Review of ICICI iProtect Term plan
POSTED BY ON August 19, 2010 COMMENTS (983)
ICICI Prudential has recently launched its online Term Insurance Plan called iProtect . iProtect is extremely affordable online Term Plan whic has some very good features. Last year Aegon Religare launched its online Term Plan iTerm , but it had some limitations like no riders attached and the company didnt had much trust factor . However iProtect comes with some really great features like Accidental rider, Term upto 30 yrs , wide coverage of cities and apart from being completely online, it can also be bought by agents, corporate agents and brokers , So it you are not net savvy or dont like pure online product, you can still buy iProtect Term Insurance through offline means , however the premiums in that case can be higher compared to when you buy online,because of agents commission involved in between.
The best thing I liked about iProtect was the user interface . It was easy to operate , asks less things in the starts and you come to know about your premium just by providing basic information like Age , Term , Sum Insured etc in the start, unlike iTerm from Aegon Religare where you had to provide all the medical details and finally after some hard work it shows you your premium. Personally for me (age 27 , policy for 30 yrs) , the iProtect premium for 1 crore was just Rs 9,400 .The ICICI iProtect comes with two different Plans, one with accidental rider and one without accidental rider
Two Different Plans under iProtect
- iProtect Option I : In this option there is pure life cover without any rider, you get the sum assured only when you die, else not .
- iProtect Option II PLUS : In this option , along with pure life cover , you also have accidental rider , which is equal to the Sum Assured (subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 lacs) will be paid out in the unfortunate event of death of the Life Assured only if due to an accident
Other Features of iProtect Life Insurance Plan
More at Document Brochure
When does the Life Cover Starts in iProtect?
The best part of the policy is that your life cover begins immediately once company receives the premium in case of non-medical cases (incase there is no need of medical examination) , However, In cases where medical examination is required, cover will commence from the date of issuance of the policy. Calculate your Insurance cover
Freelook up Period
A period of 15 days is available to the policyholder to review the policy. If the policyholder does not find the policy suitable, the policy document must be returned to the Company for cancellation within 15 days from the date of receipt of the same. On cancellation of the policy during the freelook period, They will return the premium paid subject to the deduction of:
a) Insurance stamp duty paid under the policy,
b) Expenses borne by the Company on medical examination,if any
iProtect Premiums Illustrations
A) The table below provides annual online premium (exclusive of service tax and cesses, as applicable) for various combinations of Age and Sum Assured for a healthy male (non-tobacco user), opting for a policy term of 25 years.
B) The table below provides annual premiums (exclusive of service tax and cesses, as applicable) for various combinations of Age and Sum Assured for a healthy male (non-tobacco user), opting for a policy term of 20 years, where policy is sourced by tied agents, corporate agents, brokers or direct sales.
iProtect vs iTerm Comparision
I Let us look how iProtect fares in comparision to iTerm plan. I found out that iProtect beats iTerm in all the areas.
What is covered under Accidental Death ?
Accidental Death Benefit: This benefit is payable subject to the conditions mentioned below:
1. The death due to accident should not be caused by the following:
a) Attempted suicide or self-inflicted injuries while sane or insane
b) Engaging in aerial flights (including parachuting and skydiving)
c) By the Life Assured committing any breach of law
d) Due to war, whether declared or not or civil commotion;
e) By engaging in hazardous sports or pastimes
2. Death due to accident must be caused by violent, external and visible means.
3. The accident shall result in bodily injury or injuries to the Life Assured independently of any other means. Such injury or injuries shall, within 180 days of the occurrence of the accident, directly and independently of any other means cause the death of the Life Assured. In the event of the death of the Life Assured after 180 days of the occurrence of the accident, the Company shall not be liable to pay this Benefit.
Premium Comparision with other Cheap Insurance Policies
Who Should Buy ?
If you dont have Term Insurance : If you havent bought term insurance till now and were still waiting or I must say “delaying” because of your laziness , this is the time to act and finally buy term insurance online .
If you are UnderInsured : You know that you are underinsured , who still not taking the additional cover, now its your time to go and buy additional cover .
If you already have sufficient Cover : Situation changes , and so does in Personal Finance, even if you are adequately insured , It would be a good idea of explore an option of shifting fully or a part of your cover into iProtect term plan , as its a cheap plan .
Open Question, This is a new plan , we are not sure of the customer care support and how well its service is, What do you think about it ?
Comments , Do you like this iProtect Plan ? Please let me know your reasons and what you think about this plan . Are you going to take this policy ?
I m planning to take term plan of PNB METLIFE of 5000000 for me and 2500000 for my wife (housewife)…and also a 5000000 policy for me from ICICI… is my decision right…plz give me suggestion..
Hi Manish,
I am looking for a Term Life Insurance of Sum Assured of 50 lacs for 35 years.
I am confused between ICICI iProtect and Max Life Insurance. The premium of ICICI is more than MAX life. However, for me premium is not the only criteria to select a policy. What matters are the benefits and hassle free payment of the Sum assured to my family in case of any eventuality.
Can you please guide me on what policy to go with?
Both are ok. If you give your information correctly, any of them is fine.
Why not HDFC? We have had good experience with them as we have dedicated team handling our investors case. If you are interested, just fill up this form https://www.jagoinvestor.com/solutions/buy-life-insurance-plan
Btw, Max is now getting merged with HDFC anyways
Hi Manish.
I was almost going to buy the Term plan from MaxLife when I got a call from their customer service telling me about their features. Found them impressive and helpful.
But just then he mentioned that MaxLife also covers suicide. That put me off. I am of the opinion that it should cover suicides. There is a chance that it will be misused. It totally put me off.
Am now going with ICICI or LIC.
Thanks,
Manish
Every Term plan covers Suicide !
I am 25 years old non smoker Male, planning to buy a term plan of 1 Cr. for 35 years. I found ICICI’s iProtect and PNB MetLife’s Mera term plan pretty interesting. Both have good claim settlement ratios(above 90%, as per I have got online), though premium of Mera term plan is a bit less. Please suggest which plan would be bettr to buy? Whose claim settlement process is better and smoother, ICICI’s or Metlife’s? I am a bit inclined towards Metlife, will this be a good choice?
You can go with any term plan actually. Just tell them truth 🙂 . Why not HDFC ?
i have purchased term plan of icici – 50 lacs.
i paid 2 premium on 23 january, but still my policy not activated.
daily i used to call at customer care no. but not getting proper response.
i drop a more than 15 mail, but no any reply.
i really have a bad experience with icici.
i wonder what to do, shall i cancel this policy or what….
Yes, if your experience is so bad, cancel it. But if you apply for a term plan at any other place , will you get it faster then ICICI ?
Hi Manish,
I am Manish Modi and I took icici iprotect for 40 years Sum assured 1crore and premium is 11864 but not yet activated…
Could please let me know on what are the points that i should discuss with insurer company before it’s get activated.
Hi Manish Modi,
Please check if all the required documents are uploaded or submitted to the insurer. Like wise, check whether the payment done was successful or not. These are the general reasons why the policy will not get activated.
Regards,
Naveen
Hello Manish,
Thanks a lot for the detailed information, I have decided to buy a term plan for 1.5 crore that too after going through yours “How to be your own financial planner”. A very good book and I feel every working individual should go though this book.
I don’t have any Life insurance plans till now and felt very happy about that. Thanks to my Mother for always guiding me not to take Life insurance(Investment + Insurance).
I want an advice from you on my below plan:
1. I am planning to buy a 1.5 crore term plan.
2. Have gone through premiums of ICICI, Relaince…
3. Option 1: Go with ICICI for 1.5 crore sum assured with a premium of 16025.
4. Option 2: Go with two term insurance, 50 lakhs with ICICI(Premium:7122) and 1crore with Reliance(Premium:8507), there by total premium will be 15629.
5. Only advantage with option 1 is by default it includes Terminal illness and Wavier of premium in case of Permanent Disability. With option 2 , Premium is bit less, and one of the insurance guy suggested its always good to split the sum assured with two different insurance companies(as it helps in minimal rejection if one company settles the claim, other one has to settle without any issues).
Can you please advice me which option would be better. Thanks a lot in Advance.
Hello Manish,
I see some problems faced mentioned here in the comment section with ICICI… As my birthday is approaching( next week)… It would really helpful, if you reply to my above comment as it will save a substantial amount wrt premium. Waiting for your reply.
Thank-you
There is no issue as such, you can go with ICICI if you wish. However HDFC is another good option . We have a special tie up with them.
