Halifax/Bank of Scotland has just made my mother-in-law the (it would like to think) generous offer of what it calls ‘overdraft repayments (sic) cover’.

I’m still struggling to comprehend this latest bit of financial junk mail.

Will the banks ever run out of new ways to try to part us from our cash? It would be impressive if it wasn’t so horrifying.

Why on earth are they targeting an 84-year-old woman who has never been overdrawn in her life with this kind of overpriced, useless insurance that amounts to little more than scaremongering?

The less-than-detailed ‘eligibility details’ in tiny print on the front of the form, which they have so conveniently filled in on her behalf, state that you must be in paid work and making National Insurance contributions.

Well, as I said, she’s 84 - as the bank’s own records should clearly show. Does she sound eligible to you?

And to clear up any further doubt, the policy summary over the page states that you must be under 65. You do the maths.

Although of perfectly sound mind, she is easily confused by financial matters - as, again, the bank’s records giving me power of attorney will confirm - and would more than likely have signed and returned the form if I hadn’t intercepted it.

For £93.60 a year (assuming the bank�s insurance division had still failed to notice that she wasn’t eligible) she would have been covered in case she became unable to repay her non-existent overdraft.

No doubt they would have suddenly noticed she wasn’t eligible if she tried to make a claim.

When I phoned the HBOS insurance helpline number to point all this out, the explanation I received left me even more alarmed.

The reason they’d sent this mailing to my elderly mother-in-law? According to their records, she’s only 43. And why would that be? Because they’ve got her down as having my date of birth rather than her own.

The woman I spoke to admitted: ‘That’s obviously a big error on our behalf.’

She’s not wrong and I’ll be writing to complain - I’ll keep you posted about the response.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under UK Personal Finance, Insurance, Banking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.