I've just had a call from a woman claiming to be from Swiss Consultancy (red flag: vague business name), and asking about my health insurance.
She said that every citizen and resident in Switzerland receives this call on an annual basis, and the purpose is to cross-reference health insurance costs to ensure consistency across the businesses and cantons (being in my first year in Switzerland, I have no way of knowing if this is factual).
Next red flag is her question 'who is your health provider?'. Surely a centralised database of all recipients of health insurance would have this info?
Final red flag for me: 'are you aware that health insurance is canton specific and if you're living in the wrong canton, for example if you're with SWICA and you don't live in Zurich, you could be paying the wrong premium or even be not fully covered?' As it turns out, I am with SWICA, and I live in Basel, and I'm confident that this is totally fine.
Scam calls in the UK were a daily occurrence, so if this was a scam, I'm pleased it's taken 8 months for it to happen. Can anyone share their experiences or thoughts, please?
I ignore every call that I donāt recognise the number. If itās important they will leave a message. October is worse as thatās when one should be thinking about changing suppliers.
If you are thinking about changing use Comparis or similar tool.
BS - I have been here 30+ years and never had a call not even once. If it is official you can be sure it will come in the post. You can get calls from time to time seeking to get you to switch insurers.
There is a grain of truth to this. The premiums are usually canton based because costs and services do vary, but unless you gave the insurer a false address it is very unlikely that you are paying the wrong rate.
Once the visit to your home is scheduled, pushy and sometimes intimidating vendors will try to make you sign a health insurance contract. They get a bonus for every contract.
When I receive this calls I answer in the 20 words I know from Italian (tedesco bruto!) or Spanish. After all, Italian is a Swiss national langugage I've been called and idiot or worse in many European languages when I don't answer marketing calls in German or French.
They're lying to you. They usually start off by claiming they've been mandated by the canton or the confederation. They work for insurance agents.
If you want to have fun, you can try and drag the conversation out for a few minutes, with the satisfaction that you're preventing someone else being scammed.
You're lucky and probably never registered Windows OS. We are at the stage of ending our landline thanks to calls from India advising we are infecting the internet - even though we have been on Apple devices for the last 10 years.
Likewise, I get a call or two a month on my mobile. As soon as I hear the background noise of a call centre I hang up and then block that number.
Yes, 30 years ago cold and scam calls did not exist. Today they are all too common here...
Iām really tempted to ditch the land line but we have a (very) few friends and family that still use the number. Additionally itās the number people use when they are calling āusā rather than either of us.
As it is less than 2 francs a month on top of our internet/cable TV package weāll likely keep it for another while. But if the number is unknown it goes to the answering machine.
This, exactly. If it's me they mean, and they know me, they'll contact me by mail. And if it is official, then they'll write me a letter and send it in an envelope.
On rare occasions when I'm expecting a call, but don't yet know the number of the caller, I might answer what turns out to be a sales or scam call. But as soon as I detect that (within a few seconds) I hang up. They don't get any chance to tell me who they are or what they want. And that's usually that.
I used to block the numbers, but I no longer think that that makes any difference, because their software just generates new caller numbers.
I find that such calls come in waves, each lasting for a few weeks, and then - since they have zero success from calling my number - they seem to desist, and I have many months of peace, until the next batch starts. I just no longer let it bother me, much.
See www.priminfo.admin.ch if you want to compare the competitiveness of your bill, comparing like with like of course.
If you want your number removed from the public Swiss directories you could send a short mail to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) instructing them so. That worked for me when I switched provider recently, got it removed after a couple weeks. Like
"Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren
Ich verbiete Ihnen, meine Kontaktdaten zu publizieren, zu verkaufen, oder anderweitig Dritten zugaĢnglich zu machen oder mitzuteilen.
Freundliche GruĢsse"
As for those calls, I try to always make sure they waste time on me, the more the better (poor agent but that's life). Once I'm fed up with the conversation I make my intention clear. Works quite well. And, I never take anonymous calls (not sure how much use that is).
Actually they are not always scammers. I once had one of these calls some years ago. I wouldn't divulge who I was with or how much I paid, but told them to make me an offer. The offer came, and it was lower than my then current insurance by about CHF 30 a month. So I told them I'd sign up and to send me the contract.
Turned out it was with my same insurer, and the contract was direct with them, not the intermediary. The insurer would not budge when I went back to them, so I gave notice and signed up again with the agent handling everything. No doubt the agent got a commission as well, so the insurer was much worse off!
Itās February 2023. I have had a dozen calls this month all coming from the same two blocks of numbers. They claim to be calling from āBureau de Gestion Et ControĢleā.
They donāt know my real name. They only have a fake name and fake post code that I used on a website 25 years ago. They ask all kinds of questions that you shouldnāt answer when talking to random strangers, so I just make stuff up and never give them my real name or address. The bottom line is that they are being really pushy to send an insurance and pensions advisor to my home. Thereās no point in blocking the calls as they have a large bank of numbers. One block of numbers include those ones: 022 589 6761 and 022 589 6768 and 022 589 6782. They are also using a large array of numbers starting with 022 506 47..
On the last call I gave them the address of the local police station and told them my name is John Dame. Get it? āGendarmeā = policeman in French.