You can fill up the form below if you need us to connect you to them .
https://www.jagoinvestor.com/services/life-insurance
Hi Manjunath
You can go with a single policy from ICICI Itself . You also have an option for HDFC incase it works for you. Its a good company and we have a special tieup for our readers. You can fill up this form if you want that
https://www.jagoinvestor.com/services/life-insurance
Hi Manish,
U are doing great thing by helping peoples in insurance queries. God bless u.
I am planning for ICICI i protect smart life plus which provides Death benefit and Accident benefit. I already have previous accidental policy of 10 lakh.
My query is that while filling online form what previous policies I have to declare?
I have LIC Jeevan Anand , Bajaj Accident Policy and Health Insurance from Apollo Munich.
Guide me…..
Kiran
You have to declare all the life insurance policies, not health or auto or even accidental one
Please suggest me a term plan for each parents (aged 61 and 51) for 25lac sum insured with max. term.
I suggest HDFC term plan .. You can look at https://www.jagoinvestor.com/services/life-insurance and fill the form there. We will help you on that
Hi Manish,
I want to buy a term plan. I am confused between HDFC Click2Protect, ICICI iProtect. Can you please suggest me best out of two. Also I am not able to understand “Riders” benefit under Term plan. What will be the consequences in future if I dont take Riders benefit.
Thanks in Advance,
Ajay
Riders are always EXTRA . Means if you do not buy it , you will still get the main benefit that if you die, your family will get the money.
Hi ,
I really appreciate this platform of interaction and getting valuable guidance.
Actually , I am in a dilemma of “what should I consider while buying term plan”. Which term plan would be better and do settle without any hesitation/ harassment ? should I consider claim settlement ratios or some other factors?
I am also confuse thinking that “all the insurance companies have JV with other foreigner companies and what if the insurance company would not go long with their joint venture , at that point of time what would happen to the policy holders.??
Need guidance. Thanks.
Hi Sandeep sharma
You dont need to worry on that. Even if a company closes down or breaks the joint venture, its taken over by other and your term plan continues
Hi Sir,
My Name is Prakash Shrestha.I have been living in India since 2001 and i am planning to buy Life Insurance IProtect of 50Lakh.I am citizen of Nepal and my nominee will be also from Nepal.I want to know may i buy Life Insurance being nepali citizen.What are the condition for nepalese people do i have to pay extra charge being not Indian? As my insurance advisor is telling it can be done but i want to know from your side.There are two questions.
1:Can i buy life insurance being nepali?If yes than do i need to pay extra.
2:What will happen if i die out of India?Will there be any problem to receive money for my nominee.
Yes Prakash
You can take life insurance from LIC, but it would depend on the descretion of LIC only. You dont need to pay extra for that, but final words are with LIC
The claim will not be an issue
Manish
while trying to buy iciciprudential’s i protect term plan option 1 for 30 lac for 25 years for 1st time i filled old life insurance policy details column and faced problem while filling health detail questions as a customer is provided with only max. two lines ( approx 100 words max.) to provide answer to 21 questions .. so on conforming from C.CARE they said that’s all the space for answering all questions & now old policy details column is withdrawn. So if a customer want to provide detailed answers than he has to write a email to them with all details of question & answer to respective question & his old policy details & on surprise to me this email will not be a part of policy document which you will receive for free look in period … So my question is to MANISH CHAUHAN should i opt.out of icici as i don’t trust companies which has loop holes in their documents & left customer on loose end.?
Yes, better opt out from that
Dear manish
I have read ur book regarding financial planning now I wnt to take term policy from icici of 75 lakhs I talk to there customer care they said that they wil do medical test if required wil they give me in written but they r not conforming me in this regard.kindly guide me.
Gaurav
I just replied you over email
Hi,
Even I am in the same boat. I am planning to take a 75L term insurance but ICICI is telling me that they will conduct medical only if they think it is required. Had a real bad experience with HDFC and in no mood to go ahead with them. But also at the same time I am not confident to go for the ICICI without medical test.
Please help.
Medical tests if not done , its fine . You can give the declaration while buying and that should be ok
Hi all,
I am planning to buy term insurance plan. My age is 41. Can anyone guide me on this. I checked Max Life insurance is apperantly low cost compare with ICICI & HDFC. What you say guys?
Sandeep
Generally its not that known and overall I would say go for options like Aviva, ICICI , LIC or HDFC
very horrible experience with ICICI Prudential online plan. They have not issued me a policy since one month for which i have submitted all the documents and paid the premium online. Customer care is really really very poor. After this poor service i decided to cancel the policy and guess what !!! Their customer care cannot cancel my policy.
Finally i have launched complain in IRDA.
Dear Sir(Jignesh),
We are sorry to hear your experience. We request you to help us with your contact and policy details to assist you .
Alternatively, you may also post your concern along with your policy details on https://onlinelifeinsurance.iciciprulife.com/digital/ipru/GrievanceRedStep.htm?execution=e2s1
Request you to quote the reference number 145327 whilst sharing the details. Post receipt of the requirement, our representative will get in touch with you within 48 hours.
Regards,
http://www.iciciprulife.com
Dear Sir(Jignesh),
We are sorry to hear your experience. We request you to help us with your contact and policy details to assist you .
Alternatively, you may also post your concern along with your policy details on https://onlinelifeinsurance.iciciprulife.com/digital/ipru/GrievanceRedressal.htm?execution=e1s1
Request you to quote the reference number 145327 whilst sharing the details. Post receipt of the requirement, our representative will get in touch with you within 48 hours.
Regards,
http://www.iciciprulife.com
THanks for sharing that Jignesh ..
Manish,
Till what sum assured I don’t have to go for medical tests.
50 lacs I guess !
Hi Manish,
This is very useful information.
However, Could you also share your views/analysis on term insurance from SBI like SBI Life – Smart Shield or any other ?
As I understand, SBI has a good solvency ratio and a better settlement ratio than few of the other private players.
SBI has recently launched its online term plan . While there is no issue with any company, just that I hear more about other companies.
Hi Manish,
Very informative article!!!!
I just was going thru the various choices as of now and came across TATA AIA, can you share your thoughts on same.
Thanks,
Puneet Sharma
I am not a great fan .. try Aviva or HDFC !
Sure thing, thanks! I am not good, but just thought what kind of security we have in case the insurance company goes down?
Hello Manish,
As per your advice, I am planning to convert all my existing LIC policies into paid up and take up a term insurance policy.
The query I had was , when I fill the online form for Term insurance…do I need to declare the LIC policies as I will be converting them to paid up once my term insurance is done.
Note: I am planning to take up term insurance first and then stop the LIC policies just for sake of continuity of insurance & in case my term insurance gets rejected for some reason.
Thanks in advance
Warm Regards,
Aditya
In that case you will have to declare those old policies in term plan application .
Thanks for the prompt response Manish 😉
I had a follow up query…what are the implications of declaring previous life cover policies with respect to the premium and claim process?
Does it have a negative impact?
SBI smartshield is much better than this.i have SBI smartshield. it’s very risky to buy online without medical.so it’s better to get medical test through them. you dont need to pay anything. it has good rider option to. I have 67 Lac basic sum,33 Lac Accident rider,50 Lac permenant disabity rider. tenure is 30 year.
Thansk for sharing that , I am not sure how correct it would be to say that term plans without medicals are very risky ! .
One need to study it thoroughly before taking any of such a policy!
File charges are almost 1/4 % !
be aware
Thanks for sharing your views
Hello Manish,
Online Term Insurance policy is no doubt cheaper than offline or normal advisor route. Some discourage going for online saying that claims settlement is difficult as there is no face or person who will take care in case of claims. In offline line mode in case policy is taken from advisor, the advisor will take care n followup with the claim settlement, etc.
In case of claims as it is its going to be difficult for the kin the person insured in their time of grief, to go about following up the claim settlement process..
Kindly share your thoughts on this …
Shree
Hi Shree..
The claim process for online term plan and offline term plan is exactly same .. the point that agent will be their for claim help is totally idiotic . 99% families dont even know who is the agent . An agent will mostly not be around that time for various reasons ! ..
Manish, Thanks for sharing your view.. Helps to make informed choice!
Hi Manish,
Thanks for providing all the information at one place.
I am planning to buy a term policy.
I am working in a govt. dept.
We have a cooperative insurance in our dept.
I have a policy with them.
Do I need to mention about this in the term policy?
As it is a cooperative society policy.
Pl clarify.
