Buying online is supposed to be a one click thing and with significant savings in distribution costs. But it ain’t that simple!
Here’s an account of Hitesh, an informed guy(after all he’s my reader!), who wants to buy term insurance online. But there are many hiccups along the way and he recounts them in his mails to me. Here it is:
ICICI Iprotect is one of the cheap online term plan, but not the best till now. It has many initial troubles, which the customers face, hence making it really useless one. I have seen lot and lot of customers that have taken it online and still not received the policy even after 2-3 months and that too after constant follow up and complains (Some have taken there money back and others are waiting for it).
It seems ICICI is not much concerned about it and hence its reputation. It makes everyone think that when customers are having that much trouble just in getting (buying) the policy, what will happen in sad incidence of claim, that to, which will be done by wife / children in your absence.I have done some initial study on these term plans and finds that Kotak is little better then ICICI in terms of getting the policy without much follow up and has exactly the same premium as that of iprotect for male of 30yrs. There is also Metlife term plan (Met Protect) offering same type of plan in same type of premium (it has the advantage that you can take policy up to 35 yrs; of course with extra premium.)
Now deciding which is the best out of these 4 companies is what I am still unable to do.
1: Religare Iterm
2: ICICI Iprotect
3: Kotak Eterm
4: Metlife MetprotectCan you help? I was going for ICICI, but seeing customers in lot of trouble/harassment and getting there policy canceled, I withheld my decision to go with ICICI with the time being.
Subsequent Mail:
I tried to buy it from Kotak, and can you believe they have Delhi & NCR as the city and, when we fill in the details like my address and my company address, it takes Delhi by default in address and does not give option of Noida and Faridabad. And it cannot be changed there.And when I asked there Customer care, (1800 209 8800), he was most useless fellow, he first said, its not available in your city, then he said, NCR, you can cut the address in the print out and write there manually your city, and sign, then i asked there won’t be any problem in future, he said, you cannot buy it.. I asked why its written NCR then, and how you say its in 52 cities. He said you cannot buy it.
This is the type of experience I have just before I can buy the policy.
And that person was taking like he was doing a big favour towards me by talking with me, and I am the seller and he is the customer.
Very unprofessional of him.Now what you suggest, should I go with ICICI. Also ICICI customer care was comparatively better , Actually there buying policy did not allowed other then credit card or there own (ICICI) bank net banking. I wrote to them and I think after a week I got a call that all other online banks are available now and you can complete your buying the policy.
My ICICI experience is better this time.
This is a real account of a net savvy guy trying to make an informed decision. But the level of services leaves much to be desired. Infact I tried to use the Premium Calculator on Kotak’s website and they asked me to get Internet Explorer! It did not work on Firefox!!
I had a feeling that ICICI would be technologically more advanced than the others and Hitesh experience validates that. But is that reason enough to go for ICICI iProtect?
Can you help Hitesh by sharing your experience? Thanks
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Aegon Religare is good. Being online for a very long time, they’ve improved on many things – online payment, walkthrough the entire procedure, saving incomplete forms, etc.
They too work fine only on IE !
But their email response time, customer service is good.
@David, Thanks. But I’m appalled at institutions with capital of 100s of crores can’t be cross-browser friendly! Says a lot about their technical expertise!
Hi,
Similar experience. Applied for ICICI I term option 1. Paid the premium from my ICICI savings account. Then decided to add accident rider (Option 2). Called up ICICI call center and offered to pay the premium difference. They said no. I shoud go the nearest office, give a request of cancellation and re-apply fresh indicating option 2. I went to their office and gave the cancellation request as per their advice.
They promised me to refund the premium that i have paid in 7 working days!! Just a reversal of entry (after all I am an existing customer). I said fine. Now it’s more than 20 days and no sign of premium refund. Every 7 days I get a SMS saying that it will take 7 more days due to ” technical glitch”. Pray what can be a technical glitch for just reversal of the entry.
Imagine their attitude when i want to pay higher premium and take a more comprehensive policy and that too to refund Rs 10,000 premium that i have already paid. Do you think these guys will pay my family Rs 50 Lakhs (the policy coverage) when i am not there?? Please stay away from ICICI.
Opt for LIC, SBI Life as your first option, take accident rider from United India Insurance. Kotak seems to be better among the private crooks.
Hello All,
One of the best solution to online term plan is to buy the offline term plan. Read below
why is offline term plan better deal.
With the offline term plan the agent / broker will provide you service as well as help you for claim settlement whenever required.
The oldest & first (I believe the only) ISO certified private insurance company in India has been missed out in this forum which is Max New York Life which I believe also offers the best and must have term plan in the insurance industry. Max New York Life offer Platinum Protect Term Plan and sample illustration is mentioned below
The Claim Settlement ratio of Max New York Life Insurance (90% in case of term plans) is the best / highest in private sector and on the 2nd position (just behind LIC which has 95% Claim Settlement ratio for term plans) in the overall insurance industry.
Benefits which are not available in any other Term Plan
1. Reduced Insurance Cover even if you stop paying Premiums
If Premiums have been paid for at least 15 consecutive Policy Years beginning with the Effective Date and the Policyholder discontinues payment of further Premium(s), the Policy will continue with a “Reduced Insurance Cover” as per the formula shown below.
Reduced Insurance Cover = [((Policy Year* – 1) / Policy Term) – 25%] * Sum Assured.
* Policy Year refers to the year of discontinuance of premiums
Example – Male aged 30 takes Platinum Protect plan for Rs. 50 Lac sum assured and a 20year term. If he stops paying premium 16th policy year onwards, he will be eligible for 50% of sum assured as Reduced Insurance Cover for the remainder of the policy term.
