<prompt> Human: Im finally trying to tackle my credit card debt this year, which means Im actually paying close attention to the charges on my accounts for once. I noticed that my Wells Fargo credit card had monthly charges for Credit Defense. Upon Googling what that was, I found that many people online complained about getting these unwanted charges, and that Wells Fargo repeatedly charges people for it without their permission. I found the page on the banks website for the plan which is supposed to erase your debt when you die and pay you in the event of hospitalization or car repairs, etc. Of course Ive never received any of these benefits even when I qualified, because I didnt know about the program. After reading the description, I knew I never would have willingly signed up for such a thing.I called WF and explained my situation, asking for a refund. The first person I spoke to said he could cancel the plan and that he had the authority to refund me about 160, though the charges since 2006 totalled 1678.45. I asked to speak to someone with more authority, but he told me if I wanted a full refund he would send a dispute form on my behalf. If they found evidence that I had signed up, they would show it to me. Otherwise, I should be eligible for a refund.I expected this to go nowhere. Most of the discussion Id seen on the internet said WF ignored them and kept charging them for the protection plan. But almost 2 weeks after the phone call, I saw the 1678 credit to my account! That was this morning, and Im so happy!Lessons learned: Check your statements and dont be afraid to ask for what you want.  <response>: I used to work for the company whom was contracted by Wells Fargo to market this product as a Floor Manager, hence the use of this account I was under NDA You are one of the rare few that will ever get a penny back from Wells Fargo in regards to this program.They renamed this service recently to Credit Defense Platinum and they do, in fact, still sell it despite a pending class action law suit I resigned shortly after the suit was initiated.Heres how it works: After activating your credit card, Wells Fargo does not actually tell you that it has been activated, even though their automated system has already taken care of it., Instead they place you on hold, saying Please wait while we connect you to a representative, at this stage youre connected to a third party telemarketing firm the one I used to work for called DialAmerica, Inc.After being connected, the agent is instructed to make it sound as if you have not yet activated your card, and explain the credit defense platinum program to you. Even if you deny it, agents are instructed to continue pitching it to you with a rebuttal, which is intentionally worded to confuse you they literally have a team of people writing these scripts just to play on psychological uncertainties involved in activating a new card.After going through the script which cleverly covers their ass, with the legal disclosures integrated into something that sounds like a sales pitch, and disclaims them from almost all liability. You will be asked a final question, which sounds like youre activating your card, this is usually phrased something like Now Mr. Brown, with that information, do I have your permission to go ahead and enroll you in the credit defense platinum program, and activate your new Wells Fargo credit card? after you consent to this by giving an affirmative response, theres a certain list of acceptable responses, which basically comes down to terms like: Yes Yeah Correct Fine Absolutely, otherwise they have to repeatedly ask the same question over again until you either flat our deny them, and ask a probing question such as Is my card activated? which agents are required to answer honestly.Agents receive anywhere from 8-15 per enrollment, and managers the verification department often turn a blind eye to agents lying to customers in order to increase their commissions and meet sales goals The real kicker is, these programs are not even connected to Wells Fargo, they turn over your information to two third party agencies CPP North America and DialAmerica, Inc. whom both are extremely shady and untrustworthy. Ive literally had to remove employees from the floor for copying down bank account numbers to, presumably, later use to write fraudulent checks on someones account. There are no background checks whatsoever, and theyll hire absolutely anyone to be an agent, who has access to enough information to put you in a very compromising position. Agents have full access to search Wells Fargos entire database by only entering the last 4 digits of a card number easy to guess, since debit cards are generated based off the LuhnMOD10 algorithm and a zip code.Additionally, Wells Fargo automatically opts you in and you can only change this by logging into online banking its hidden somewhere deep in your account settings, I believe its under Account Settings and Change Privacy Preferences, If you dont bank online, tough luck, it is nearly impossible to get someone to opt you out via phone. to sell your information to third parties, like DialAmerica, who then will literally blow up your phone attempting to sell you other very scammy programs Credit Defense Platinum, Preferred Customer Program a useless concierge service which costs 10mo, pitched during Debit card activations, or even get you to unknowingly enroll in Debit Card Overdraft Service, which by federal law is now opt-in only.tl;dr Wells Fargo is a very shady bank, who knowingly gives away your information, including confidential account information, to third party marketing firms. I advise you to reconsider your banking options even though they have a good mobile app and ATMs, its simply not worth the risks. Im a seasoned sales professional and what I saw was completely shocking, much of it which I cannot mention here being blatantly illegal, including non-consentual opt-ins to meet quotas and increase agent commissions.LPT; Always ask representatives you are connected to explicitly, Is my card activated and ready for use? to which they are required to answer accurately. If they continue to pitch you with something that sounds even remotely like a sales offer, calmly and politely tell the agent No thanks, place me on your Do Not Call list. which agents are required to comply with, at which time they will terminate the call. You can also ask the agent, if youre unsure weather or not it is an actual bank employee, Who do you work for? at which time they are required to state that they are employed by DialAmerica, Inc. and are speaking to you on behalf of Wells Fargo. I know it might sound nasty, but these are often very unscrupulous people, so the best thing you can do is remain polite and explicitly ask the above phrased exactly in this manner, they can easily give you roundabout answers otherwise.I hope this is helpful, Ive been hoping someone would share something like this on rpersonalfinance, because Ive seen first hand from a mid-level management perspective how out of hand banks contracted marketers can get. To give you an idea of how many people are being victimized at this level, we had about 2000 enrollments per day in our call center, and two other large call centers also pitch the same products. 