Thanks in advance
You dont need to inform about it , if you are not paying the premium yourself and if its just a benefit you get from the society !
we are paying the premium through salary cutting.
it is rs 699 per month and rs 10 p m (for accidental death).
I even do not have idea of how much is the cover.
as the premium increases with the salary as percentage.
I also have a group insurance scheme offered by SBI for savings account holders.
it is rs 100 per year.
kindly clarify.
Thanks in advance
Its a group cover, you dont need to declare about it !
Dear Manish,
This is nice an article, Now , I have some confusion , will you give me some help to short out that ?
Well, from past few days, I am looking for best & reliable term plan , so , will you tell which will be best for me ? My age is 30 years , sum assured will be 25 lacs for 30 years term. Annul income 4.5 lacs p.a.
Now , I have search some company & their term plans. So, kindly tell me which will be best for me ? & why?
1) ICICI –
ICICI pru – iprotect ( online or offline )
2) HDFC-
HDFC life – click 2 protect (online )
3) Max life insurance –
Platinum protect (offline )
Kindly, Give me your valuable suggestion.
Thanks & Regards,
Ritesh.
There is nothing like a best term plan .. all you need to do is buy any term plan and just make sure you give authentic information when asked . Most of the people are buying Aviva, HDFC Click2Protect
Hi Manish
Thanks for all the kind replies today.
One last thing: Can I check with you what are the best term insurance plans available in the market at the moment?
Cheers
Ravi
Its a wrong question, if there was any “best” policy, there wont be others ! .. Its not the policy which makes it best, its your honest replies to the questions they ask makes it best. Take any policy , just make sure you answer all the questions in form honestly.
Manish
Hi Manish
I bought iprotect plan with 30 years premium.What I thought they will be protected till 75 and will pay premium till 65(currently I am 34) but they have not mentioned 75 years anywhere on policy?am i missing any point?what can be done to increase upto 75 years.thans
Sahi
You get protection only till you pay the premium, you have taken the policy only for next 30 yrs , you should have choosen 75 yrs while filling up the form . However I think you should not worry at all here, because you are already covered till 65 yrs ! . Thats enough
Hi Manish,
As per my understanding Term plan is a level premium plan …however with change in service tax, does every years annual premium increases for a policy taken?
Regards
S
Yes, it can change a bit , but it will be a minor change !
I have heared that claim settelment ratio in ICICI is poor. Can you throw some light on this.
Its not the top most metric you should look at. Yes their claim settlement is not on the top , but its one of the best !
Manish
Its not only name, the complete plan has been changed, Medical limits have been reduced now in i Care. You can check the plan here
https://www.iciciprulife.com/public/buy-term-insurance-online/iCare_WBHL.htm
Is this iProtect plan discontinued bt icici pru. I can see only iCare on their web site. Can someone share the link please.
The name is changed now !
Hi Manish,
I’ve just taken a home loan of 47L from Axis Bank.
Bank has offered me a life insurance plan for 1.5L to protect the home loan.
Please advice it is better to go for HLPP or Term plan.
Which is the best TP can cover permanent disabilities & job loss…..
Or I’ve to go for HLPP….
Better go for term plan .
Hi Manish,
I have also seen one of your post regarding Aegon Religare iTerm Insurance Plan, if I see claim settlement ratio of Aegon Religare then it is very low. Also if I compare HDFC Life Click 2 Protect term insurance, I found it better as premium is also around 9500 and claim settlement Ratio is also 91% (just after LIC). Can you please put your views on this.
Thanks,
Parag
Any company which is new , will have low claim settlement numbers as they have to give a more detailed search in any claim . AR should be ok choice .
Hi Manish,
I went through this blog; I am new to term insurance and planning to get one with 50lacs SA. I read another blog from Ashal where he personally prefers Kotak Preferred to the best in offline term insurances. I thought of buying the same online (Kotak e-preferred), but the online one does not the rider options. Is there any way that the riders can be included in the online policy or should I have to go for the offline one.
Is it good to have longer terms or a bit short one, I mean should I go for 30yrs term or 25yrs or 20yrs? I am presently 33yrs old.
Also another query, what about the credibility of these term insurance plans in the long run of say 25-30 yrs, I mean if the company wipes out in the future, then what about our money?
Thanks,
Ashwin
Ashwin
There is no way you can add riders in online like this, if you want riders , you can look at other companies plans which have riders in online policy , which are very rare
You can go for 30 yrs as you will have it for till you are 63 yrs . Dont worry about the long term prospects of insurance companies at this point of time !
I have ICICI pru iprotect option-1 plan for 20 years. The premium is Rs 15900(17538 inc tax) for a cover of 1cr starting from last year(with no riders). I was thinking whether I should continue with this policy or go for AR which offers the same cover for around Rs 14800 inc tax with rider of premium waiver.
My next premium due is next month. Please suggest.
I dont think you should change it for such small difference, what if you dont get it from AR now ?
You can go for AR policy if you are ok with it !
Hi,
I already have a term plan with ICICI Prudential (ICICI Pure Portect Elite SA = 50L). Can I/Is it advisable to take one more term plan (iProtect) from the same provider?
Thanks.. Kaushik
Do you need mroe insurance ? If yes, then you can go with it !
Hi Manish,
Great article!!
My question to you is, how dependable are these term plans from private banks.
I was looking at going for one but was considering the LIC but it is about 25K for 1cr SA. Should I trust ICICI or other private companies for my family`s security in case something does happen to me?
Can you help me with my dilemma
Thanks
Nikhil
Nikhil
You can go for private , not an issue .. you will take time to trust them, understand the insurance model and overall structure and how it developed in india, that will increase your trust !
Hi Manish,
Thanks for the informative article:
Please find below the report in Business Standard for Claim Repudiation Ratio.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/lic-scores-best-in-claims-settlement-during-2010-11/436579/
LIC, ICICI and HDFC amongst top three with just 1.09, 2.8 and 3.9 percent claims repudiated. Please consider this information while making your judgement.
Thanks
Rohit
Thanks for that article .. will look at it !
dear manish, i want to buy term plan. should i go for online or regular plan? in online which plan should i buy? icici i-protect/aviva or aegon? is there any online plan form lic?
i am following this talk since long but i am confused with the expriences of the people!! i want to go for 1 crore policy. which would be better?
please do answer.
thanks
Dear Neeraj, No as on date online from LIC is not available. Online plans are certainly far cheaper than regular offline plans. As per your own comfort you may opt from Aviva, Icici, Kotak, Aegon, Bharti, HDFC, Metlife’s online plans.
Thanks
Ashal
Hi Manish
I want to buy an online term plan. I am confused between aviva & aegon religare. Aegon religare is cheap. Can you please suggest. Or if any other as well.
Thanks.
Vishal
What is the confusion but ?
Overall which company is better in terms of claim settlement & service? Price wise Aegon is better.
Vishal
Claim settlement is a fuzzy number, dont rely on that. All you need to read is this article : http://www.subramoney.com/2012/03/insurance-claims-settlement/
Dear manish,
I downloaded the IRDA report for 2010.page 106 shows individual death claim numbers and excludes maturity claims.
This figure shows that CSR is as follows:
1.LIC :96.5%
2.HDFC:91.1
3.ICICI: 90.17
Those contains all kind of policies, means even maturity claims , not just death claims
hi,
but the title of the table says individual death claims.
Ok, in that case the numbers are right
Dear Vishal, in addition to the link shared by dear Manish, I w’d recommend to opt the insurer where you are comfortable yourself that the co. ‘ll honor the claim in your absence. else saving few bucks in prem. does not make any sense. You may Opt Aegon, if you are comfortable with this plan
Thanks
Ashal
Hi Manish
Im looking for a term insurance and would appreciate your opinion about AVIVA i life. I believe that has the lowest premium as of today. Could you please let me know the claim settlement details of AVIVA as compared to ICICI or Kotak
Thanks
Sandeep
Its a good company , the claim settlement is good enough . You can check IRDA report for claim settlement .
Dear Sandeep
AVIVA i Life a good product and after lot of research I also have opted for the same. Note one thing that don’t take more than HLV value of insurance, it’s wrong concept and may lead to total void incase of unfortunate claim settlement.
Suman
You dont have to worry about the “more than HLV” thing from your side . If at the time of applying your total cover gets more than your HLV , anyways the insurance company will reject your case . The only problem is when you have not disclosed the other existing insurance to the new company , thats where the rejection will happen .
