Don’t ask me for personal details yet
Over the weekend I have been looking to get a small bank loan to cover the cost of a new central heating boiler for our house.
There was nothing wrong with the old one other than its age, inability to get replacement parts and its comparative lack of efficiency in this energy conscious time.
Sites like moneysupermarket aggregate search across providers making it easy to find the best deals… but whatever deal you find, the next step it to get a final quotation… and this is where websites fail to understand their users.
I will single out the Sainsbury’s website for this example of how easy it is to lose a potential customer. I arrived at their website knowing that their rates were competitive and just what I wanted.
I re-entered the loan amount and loan period and clicked next… but the next thing they wanted me to do was add was personal details including name, address, email, employment and marital status, date of birth, gender and nationality. What I wanted at this point was a final quote before I had to provide this information.
I didn’t bother to complete their ‘step 2 of 7′, instead left the website to find another that would provide a quote without the intruding into my personal data until that information was needed.
I have to agree wholeheartedly with you on this one, I really hate giving all my personal info just so I can get a quote for insurance, it feels intrusive.
I totally agree. I refuse to use any websites for this sort of thing, preferring to go to a bank, insurance broker or whatever. Almost all the sites I have come across work in this way. If you do want to proceed with all the personal details and get a quote, the process is usually tedious and time consuming….I really can’t be fussed!
What I hate more is, once they have your details, they send you invitations for all sorts of financial services with all your details filled in – talk about making life easy for identity thieves!
Hmmmh. How many of you guys have happily and voluntarily recorded on Facebook your name, current job, phone number, email address, previous schools, colege and uni, diplomas, photos of yourself, your kids, your friends – then every thought that comes to you when you come back from work?
My neigbour’s identity fraud paranoia cost me £240 when my buyer’s solicitor asked her to kindly provide a photocopy of her flat’s insurance policy, to show that all the flats in the building were insured.
She refused to do so although she could have blanked everything on the document but the policy number and her address. As a result I had to pay the full cost for a contingent building insurance indemnity policy.
personal data paranoia is justified only if it is consistent. Are you?..