Assurant Assurant--Not to be trusted and impossible to cancel policy Milwaukee Nationwide

I signed up for an Assurant healthcare policy yesterday because my COBRA ends in 45 days. Everything was done by phone. The rep seemed knowledgeable and told me the company was affiliated with Blue Cross Blue Shield (I have since learned that this is not true).  My premium was  to be less than my current COBRA payment, so it sounded  good. 

A red flag went up when the rep asked for my bank account routing number, but she said my case would be reviewed by Underwriting before any payments were taken from my account.  I asked why she asked no questions about my hypertension and she responded “Oh, all of that information is online” (that also is not true).  Things were just going too smoothly, but I thought maybe I had finally started to have some good luck with my insurance coverage. 

This morning I found that Assurant had already taken $385 from my checking account. I also received an email saying I had been approved but it contained no physical address for the company headquarters other stating it was in Milwaukee.  I did include an account activation URL and an 800 number should I have questions.  At this point I knew something was terribly wrong with this company and the policy it issued me.  Unfortunately I read the negative Assurant reviews on your website after that and saw how bad they are. 

I spent all day trying to cancel my policy (there is a 10 day Free Look policy).  Each Assurant staffer I called had no authority to cancel a policy and I would be given another phone number.  One guy demanded a reason for why I wanted to cancel.  I said that was not his concern and he switched to an “old school” tough guy approach, saying “You had cancer 11 years ago.  Do you know how many companies won’t even insure you?”  I said if he really needed a reason it was due to Assurant’s horrible claims track record that I had read about overnight on the Internet.  That shut him up and he said he could not cancel the policy anyway.  Fortunately I did not provide the company with my bank debit card and so my bank believes my premium can be recovered. 

I have sent a certified letter requesting cancellation to an address in Tallahassee as this seems to be a Florida-based company, but I had to really dig to get the physical address.  These people do not make communication about cancelling easy. BUYER BEWARE—DO NOT sign up with this shady bunch--run, run, run!