Manish
hi
I m Ashish, a salaried employee. i m 25 yrs old. looking for a term life insurance plan. but i m worried about the difficulties in settlement of claim if i take the online route to buy the policy. Can anybody with experience in these matters tell me as to what extent this is true and do it matter from company to company? because some of my knowns told me that u should always go through some known agent in ur hometown, because ur nominee can easily approach and followup for claim settlement.
Ashish
You are too much worried on this . Agents can be of help, but its not always true , in most of the cases agents are not around after 2-3 yrs anyways . Claim settlement is a task, but not such a big task that family members cant do it , from your side you should take care that the company you choose has a smooth claim process and a good track record . You can view IRDA claim settlement details on this . LIC , Kotak , HDFC are some companies which have good settlement numbers ,.
Manish
shall we be an income earningperson to get policy in this plan? if yes please say all the rules i.e income proofs and tax payment proofs
Vamsi
For any insurance plan, you need to be earning member. Documents depends on company .
Sir kindly provide that how many policy sold by Ipru of IPROTECT, PURE PROTECT & PURE PROTECT ELITE in year 2011.
Ravi
I do not have that info
1) Go for any adequate term plan you trust .maybe one or divide it into 2 term plans
2) fill up the form yourself,not by the agent and fill all the true details
3) do not hide anything
4) keep a copy of the form with you.
5) explain all the details about your term plan and other policies to your nominee/family members and also explain the claim procedure to them in any unfortunate event.
I think these are the some points one should always remember while taking the term plan.
Thanks manish for writing such good article and thanks to all those who have commented on this article and made it must read article.
Paritosh
thanks a lot
Manish ,
Thanks for such a information which is essential for the person who is entering first time in this .
I am going for Birla Sunlife protector plan for policy of 50 lack.
But bit confused in between i protect OF icici & Birla sun life .
PLease suggest, which will be prefarable. Iam 31yrs old.
Yuvaraj
ok , you can go with ICICI then , Birla does not have a online term plan as of now
Manish
Dear Rajendra, the medical test is done at the start of term plan or any other life insurance policy to ascertain the current health position of the life to be insured. Once this is done, in future there ‘ll not be any medical test for ailments or illness that ‘ll happen in future. The only exception ‘ll be if your policy lapse & you are reviving it.
Thanks
Ashal
Hello Manish,
Thanks for your valuable review comments.Could you please tell, medical test is required only one time when we first buy these term plan or every year whenever we renew or pay premium… or occasional whenever company wants ?
–Rajendra
What will be the status of the existing insurance policy if one obtained for Permanent resident of some other country?
Thanks in advance
Hi Manish,
I was just wondering about one of the clauses that you have mentioned in the blog.
“The death due to accident should not be caused by the following:
b) Engaging in aerial flights (including parachuting and skydiving)”
Does this mean death due to flight accidents are not covered? :O .
-Imon
Imon
No no .. its just those things which are done on your own , like hobbies items
Manish
Dear Manish
I came across your this blog yesterday only. I am in search of Term policy.
I read here that buying 2 policies of two different companies is a good idea. But I have some doubt.
If I buy 2 policies from 2 different companies, say for example Aegon iTerm & Kotak Preferred, 40 Lakh each, whether my family would get benefits from both companies or there is any conflict / hitch?
My age is 45 & I have 1 LIC-child-career plan for my daughter. No Term plan till this date.
Dear Manish,
Check out the NEWEST player in the ONLINE TERM PLAN field
http://www.policywala.com/content.php/356-HDFC-Life-launches-online-term-plan-Click-2-Protect?s=2f816e81cf948ce9c5a47a0338ef8d28
Dear Dhawal Sharma, Strange but true, The plan has been launched by HDFC but there is no link anywhere on http://www.hdfclife.com to purchase this plan.
I checked my own. You may also check & in case if you found any link please do share with all of us.
Thanks
Ashal
Ashal
Here is hte link : http://www.hdfclife.com/hdfcops/presentation/ , but they have given a seperate domain name for buying online which is hdfcslbuyonline.com which redirects to http://www.hdfclife.com/hdfcops/presentation/ .. no idea why 🙂 ..
Here is their brochure : http://www.hdfclife.com/sites/HSFCSL/Resources/Products/Downloads/HDFCLIFECLICK2PROTECTplanbrochure.pdf
Manish
Hi manish,
I just wanted to share my experience about I life from Aviva with all the readers and also had few questions for you. By the way i am regular reader of your blog and have subscribed it in my G reader.
I already have a term plan from ICICI Pure Elite for 50 Lakh, i took this policy when i was 28 years old and i am paying around 12.5 K every year for that.
Recently i had a increment in my salary and i got married too and hence i thought of increasing my term cover, I reviewed all the online term policy (Icare/I term, Aviva I life/ India first term and so on)
I found that I life was the cheapest and was also giving the policy for 35 years period, So i went ahead with it, For my age, 30 years ( 5 cigrette a day, 3 units a week of Alcohol) no health problems so far and so all the option in the online form about helth is no no no.
I filled up the form and selected the medical center that was of my choice. 24 to 48 hours alter i got the email confirming that my medical center is in another area ( kormalgala) that i had not selected and hence i called up the guys and requested them to change it to the center that i had selected in the online form, The phone guys are of no help, so i wrote emails and it was changed after some emails and calling.
I called up the CC again and confirmed if they were to change my premium amount post the medical test and and if i dont take it will i have to pay for the medical check up, for which i got a answer that no i won’t have to, if company changes the amount and if i dont choose to go with it then i dont have to pay anything extra and my entire money would be re-funded. unfortunately i dont have any way of proving this cause this conversation happened with the phone rep :(.
Now i have got a email from AVIVA where they have increased my premium amount from 13.5 to 26.6k and no reason given, they just say in general based on my medical on request they mentioned the amount is high ” due to elevated LFTs and dyslipidaemia” .Please send us your consent to the above mentioned information by replying to us at onlinepolicy@avivaindia.com.
no idea what it is, will try to find out.
This was quite surprising cause i have had some medical checkup in the past and there has been nothing reported.
I asked the aviva team to refund my money and now they say that they would deduct the medical charges.
Now comes the questions:
1. Is this normal?
2. if they mentioned to me that they will refund my money if they change the premium then is there a way to fight about it, ( i dont have prove)
3. I-term/I care, if i choose this i will have to pay 15.22K which i am willing to pay, but are there chances that i will get the same response from them ( i heard and read that there id No Medical test, is that true too for i Term.
What do you suggest i do now.
Last but not the least overall i would say the service was fast, although i had a little problem but it was OK.
Thanks
I took a term AVIVA policy for 50L few months back and initially I paid 16K and after medical test I got a cheque for 3K back from AVIVA. Now my premium is 13K and I am 42. It is not an online policy but I went through an agent.
Also you can demand/request your medical report from AVIVA and you can consult your own doctor to clear your doubts. I got my medical report next day by email and 4th day by courier.
DOminic
Thanks for your feedback, it will really help others to decide what they want to do .
Manish
Vikrant
Thanks for sharing your experience . I must say that there is always inconsistency with what customer care says one phone and what really happens at the end , because there is mis communication , this happens with most of the companies , The company must have loaded the premium based on their rules depending on your results from medical expenses . And next time any company if tells you that they will refund 100% money if you dont want policy ,please dont believe it , it never happens , your medical cost and premium till the time you dont return the policy are always deducted , its not in the business interest of any company to refund 100% money .
Dont feel to bad on this else it wll just stop you from moving ahead , better try Kotak and ICICI .
Manish
Sir,
Thanks for the superb analysis of term plan I protect. From the answers & questions I had learnt a lot. My doubt is for leave purpose if one had been hospitalized on paper, but really healthy, should it be mentioned at the time of proposal?
Anita
That should not be an issue .. but if you are hospitalised for some crtical thing even on paper then its LEGAL info and tomm if company find out that they can reject the claim because you were hospitalised and didnt tell them ,. at that point you cant tell them that it was just on paper and not in real
manish
what is the procedure to follow, to do on line switch over my prudential life insurance. please advice me detail, so that I can enable it.
Jeetendra
You just need to register online on ICICI Pru website and then make a switch
Manish
Hi manish,
I would like to know how is a policy made paid up. Is it just by stop paying the premium or i will have to notify the company.
Thanks
Vishal jain
Vishal
Just stop the premium , thats all
Manish
Seems Icici has discontinued iProtect Term Plan. Instead now they have Icare.
