Homeowner’s insurance denied if email not disclosed
Homeowner’s insurance denied if email not disclosed
An insurance agent who I called on the phone for a quote demanded my email address. I resisted, said he could have my fax number instead. He said the form he is filling out in order to get me a quote will not move forward without an email address. I got the impression this was not a requirement of the agent but rather the underwriting company, which means no matter which agent sells me the policy it’s impossible to get insurance from that underwriter without an email address. I would be denied insurance with this underwriter had I not supplied an email address in a phone conversation. They assume if you have access to a phone line, you have email.
So I gave him a disposable. This is still not an okay solution. The quote he sent by email traversed Microsoft servers and contained sensitive information without encryption. It doesn’t matter that MS did not get my real email address considering they still got lots of personal info about me from the quote.
It’s also interesting to note that mortgage lenders require borrowers to always have homeowner’s insurance. So I will dream about pulling this activist move: drop the insurance after securing a mortgage, tell the bank “I cannot get insurance because I don’t have an email address”. Insurance companies tend to refuse to sell policies to someone who is not the beneficiary of the policy, so the bank would not be able to insure the home on their side. I would just love to see that shitshow play out. If anyone wants to drop their homeowners insurance for any reason, this might be your best defense for doing so.
Funnily enough, the insurer offers a “paperless discount”, which means they actually have a paper-sending service for those who are not paperless. Yet everyone must have an email address before they even get a quote.
this seems like an odd hill to die on
Not sharing sensitive personal information with a surveillance advertiser is an “odd hill to die on”? Really? Yikes… what a low standard of privacy you have (which I suppose is somewhat expected coming from a Cloudflared host).
If it makes you feel any better most companies don't have secure email and when they do it's often not set up correctly.
I don’t see how that redeems the insurance company. I find the opposite. This is a reason to resist email and thus serves as a cause to oppose forced email disclosure.
My brother-in-law is an insurance agent. We've talked about this before. As I understand it, lots of companies do build-in to their platform an email requirement that won't let the agent move forward with a quote until the email is entered. This gets you into their marketing program so they follow-up with you again in the future. What he recommends is physically visiting the agent office and asking the agent to supply his own email if an email address is required. It is a good idea to call ahead so they can give you enough time with the agent. If you want to forever avoid providing an email, you'll want to make sure you get printed & mailed statements or have an agent willing to call you every time there's a bill or statement that comes out.