angry with the bank-preying on the vulnerable or just doing their job?

[logrrl]

Hi
this is an uncharacteristic rant...
Went to the building society today, requesting a small top up on our mortgage for some essential home repairs, which I won't bore you with. Basically, they said yes, you can have the money, although don't forget that you will never make this much money again due to childcare costs, reduced hours etc...which was irritating but fair enough I suppose.
I am really pissed off because the woman COULD NOT BELIEVE we don't have life insurance/mortgage protection especially WITH OUR IMPENDING CHANGE IN LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES. She actually referred to "what if you or your partner dies and the other person has to bring up the little baby on their own-don't you feel a responsibility??" and "don't you think you should have this conversation before you take more money out?" and "what if you develop a life threatening illness"
I am trying to be cynical and just put it down to her doing a hard sell, and she doesn't give a shit whether I'm heavily pregnant or not, but on the other hand, feel like ummm, I may be pregnant but I'm not stupid, still have free will to make financial decisions and I have enough to worry about without your anxiety provoking sales talk.
It's galling that she brought me on side with lots of "isn't this lovely" baby talk before what feels like pouncing on my vulnerabilities.
Am I being loopy?

I think banks are doing this a lot, pregnant or otherwise. I rarely go into a bank but had to pay a cheque in recently. The cashier said there was a note on my account to say they needed to speak to me. I was taken off to a private room, supposedly to update my contact details but the real reason seemed to be that they wanted me to book an appointment to come in and "review my life insurance cover".

Now, I have adequate cover (with a different company) and the girl was very miffed that I wouldn't tell her how much I paid and how much cover I had and was astounded that I didn't want to book an appointment.

I was pretty astounded at the hard sell, especially as this is my own personal bank account with very little money in it, not the family account or mortgage...