Nishanth
Yes , i did a review too : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2011/10/icici-care-review-online-term-plan.html
Hi Manish,
We had some people from ICICI prudential promoting their new Term insurence policy “i care”
What is you review about this policy, is it a better deal.
Regards,
Shashaank
Shashaank
Looks like you are not seeing our latest articles .. thats the article i just did : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2011/10/icici-care-review-online-term-plan.html
hi Manish,
Rajkumar/M/30yrs/govt employee/5.5L/annum
I have some LIC’s policies and now i like to go for life protected plan(death coverage only) for 50l to 1 cr, guide me for which plan/company/term i should take and premium/month. I so like to know any childern plan.
RajKumar
Go for kotak or Aviva online term plan
Hi Manish,
I have taken Iprotect for both myself and my husband (1 cr each). My husband has few LICs for which he pays 29 k and 4-5 k, even I have BIMA Gold (16k/annum) and an Endowment plan from LIC for 60k (5 year lock in period – the agent really fooled me here). I have already surrendered 2 ulips while arranging for money to buy a house. Should I get rid of all the LIC policies also? I have a 7 month old son – what’s the best investment for him? What mutual funds or Gold ETFs should I invest in now? Anything for retirement benefits?
Thanks for your time 🙂
Shilpi
Best thing would be to start long term investments linked to each goal and get rid of your junk investments .. dont get attached to it .. You can also look at our low cost financial plan which will give you a very good start and give you all the right numbers you need to save for your goals : 30dayplan.in/
Hi Manish,
Does IProtect cover for all deaths…say death because of a terrorist attack or any natural calamity or suicide?
Also what do you mean by tobacco consumer? Will someone who had tried cigarates even once in last one year or so be treated as a tobacco consumer? How much more the premium will be for a tobacco consumer in comparison to a non-tobacco consumer? Are there any other medical check-ups involved in case one categorise himself as a tobacco consumer?
Anil
Once in a year is not considered .. but regular consumption (even once a month) is considered . The excess premium can be from 30% to 100% depending on company
Manish
Recently, Aviva has also launched low cost term insurance plan..may be someone wants to hav a look before buying term plan
Ravi
YEa .. thanks , people are aware about it and many people tell us that they took it !
Manish
Manish,
Is the premium of Term Insurance policies increases as we grows up? Suppose if someone bought the policy at the age of 25 then what would be approximate % increase in the premium at the age of 30 years.
Sachin
Sachin
Term insurance premium is always Constant !
Manish
Hi Manish,
I am going to pay online policy , but the insurance agents are telling , if we pay any online term policy, it is difficult to the nominee at the time of clime the settlement, the nominee should be educated to communicate with head office (bcz for online policy’s climes will be processed at Ho only ( branches does not give any service)). I am going to pay Kotak e-term (Online) insurance policy.
what you can u suggest us (Online/Offline) ,
Thank
Sridhar Patnayak
You decide whether to go online or offline. But your should NEVER EVER go to the agent who is saying this. These are real parasites who suck blood from our nominee after our death.
Dominic
Agree .. Agents say this to make sure their sales increase .
Manish
Hello Manish,
Your blog and subsequent comments are very informative. Appreciate your effort. I was looking for a term plan for myself and based on various factors I zeroed in on iProtect.
I have a question regarding the declaration of other insurance covers that I already have. I have covered my home loan through the “Home Safe Plus” plan from ICICI Lombard. It covers an amount of Rs. 40L against, among other things, my death and hence by some legalities may be termed as a life cover. My question is whether I am supposed to declare that policy too because after all it is not a life insurance policy. And if I do, will it affect the premium or anything else for iProtect?
Would be waiting for your response.
Thanks,
Guha
S Guha
That is very much a life insurance , just that its attached to home loan , but its insurnace on your life , you should declare that .
Manish
Dear Manish & S Guha, Please read the policy documents carefully. As far as I know, Home Safe plus policy from ICICI Lombard, provides cover for building like usual house holder policy & cover for death due to accident like usual personal accident policy.
This combination of House holder & Personal Accident Plan is the reason the product is termed as Home Safe Plus.
In case your death occurs other than Accident, this policy ‘ll not come any good.
Also the max. policy term in this home safe plus policy is 5Y.
Please check your policy bond.
thanks
Ashal
Ashal
ohh .. i didnt pay that much attention then , I was thinking its a home loan bundled term plan kind of thing . thats for correcting
Manish
Dear S Guha, May I know your contact, please let me know when you have been sold HOME SAFE PLUS-SCURE MIND POLICY of 40 lakh, in a case ombudsman recommended as wrong policy to cover mortgage loan.
Hi Manish
I would appreciate your reply to this question. My father is of marketing background & has taken several policies in his name out of favor. But after going through your articles & analysing his policies, i find that none of the policy is a pure term policy & he is paying more than 2 lac rupees yearly as premium. So my question to you is that if i stop paying further premiums and continue those policies without surrendering till maturity, will that make any difference?
Thanks
Vishal
If he has completed 3 yrs ,then he can make it paid up (just stop paying premiums) . then he will get his premiums at the end of the term , but you need to see its value after so many years .
Manish
But if i surrender it now then i will not get any bonus but if i make it paid up then i will get the bonus accumulated till now. Correct?
Vishal
Yes , making it paid up will get you bonus, but only if you have run the policy for atleast 5 yrs . Also surrender will get your bonus , but today’s value , not the accrued vlaue
manish
Hi Manish,
So simple to get insured online. Just bought life cover of 25lacs for 30 Yrs with yearly premium of 4577 Rs. Waiting for their call to know next procedure.
Thank Manish for this article. it helped me a lot.
Regards,
Amol
Amol
GOod to hear that .. i hope you have bought ICICI iProtect ? Right ?
Manish
Yes Manish,
ICICI iprotectI
Hi Amol,
If you calculate the premium for iProtect plan 1 premium for 30 lacs is less than the premium for 25 lacs. So if will good for you if you can change the sum assured to 30 lacs. Send me your email address I will send you the print screen from iProtect premium calculator.
All the best!
Regards,
Pravesh
Pravesh,
Thanks for suggestion:-).
I do smoke and the premimum for 30 lacs will be 5070 + Service tax. Appx 5500.
In case for a non smoker , 30 lacs for 30 yrs that will be 4080+Service tax. see the difference, You pay 1000 bucks extra..
I have one query, i am working in a software company… i dont have any permanent address so fer, have only some temporary address. then how can i get a term plan, is there any option to change the address latter?
Consider this scenario:
Now i am in Bangalore city and got the policy with passport address(bangalore address…current address). Now What will happen if i move to a city/village where online policy is not in place? or it is only applicable while taking policy, does not matter where you stay or die…
Ashok
you dont have to worry on that .. once you take the plan , you can go anywhere and if you die , all one has to do is do the claim procedure in that city or the nearest city ..
Hi all,
I decide to take the online term policy after reading all the comments on the site,.
I have doubt my annual income is 1.55Lakhs and i am 25 year old working as web-developer,non-smoker ,newly married i have a mother , grandpa,grandma to look after.
I have following doubts plz clarify
1)I have zeroed on two policies iprotect and ilife please tell which one to go after .
2)Since my annual income is 1.55 Lakhs can i go for cover of 50 Lakhs , If not how much cover i can go for buying a term policy
3)I already have 3 lic policy with sum assured 6 Lakhs paying a premium of 22,500 premium per annum. whether i should continue with them after taking term policy
Please help in buying the term policy, I welcome your valuable suggestions
Hi manish & all,
I am waiting for ur response, the minute u give me response i goona buy the term policy holding on for ur response
Kuknoor
With such a less income , why are you taking the burden of paying for LIC plans .. The only reason I suggest you to discontinue your LIC plans is that you can cover yourself with 1 crore with just Rs 10k , why pay 22.5k for 6 lacs . Why ?
Better pay 10k for term plan with Kotak or ICICI , does not matter a lot as fas as you fill up the data with them properly and invest the rest money somewhere in good mutual funds for long term ,. thats all you need to do ,
Dont over analyse and waste time , act , act and only act .. things will move …
Manish
thanks manish,
i have taken a policy of 35 lakhs from icici prudential within 20 days i got the hardcopy of policy.
Cannot believe private insurance companies. Have seen my friends getting duped in different ways like false promises after seeing their advertisements over messages but not delivering the same on buying policies, while claiming for maturity amount etc.
For Indians, government player LIC is always the best suited. A time tested insurance corporation for Indians. I have, am sure many would have experienced no hassles, wrong doings for policies taken by us/our families/friends.