2. A cost effective term plan.
3. Low premium rates for non-smokers/preferred non-smokers.
4. Optional Presonal Accident Benefit & Dread Disease Rider which cover 10 critical illness.
5. Premium Discounts on High Sum Assured.
6. Comprehensive Medical Report at the time of policy issuance.
7. Tax Benefits under Section 80 C & Maturity Benefit under 10 (10D) are subject to changes in tax laws
Minimum/ Maximum Age at Entry : 18 years / 60 years
Expiry Age : 75 years
Policy Term 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years or 30 years
Sum Assured Minimum: Rs. 25 lacs
Sum Assured Maximum: No Limit
Special Rates for special customers :
1. Lower premium rate for Females and non-smokers.
For Sum assureds Rs. 50 lacs and above, there are two additional benefits:
2. Special high sum assured discount.
3. Additional discount to healthier policyholders who do not consume tobacco in any form
If you are interested, Contact me at 9967715560 / 9987095610
Thank You,
Bhavna Gandhi
Hi, nice feedback on the online term plans…we wouldn’t know the service until we experience it
Can’t expect much from ICICI given the low expertise and attitide of people they hire. I would always advice my clients to stay away from ICICI – whether its a bank or insurer.
Hi Suryadeep,
Is there any reason for your negative opinion about us?Please send us your contact details to care@icicibank.com & we’ll get back to you soon.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service TEAM.
I had a similar experience while I was planning to buy insurance. I did a lot of research on internet & called couple of insurance companies to clarify my doubts before I bought it. Among them I have liked aegon. They explained me about their iterm. During calling they recommended that I should opt for higher insurance coveras it was cheaper for my age and term as compared to other companies & I got my policy within few days. Basically I liked the way they responded and were very pro active. That’s why I recommen aegon religare, call them & clarify all your doubts before you buy anything.
I tried to buy a term plan online from 4 different companies and the problem faced in each of the case is listed below. Friends in this blog can help me out.
First of all I am staying in a minor city.
1. ICICI Prudential: Though they have an office in my city, my city is not available in the dropdown box and hence I cannot enter my address correctly. Their premium calculation window has no flexibility. I want it for a term of 22 years. But the slider works for 20 or 25 years. So I kept it in abeyance.
2. Kotak e-preferred term: In metelife I am not able to select city in the residential address details as the city and state drop downs are disabled. I marked a query to the customer care team. They asked me which city you selected and whether you are able to move further. Both these queries are unwanted as the dropdown itself is disabled and without filling all the fields, there is no question of moving to step 2. Any way they are still working on it. But I am not sure whether my city will be there in the dropdown. However, in occupation address details, my city is listed.
3. Met life: After generating quotes, I moved further and found that -again- my city is not there in the list. They called me to ask about my interest in going further and I told this problem to them. They told me to select the city as Gurgaon and send the forms with correct address. But in their online form it is mentioned that the plan is available in the listed cities only. Which one I can believe? If I fill the form as told by their officials and later they deny policy, I may not get refund easily.
4. Aeogon Religare: Their iterm plan is available only in the cities selected. This was confirmed by their customer care staff.
Now I have some fundamental doubts:
These plans are termed “online” means it can be applied from any place. Then why are they restricting it to main cities only? In main cities most companies have branches and agents. They can approach customers. People like me who are in tier 2 cities and districts have access to the companies only through net /phone and such facilities are denied to us. One can understand restricting credit facilities like loan and credit card to selected cities because of recovery issues. But in insurance we pay premium upfront and we make a claim we have to go after the companies. It is an irony.
Most of the customer care is handled by outsourced staff who don’t know much about the company or product. They say what is available to them through the computer screens in front of them. Many of the times, I felt that I am more knowledgeable than them in certain issues related to their products/services.
Some of the webscripts are so poorly designed that they don’t work perfectly in all situations. These companies have money and they can make well designed scripts for online applications.
I request my friends here to comment.
Hi, should I buy an Online or Offline Term plan? My RM says it’s better to buy Offline as he would then be able to provide clear and full information to insurer (as he knows me). Besides, medical exam will also be conducted. So insurer would upfront have full information.
This way, there would be comparatively (wrt to Online term plan) less chances of claim being rejected. There is significant difference in premium (approx 7000 Rs) between Online and Offline term plan. Some people say it’s better to buy through agent as he can later help you with claim settlement. I don’t agree with this- in today’s world, agents/ RMs can switch jobs and may not necessarily be available at the time of settlement.
Can you please guide me on which is better – Offline or Online.
@Gotu
Your fundamentals doubts are correct. 70% of the customer care guys are good for nothing (as per my personal experience) and even I too have observed that I had more knowledge than them on the subject matter.
@Rakesh
As u must have read above the horrible experiences shared by many of those who tried to buy online term plan, u now have enough matter to decide what to go for. But wait, I could also add something here. My brother recently also tried his best to buy ‘online’ term plan ‘i-life’ from Aviva. After making the payment and going through the medical test 2 months back, he is yet to receive the policy. The enormous efforts put into the communication (call + emails) with their customer care (Do they really care???) are seem to be going waste as he’s not yet received any satisfactory response from Aviva. We can only wish that they return at least the amount paid online.
What I have personally felt by reading all such blogs and listening from different people about their experiences while buying an online term plan is that the biggest challange in case of online buying is the limitation in the communication with the company, which is especially required when something goes wrong. Between you and the company there is just one channel and that is their outsourced (most of the times) customer care department. Every time you call, there is a new person at the other end who has a different version of solution or information….EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING.
There is no one point of contact whose door can be knocked at when you are in need of some information.or help. At least in case of offline mode, you can catch (or trace if he has changed the company) that person.