Opt Out Insurance Sales to be Banned

Opt Out Insurance Sales to be Banned.

The financial industry regulator, the financial conduct authority (FCA) is launching a consultation into the unsavoury element of pre-ticked or opt out insurance policy sales.

Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA said:' this is about ensuring consumers can make the right decision on what add-on insurance they do or don't need'.

We all know doubt have come across these practices where you are trying to book a discount flight and seemingly has to un-tick or opt out of suggested options for car hire, priority boarding, seats, additional baggage and last but not least, travel insurance. The same can be said in many other areas of online transactions and unwittingly we can all find ourselves agreeing to additional services or an ongoing automatically renewable service that you did not want in the first place.

For insurance sales in the United Kingdom, the FCA is now taking positive action with the consultation period to end on 25 June 2015 and no doubt the practice will be banned.

There is a fundamental principle within the financial services industry that financial services firms showed ' treat customers fairly' and in the case of opt out insurance selling, this is clearly not the case.

We are delighted that the FCA is consulting on this matter and the sooner regulation is in place the better, it will make all of our lives much simpler when buying goods and services online and probably much quicker as we do not have to be as careful in reading the tick boxes or small print when making a simple purchase. That said, you should always read the small print when agreeing to anything or buying something.