Private players offer lucrative premium rates but fail to deliver the promised amount on maturity. LIC is correct in asking for realistic premiums and delivering properly.
Having said, that I wish LIC comes up with really nice plans in the ULIP segment especially. Let them deliver very high NAV and profits for the ULIP plans than what is being offered in present ULIP plans and all the allocation charges etc on these ULIP plans should drastically come down.
Even in traditional plans, I feel there is scope for improvement in delivering better maturity amounts.
LIC always rocks, no doubt. But they can also improve in gaining more and more trust of the people who have and will always keep faith in LIC.
We customers should know (for who ever doesn’t know) that 95% of LIC profits and surplus is given back to customer in many plans. This money is apart from bonuses on the policies. Only 5% is given to government as dividend.
Important to notice is, LIC is not a company but a corporation. It doesnot keep profits with it. It will give back to customer.
Here comes the BIG DADDY…
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/insurance-news/lic-joins-online-play-with-pure-term-policy/articleshow/9843161.cms
hey Manish
you are a life saver for personal like me who very financially illiterate.only because of your advice i came out of clutches of LIC agent. now i m bit familiar with all this discussion. presently i m repaying a personal loan so dont have enough for investing but i m sure ur advice will be worth in gold for my future financial health.
may god bless you
Sanjay
Sanjay
Thanks for appreciation . I should also aprpeciate that you are open to learn things and take things seriously , that really is the game changer . We can only assist
Manish
Hello manish
I have just applied for aviva platinum shield option a plan. Sum assured 1 crores term 45 yrs. premium 12863 without any riders. I chose aviva above others because of its term primarily. Now i am confused whether i should have split it into 2 or 3 policies. what’s your opinion and if i should split then which should i take.
Vishal
Why dont you split it between Aviva and some one else like Kotak or ICICI ? Why do you need term plan after your retirement age ?
Manish
Yes i have split it into 2. I have applied for 50lacs at aviva and now i am thinking of 50 lacs with kotak preferred term plan for 30 yrs along with 10 lacs rider of accidental death & critical illness each. I did not understood why you said , why you need term plan after retirement. Can u please explain this. Currently i am 25 y of age and recently i have started two sip of 2500 p.m. each.
Another thing i am thinking of taking term plan for my father and mother aged 50 & 44 respectively for sum assured 1 crores. I think icici iprotect is best because of its term till 75 yrs, plus accidental death rider of 50 lacs is aslo available. Most importantly prmium is lowest compared to any other. But there has been very mixed reviews of this product so i am a bit confused. I stay in kolkata. Can u please suggest.
Vishal
Still you are looking at term insurance from the view of making some money incase of death , thats the reason you are talking about “maximum term” .. Take term insurance to protect your financial dependents for the unfortunate event and because they will be affected financially , its important for you to have a term plan for next 20-25 yrs because thats the time you will earn . At retirement if you die mostly the effect wont be much financially ? Thats the reason you need to take term plan only till retirment age not more . Why do you want to take it for your parents , who is financially dependent on them ?
Manish
Yes its a good point. I should rather be investing somewhere which gives good return. Can u pls suggest. Thanks.
Vishal
Invest in Mutual funds
Manish
Manish
I have started sip in idfc premier equity fund & hdfc equity fund 2 months ago of rs.2500 each.
Vishal
Good to hear that
Hi All, after exploring this site for information on Insurance and investment, I have finally decided to take a Pure Term Plan. I have taken Term insurance from LIC for Rs.25 Lac and Rs.50 Lac from ICICI iProtect(online).Here is how my experience, which can be useful for fellow readers.
1) LIC Amulya Jeevan. I requested an LIC agent to come down and he explained many Ulips, Sarals and Magic Plans. I told him I will go with a Term Policy for the time being. I filled application on 8th Aug for Rs.25 Lac SA.After a week, the medical tests are been done, expecting the Policy this week.
2)On the same day, 8th Aug, I filled application for ICICI- iProtect online with the help of Policy Bazar guy.He filled the information which I provided over the Phone and I had a look , corrected some spelling mistakes, and he wanted me complete it fast as we may loose connection.So paid the premium (rs.7500 + tax).
Later I realized thru’ the proposal application form,the guy ignored my existing policies information (Jeeven mitra & Jeevan Sri). I had to put a mail to customer care of ICICI, to consider them as well.I had to send a Letter to the concerned manager.They acknowledged it.I submitted the relevant documents for processing the policy in the same week.As I found no update from them in the 2nd week (no welcome call or Medical test update), I called up their customer care guy, he said the application is in Proposal state and no documents are received.I argued with him that all documents are sent to the email mentioned and received acknowledgement for the same.Seems there is a disconnect btwn the “Customer Care Over Phone” and the “Email Care”.
I dropped an Email to them, and finally the Medical test was done(at home only) on 18th Aug (10 days after filing appln).
Finally I received the Policy Certificate through email on 26th Aug.The hard copy I received today (28th Aug).
As a final note, I don’t see much of problem with ICICI, it took 18 to 20 days, which can be permissible as LIC guy is yet to deliver the Policy which is supposed to be best in the market.
The Step by Step Approach mentioned by Mr. Jha (cmnt # 777) above can be followed, we can expect an acceptable experience, though there are some odd exp’ as we see in some comments, which can make us think otherwise.
May be a little patience will take us through (offline and online, both can have good and bad experiences).
Kiran
Good to hear about your experience. Congrats to you for taking some cover for your family . I am sure if one follow the procedure mentioned by #777.. one might be having good experience .
Manish
24/8/11
I live in Kolhapur (Maharashtra). When I tried to pay the premium online, I could not complete my address because the name of Kolhapur city is not mentioned in the list of cities. If I wand to take an insurance of 20 lakh for a term of 20 years, what option do I have to pay the premium? Is the scheme limited to only few cities in India?
If in future (say after 5 Years) ICICI decides to withdraw the scheme, will the customer who has agreed to continue the scheme for 20 years be given any compensation?
Finally, what is the rate of claim settlement in this scheme if I-protect?
Shridhar Vaidya
Shirdhar
If Kolhapur is not in the list, then you might not be able to buy it online , but still you might get it through an agnet . contact ICICI Agent . ICICI cant withdraw the scheme like that , if it does , then there will be enough guidelines for oyu , dont worry on that .
you will not be able to know the claim settelemtn of a specific policy like that , you can get total of ICICI , refer to IRDA Annual report
Manish
I wish to take i protect plan 2 for a period of 25 years. What is the guarantee that icici will not change the terms and conditions, especially the amount of annual premium after a few years. Is there any written contract that the customer will be covered for next 25 years without any change in the premium amount and other terms and conditions ?
If for any reason, ICICI decides to wind up the scheme, is there any compensation clause in the contract?
Please advise.
Shridharth
The premims will not change , because the future uncertianities and every is factored in already in the premim . so dont worry on that .
Regarding the wind up part , I am not very clear .
Manish
Dear deshmukh,
I’ll suggest you to buy two policies of 50K and suggest to go for three or 4 policies and diversify it into LIC, Kotak, Met life and i-protect. Do not go for two at one place/ company.
If any one is settling one can force others to settle the claim if condition of death satisfy all the terms & condition for all the companies. Note that you can’t claim more than you HLV in any case (combined). calculate your HLV and go for little less than that.
Best wishes,
Suman
Dear Manish,
I am 33 Yrs old. I am looking for term insurance of 1 cr. with lots of views & comments, I got confused in deciding to go with LIC purely because of their high claim settlement ratio although premium is on higher side or should I go with private sector companies because the premium is low although settlement ratio is low.
Also guide me for factors to be considers before deciding on policy, such as Accidental,Permanent Disability,Critical Illness etc..
Also tell me whether I should go for 2 different policies of 50 Lacks or only one policy of 1 cr.
