From day one, customers could file complaints. Many said, “They made it conditional on signing up for insurance” or “They forced it on me even though I didn’t want it.”
The problem was that these complaints almost never went anywhere because we account managers were measured by a key metric: insurance cancellations.
That’s why customers were told, “Keep the insurance for just four months and then cancel it; it won’t affect your account.”
The reality was quite different: what wasn’t affected after those four months was the account manager’s bonus and metrics, not the customer’s benefit.
The trick was simple:
They offered you a “no-fee” account, but only if you agreed to pay for insurance for four months.
The alternative was to open a checking account, full of fees that are practically obsolete today.
So the customer chose to pay for “just four months” and believed that after that, they wouldn’t pay anything else. That was the old-school trick the account managers taught you. A “hack” that does work is canceling the insurance within the first 24 hours, because you can still get your money back then.
But this depends on the day: the insurance officially activates at midnight on the next business day.
If it’s activated, there’s no refund… although the customer is never told this.
As for the salesperson, the sale appears as successful, but when the customer cancels days later, that sale is removed from their record.
That’s why many did everything possible to avoid cancellations.
There were even more serious scams.
For example, forged signatures: the insurance contract would be signed with a signature different from the customer’s, or signatures would be copied directly from other digital documents.
When the customer complained, the bank would try to pressure them to “correct” the signature.
The problem isn’t limited to insurance.
It also happens with credit cards and loans. When updating data in the system, the sales representative can change occupations and incomes—a construction worker would become a “high-income doctor”—just so the system will authorize a credit card or loan.
Then they’d say, “What a coincidence, you have a promotion today!”
It wasn’t goodwill: it was just another commission.
The three products where customers are most often deceived are:
-Insurance (especially life insurance)
-Credit cards
-Personal loans
The most blatant of all: life insurance.
They would declare nonexistent illnesses like cancer or diabetes just to close the sale, even if it meant the insurance wouldn’t pay anything if something happened.
Many customers never asked for the policy or even knew how they were registered.
The real recommendation would be: demand an explanation of what is covered, what is not covered, and how you were registered, even if it makes the sales representative uncomfortable. It’s also a mistake to stay at the same branch where you’ve already been treated badly.
At another branch, even of the same bank, there might be someone less pressured by sales and more focused on providing good service.
There were extreme cases: elderly people with up to 15 insurance policies charged to them without their knowledge.
People who died and weren’t paid anything because the insurance policies were improperly taken out.
Even after death, they continued charging the account.
When the family went to claim, they were told that the money was “invested” and would generate a higher return, concealing the fact that the insurance policies would never be paid out.
In the end, the money was lost.
When someone dies, the bank doesn’t automatically deposit the money.
A complete legal process must be followed.
If it’s approved, the money is released as a cashier’s check to the beneficiaries.
But even then, there’s room for fraud and delays. I’ve handled death benefits for minimal amounts—50 or 200 pesos—and others for large sums, even exceeding 1.6 million pesos.
That money always belonged to the client… but the path to recovering it was fraught with obstacles.
A former bank executive revealed the secrets and shady dealings that can exist in this business on a podcast. Video on Gusgri’s channel.
Source: aprendecondaniel
