelling on their own ID so if they had been carrying an ID then airport security might have been even more lax than it was. Didn't stop the train bombs in spain, how could it when the packages were literally dumped anonymously?

I hate anything big brother and what you have to realise is that there is always a hidden agenda where governments are concerned. Making it easier to track criminals? Nope. Making it easier to track the honest and hardworking? You bet. And at a cost of £70 each? You can bet that will be £500 each by the time they've inflated the project price to match usual government projects.

I don't see the link between ID cards and uninsured drivers though. An ID card isn't going to make honest men out of the criminally minded.

Andrew
 
I agree with HandyMac and then some, id cards are my pet bugbear. I reckon they are the thin edge of the wedge, for our benefit don't make me laugh. Someone somewhere has an ulterior motive for wanting them in use and you can bank on the fact that its the law abiding person in the street that will be the ones to suffer. The criminals wont care because they will find a way round it.

Drew
 
As a foreigner in Japan, I have to carry an ID card, even though I'm a "permanent resident". Until recently it had my fingerprint on as well as my photo and other details. It leads to cops stopping you and asking to see it, merely for looking different. If I move back home to the UK, to the place where I'm a citizen, and anyone tells me I've got to carry an ID card, speaking frankly they can go and :shock: themselves.
 
Well Chiba I don't know how much you've been following the ID debate but not only do you have to have one, you also have to notify 'them' when you move house, fined £1500 (I think) if you don't. There's a whole other lot of stuff that you must inform them of changes..all punishable by fines if you don't.
 
Actually, Chiba's post reminds me of a true story that happened to me in the US. I had been invited to 'meet the family' of one of the VPs of a US company on Long Island. I was following him in my hire car through the residential backstreets. It was quite late and the streets were empty. It was dark and so you'd see any cars coming from their lights.

We came to one of those soppy STOP signs and he (and I) did a Californian roll (like what we do at a Give Way).

Sure enough, parked up the side street in an unlit car was PC plod. Whoop, whoop...blue light job. Steve (the VP) pulls up, I pull up behind him. Copper drives his car alongside mine and bellows Wait there...rolls forward to Steve ..tells him to Wait there and then reverses his cop car backwards and parks behind mine. All very dramatic and Hawaii 5 - 0.

Out of the car climbs the tiniest Napoleon (sorry, copper) who as he comes alongside me yells 'when I come back, ID and insurance'...no please, how rude I thought. He didn't give me a chance to say anything as he had marched on to Steve by this time.

After about 5 minutes earbending Steve he strode back to me, podgy hand thrust outstretched into my face. "ID and insurance".

Well, I replied, in my best British accent (and deciding to play this one for all that it was worth) "I'm British and we don't carry ID. This is a hire car and they have the insurance documents. I can show you the hire papers if you like' I replied smiling sweetly.

"What do you mean you don't carry ID? What do you do when you';re stopped by the polce?" He spluttered.

I explained that we in England lived in a civilised society and didn't feel the need to carry ID and that when we were stopped we had five days to show our car papers at a police station of our choice.

"Where are you staying then" he barked. I told him which hotel. "What's their telephone number?" "No idea" I answered back more sharply as he was really starting to water me off. "I never ring myself".

He spluttered a bit and then said "Well, how do I know who you are". "I've got a credit card" I suggested.

"Well you're not moving from here until I know who you are. Where are you driving to?" he yelled.

"I don't know" I said " I'm following him"

"Does he know you?" asked the copper.

"yes" I said

"Well why didn't you say so?"

"because you bloody never well asked " my exact phrase.

Copper stomps off to Steve, gives him the ticket and let's us go on our way.
 
We may not yet be living in a fascist state (and that's debatable!), but successive recent governments have certainly established the infrastructure to support one. All we need is for a weak Prime Minister to become nervous and panic in the face of perceived threats, be they real or unreal, and we'll be living in a society like Franco's Spain.

Gill
 
When I lived in the UK I shared a house with someone who's opinion was similar to Handy Mac's and this was debated to the end of the earth in our house!

I grew up in luxembourg where it is ilegal to not carry ID. It never bothered me in the sligtest, it also had the distinct advantage that all you paperwork was linked together - driving licence, Social security ID etc. If you moved house, your adress changed in one place changed everything. Also, if you arrived in hospital unconcious, the number on your ID card gave them access to any vital medical info (for example if you were a diabetic). My view is simple, if you have nothing to hide, why are you so worried about it?

I would have thought that a system that prevents the crimminaly intent from stealing your idnentity would be a good thing - no it is not going to stop criminal from being criminals, but it might just stop them from performing criminal activities in your name!
 
The reason that I am so against the ID card is because I do not believe the government's reasons for its introduction.
They cite various noble reasons for its need but in reality I suspect that the real reason is to give them more control over the population. They have shown themselves up to be controlling and devious and I for one will never trust them. They are not very far removed from their ideological cousins the communists, trotskyists, leninists, maoists etc. They just happen to have donned the Tories coat for a while, but in reality, their underwear is bright red.
 
Well maybe that is it, I work in Germany, and there you always have to have your id with you too, and it doesn't bother me the slightest, I have nothing to hide. and I like it when you have an accident, that somebody at least could tell you there real name.

Like identification is important, if i pay something here with my creditcard, and like always my signature doesn't look like the one on the card, they simply ask for an id card, and problem solved

It is all interlinked its safety. But don't think like big brother is watching you, also normal people are benefiting from it, think positive not scared

and to why I hate uninsured drivers

We can learn from other countries, share best practise, I hate pullucks who drive without an insurance no exception. they should go to jail

Because its the honest person who pays the bill. It is just amazing that one can drive a car without insurance at all.

Here in Germany all is interlinked, no roadtax, or no insurance on a registered car, means that the police will haunt you down :wink:

Yeah big-brother also has its better sides, and big brother is just made up of people like you and me, who want to make this world a better place
 
What bothers me about ID cards is the apparent idea being bandied about that if you can produce the ID card saying you're so-and-so then it must be true. The criminal fraternity must be rubbing their hands at the prospect - the market for false ID cards will be enormous. Once again, or so it seems to me, only the law-abiding will be inconvenienced by it. And it goes without saying that any system relying on a computer system, and set-up by government, fills me with dread as to just how often it'll get things wrong. :roll: I have nothing to hide, but I can see many ways it can backfire it's just not true.

Cheers, Alf
 

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