Thanks & Regards
Sarang Deshmukh
Even I’m victim of ICICI iProtect – The product is named ‘iProtect’ i.e. I’ve to protect and not the ICICI 🙂 So you got the message. After paying my premium online and submitting all the documents online; ICICI was pretty quick in getting the medicals done. Once the medicals were done, it was as if they have vanished. After repeatedly asking for my medical reports almost after 20 days, I could get the test results and all were perfectly normal. One fine day I receive a call from Mumbai office requesting me to submit all of my documents as they haven’t received any!! Pretty much interest, on the same day when I gave a call to customer care to confirm if they have my documents they confirmed that the policy is in the proposal stage and policy will is issued soon. Another surprise, more than a week passed and total silence from ICICI end – on following up over phone and web, I was informed to pay an additional Rs.55K/yr (Rupees Fifty Thousand Only!! per year) towards the premium because of hypertension. I’d declared that I’m hypertensive and also gave details on the medication etc and my pressure is pretty much under control even then they asked me to cough up additional Rs.55K/yr on top of Rs.9.5K/year for a Rs.50L policy. Almost a month or more is over since I’ve applied for this thinking that this would be the fasted way to get a policy and the reputation of ICICI among all financial daily’s. It is pretty much evident that they cleary lack co-ordination, customer satisfaction, QoS etc. I’m not sure that after getting this product, what is the surety that they would fullfill a claim smoothly (if any) or do they have any other product to protect iProtect!!!! All the best before opting for this “wonderful” prodcut.
Guys,
I applied for iProtect1 on 28th July 2011, Medical done at my home on 2nd August, medical report reflected on 7th August and the policy issued on 9th August. Hassle free and I can say every thing got done in time. Excellent service!
Before going for this plan I read the online reviews for iProtect and the reviews were very discouraging in terms of service. But I still went ahead and applied for iProtect and ICICI Prudential service proved me right. I don’t know why people are writing such a bad review. I recommend iProtect with the following suggestion.
1. Go for iProtect option 1. If you are opting for iProtect Option 2 then I will advice better go for iProtect Option 1 and take accidental insurance from New India ) or similar policy.
2. Keep the scanned copy of following document ready before you apply:
a. Address Proof
b. Age Proof
c. ID Proof
d. Income Proof
3. Apply online, fill the correct detail and be honest in filling the form.
4. Pay online through credit card/debit card/net banking. Prefer your credit card so that you don’t have to pay from your pocket in advance for the policy 🙂
5. Send the scanned copy of document to buyonline@iciciprulife.com
6. Complete your medical as soon as possible. Doctor come to home for checkup so that’s good you don’t have to go out.
7. In case of any query write to: lifeline@iciciprulife.com or call on toll free no. 1800222020
** I don’t agree with the logic of split of the policy to multiple insurance company to split the risk. That increased the total premium amount. I suggest to fill the form with utter care and give all correct detail in terms of your personal/family detail, personal/family health detail and if you possess any insurance prior to buying the policy. Do go for medical test to rule out any medical related issues later. What ever the company is they need to adhere the IRDA guidelines so they just can’t reject the claim. Of course the private company will have stringent scrutiny of your application and claim but that’s should be problem for the person who is genuine and put the correct information.
All the best!
Regards,
Pravesh
Pravesh
Good to hear a good experience from your side .. .Keep updating us like that 🙂
Manish
Sir,
You are lucky ,I can only say that because you have not gone under trauma of ICICI services.It is worst class in this world.There is no connection between local branch,local pathology lab,customer care no.,customer care no. of their Medical service,e.mail services etc.,whatever you do they have only one answer’will revert in next 7 days’ which never comes.
I am saying so with my experience of applying I-protect 2 times since Feb’2011 to July’2011, thoroughly calling customer care,sending all documents via emails+submitting same at local ICICI branch,clearing all medical tests and getting letter of consent of taking policy.
Only I have not sign the document that now I don’t have trust on ICICI that whether they sattle the claim or not,if they are not updating our data on their server.
Thanks
Hi people thank u all for ur thoughts & opinions can u also throw sme light on Metlife and Aviva term insurance policies. am planing to take a term insurance for 1 crore (am 27).
i have deceide to split it into 50L public co & 50L pvt company, basically offloading risk
If u can help me pick one pvt & one public … wuld appreciate
Rocky
You can take Aviva’s i-life and LIC
Manish
after 30 years my ambition is to get 1 crore where should i invest my money.
Nita
you can invest in Mutual funds
Manish
Manish
Thanks a lot for your valuable article. After so much of research and hesitation on term policies, I finally opted for ICICI Iprotect-II online policy just because of better settlemet ratio and low premium. I applied on 26/06/11 for 50L and uploaded all the documents asked by them. On 28/06/11, I got a mail for medicals. On 29/06/11 I took doctors appointment and finished medical on 30/06/11.
On 02/07/11, medical reports are updated in their site and on 07/07/11 the policy got issued. On 11/07/11 they dispatched the policy and on 13/07/11 I received the policy documents. Almost all went nicely as i followed-up the satus on every alternative day. I recommend the ICICI term policy.
Further, please write an article on children policies.
and only few times applied
Eswar
Good to know that you got the policy without any issues 🙂 . I will write about children policies soon
Manish
Hi Manish,
I am thinking of buying a term insurance and in thatt respect I had a discussion with a representative from ICICI. He told me that if I split the policy into 50L each between two insurance providers, I would get a maximum of 50L rather 1Cr even though I am paying more than double the premium…
So even though I am hedging the risk by spreading my insurance cover, isnt it too much of a price to pay? Would you provide some info on this?
Lavneet
What ICICI representative said is wrong. You will get all Sum assured under all your policies. So in your case you will get 1Cr not 50L.
You will get money from all insurance companies , the agent does not know what he is talking about
Manish
I have seen many people opting for disease, accidental death and disability riders along with term insurance. I do not know about critical disease riders but for accidental death and disability, stand alone policies from PSU companies like New India etc. are better.
I have a personal accident policy from New India of Rs. 50 lakh, which also covers Rs. 5 lakh for my wife and Rs. 25 thousand for small children. The premium is less than Rs. 4 thousand per year.
The maximum sum depends on your annual income (income tax return reqd.)
The premium depends on your risk category. There are some tables and risk groups which, frankly, I did not understand.
Manish, can you get some general insurance expert to review policies of PSU general insurance companies like New India, National etc.? They have a few good policies which are rarely discussed.
Sachin
You mean the pure accidental insurance review from PSU companies or full health insurance companies ?
Manish
I mean pure accident insurance policy from PSU companies like New India. The name of the policy is personal accident insurance policy. It covers death and disability due to accidents.
Sachin
Sachin
Planning to write on this soon
Manish
Hi Manish,
Sending a link to the article of accidental insurance.
http://www.tflguide.com/2011/08/accidental-insurance-policy.html
Can we have your comments on the article?
Sachin
dear all
it was great to go through suha gr8 and informative website. we are planning to buy a term plan from ICICI for 1crore but now i think we sould split it 2 term plans as permanent disability is a major factor which would effect a family bcoz wen there is only one earning member in family and some kind of health or accident causes perm disability it wold effect family with no income. wanted to clarify is perm disability covered under health insurances or not??
Nidhi
Permanent disability is not directly covered, you need to take it as a rider in health insureance or Life insurance plans .
Manish
Dear Mr. Manish..
I am marine engineer my nature of job is as 3 months ON/ 3 Months OFF. so in a year I am about 185 days out of india.
I opted for icici i term and they said that as per IRDA rules this policy is not for NRI’s. But in my case I am NRI for only Tax purpose and not NRI as who stay ut of india.
Pl clerify the same.
Jugal
I dont think so , you dont come into the category of resident if you are not resding for more than 182 days . Talk to Kotak and other players as well .. You can get the policies from them I suppose .
Manish
Hello Manisj,
If i am taking a term insurance policy now ….. and after opting for another term insurance, should i inform the prior insurance company about the newly bought insuarance or should i inform the new company about my past insurer?
Sunny
You dont have to inform the old companies , just inform the new companies about the older one’s
Manish
Manish,
In our office every individual is covered with an insurance of around 25-50 lakhs in case of any unfortunate event. So does in this case suppose I opt for say an ICICI IProtect term insurance separately, do I need to mention the coverage from company too to them? If I dont need to update this then in case of any unfortunate event, will I get coverage from my working company & also the ICICI IProtect?
Chaitanya
Yes you should mention about your existing cover with the employer !
Manish
Manish,
You have done fantastic work by sprading the knowledge and first hand exp of policy holders.
Also thanks to people who have contributed with their personal views and exp. Thanks for your time.
I am looking for buying term insurance plan of 50 lakh for me and around 35 lakh for my wife but thanks to this blog that stopped me approcahing icici iprotect.
Do you have similar blog for kotak / HDFC or LIC? If so, can you please post it so that i can take proper decesion.
Also would like to know whether i should split the policy or should go for single co. to save the premium?
Many thanks in advance.
Keep up the good work..
Regards,
Tejas
Tejas
the same experiences are with ICICI , Kotak and AR , but its more for ICICI and ITerm , with kotak is better than these ., But I would personally say that we can expect these delays , but not the bad cusotomer service
there are many more plans now online from Aviva and metlife too : see this : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2011/06/online-term-insurance-india.html read comments !
Manish
Manish,
Thanks a lot.
Will read it.
Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Tejas
Hello Manish,
Can you throw some light on HDFC Std. life’s term insurance plan?
I haven’t came acorss about its discussion and experience on any of the links on yoru blog.
Appreciate if you can do so.
Thanks & Regards,
Tejas
Tejas
You should ask specific question about that term plan ? Most of the term plans are same ,except premiums
Manish
Hi,
I have two questions.
1 Could you please share list of reasons (history) for claim rejections for ICICI I protect.
2 Why insurance company needs information for other life insurance plan taken by customer with same company or with other — why this data is important for them.
Abhijeet
1,. I cant list each of those , but mainly its some wrong info provided at the time of taking the policy which important for deciding the premium .
2. Its a important information , because insurance is only for covering your life upto a certain point (being reasonable) and not taking it for profits incase of death . Hence a company should know about how much you are already insured for .
for example ,a person whose family should need around 1 crore max as secutiry cant take 80lacs insurnace from each of 30 differnet insurers because then on its death his family will make a lot of month . Its against the rule of Insurance .
Manish
Thank you Manish
I had a harrowing experience with ICICI IProtect Term Insurance. I paid the premium online, sent all the documents by mail, and got all the medicals done. After this the nightmare started and the following
steps happened in loop for 2 months around 4 times:
1. 2 weeks went by and nothing happened.
2. On calling customer care again I was again told that they have registered the complaint and someone will contact me.
3. Again I was sent a mail asking for some documents which I had already sent.
4. Then I resent the documents.
5. Go back to Step 1.
After going through all this for 2 months, I sent them a mail saying that if you do not want to issue the policy, please return my money. To my shock the same day I got a sms saying that your withdrawal request has been taken and the money will be returned. Although I had clearly said that please return my money if you do not want to issue policy, I was told that I have requested for withdrawal on calling the customer care. Now I am waiting for the money to be returned.
This is a big scheme by ICICI to get premium money without paying any kind of interest. They never have any intention of issuing the policy, and just wait on you to ask for a refund after getting tired waiting.
Amit
that was really a bad experience and shows the inefficient customer care of ICICI Prudential . I hope you should get a proper clarification from ICICI on this and if not , demand some penalty for the time waster and mental trauma you went through from the insurance ombudsman .
Manish
Hello Manish,
Many thanks for the brilliant website that you’ve created and for the wonderful community that you’ve nurtured here at Jago Investor. I am delighted by the detailed review of the iProtect term plan.
I bought the iProtect plan and was satisfied with the customer care response and support.I received the policy document in three weeks.
Mr Sharma this seems to be a good product.. just wanna confirm if this product covers all form s of death including teerroirust attack.. i like the plan cause its for 35 years and its better than iprotect or iterm..please advice
Respected Maam,
Yes, DEATH due to any reason be it Terrorist attack or natural disaster is covered under this plan..And not only this plan, EVEYR TERM PLAN across the industry..Please go ahead with this offering without any hesitation..
Dhawal Sharma
URJA WEALTH CREATORS
Dear Manish,
Here is the product to beat all online term plans..the most cost effective, light on pocket premium TERM PLAN with all the features by the namem I-LIFE from AVIVA..Also those who are convinced to take such plans online can try this, much cheaper than ICICIC PRUDENTIAL or any other online product as of dadte
Thanks Tarun and Madan for the response. I am still confused about which plan i sould go for. i mean icici seems to be a good move but for aegon the agetnts dont matter as i have been adviced by their advisor that i have to fill all the details. also can itbe confirmed that terrorist attcks are covered cause i dont want that god forbid my claim should be declined cause of some exclusion that icici ,ay have. the icici call center have given me information that for accidental rider if i meet with an accided and i am dissabled i will get the accidental rider amount. please confirm if thats right. so i am little confused with refernce to the accuracy of information.
After reading many reviews from from net, i decided to take ICICI iProtect. As I am 25 now I took 50L sum assured for 30 years of Rs 5050/- including Tax Rs 5575/-.
Madan
9892558621
After reading many from from net, i decided to take ICICI iProtect. As I am 25 now I took 50L sum assured for 30 years of Rs 5050/- including Tax Rs 5575/-.
Madan
9892558621
Please read this article:
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance’s iProtect: Risk of Buying Online Insurance
http://www.mohanbn.com/risk-of-buying-online-insurance/
Hi i wanted to apply for and term policy and i checked details for iprotect , ilife and iterm policies available also with kotak. the ad part is that icici people have adviced that they cover terrorist attack. wjhen i aksed them where is it mentioned on brochure they said its not there but we do cover. i asked the rep to send an email confirming the same however she declined it. i later got a call from policy bazaar wgho adviced abt aegon and the rep from aegon send me a mail confirming we cover the attack. now that was something i liked. i am considering going for iterm policy from aegonconsidering they are honest. please advice if thats the right option
Mansha,
Its really sad that ICICI cannot reply by email regarding the confirmation. I have recently bought the policy I will send them email and check if they do cover it. I think Aegeon has very low claim settlement ratio I have heard bad things about agents as well. You might want to take a look at Kotak as Manish might have mentioned in replies to other people’s queries.
Cheers
Tarun
We refer to your email dated 23rd May, 2011.
Ok I got following response pretty quickly. I guess due to the fact that I already have policy. Hope this helps. Note that I had taken accidental rider perhaps its included in it.
“We hereby inform you that there is no special clauses for the terrorist attack claims, However the I protect policy covers all the Death Benefits all around the globe. Death occurred through Natural disaster, Accidental death with all types of transportation means with in India and outside India are covered, Deaths due to terrorist attack also comes under it and it also covers Death due to sucide but after completion of 1 policy year.”
Dear All
I would like to re-iterate, that there is no harm in buying the policy from a private player(big or small). The only important point is that you should disclose all the details (your history about hospitalization, any existing illness, health issue, your family history, your other Insurance policies, your hobbies) very clearly in the proposal form. As Manish said we are giving the proposal to the Insurance company and not our agent. So we need to fill the details. No point getting lured when the agent says “Sir you don’t worry I would fill the details”.
For my part, I filled the proposal form but still missed out a few things(not intentionally though). But still later I got it confirmed from the sources that they won’t impact my claim settlement (if any 🙁 ) . Just to share….
There was a qustion in the proposal form which asked whether you have been ever hospitalized. I replied “No”. Geniuenly speaking I have never been hospitalized. But since we all evade tax and give false medical bills (Rs 15000/- every year) along with hospitalization, I just had that worry in my mind that would the company reject the claim for this misinformation.
I checked with some sources from the company and they said that they would at max check if you have been ever on a long medical leave and would not check your actual medical bills etc. that you submitted for tax evasion. And the world knows “We submit fake bills to evade tax”. Also importantly the medical bills (with hospitalization) were always with viral flu etc. and this does not have an impact on your life expectancy and hence your claim settlement does not have a problem. Last point, the insurance companies anyways always does an extensive medical checkup before they issue you the policy
Anand
Its available on the IRDA site in Annual Reports. Go to Individual Death Claims and you would find it
I already have a term policy from LIC for 25 Lakhs. Is there any way I can increase my cover or should I go ahead and buy a new policy?
My LIC agent says that I cant increase my cover and need to get a new term policy.
What do you suggest??
Rohan
yes, Agent is correct , you will have to take the new policy now
Manish
Thanks Manish.
But if I need a cover for 50 or 75 Lakhs then what should I do?
Should I close the first 25 Lakhs policy and open a new policy of 50 or 75 Lakhs from the same insurer?
No , just take a new policy for the difference amount , so take a 50 lacs more policy , so you will have 25 lacs and 50 lacs policy , total 75
Manish
Manish,
I have bought a iTerm from ICICI and it was smooth process. People here have been talkin about declining the claim. I actually went to the IRDA site and saw that ICICI Pru has settled more than 90% of the claims raised. This is remarkable. I think what they would (and ideally so) would reject are early claims and cases were the proposer has actually given wrong information(section 45). I don’t think there is any other reason for the rejection if you have furnished all the details to them
More than 90% ??
Now that’s news to me…
Could you please share that link, please?
–Anand
Hello Anand,
Please check this report, especially PAGE 2 where its shown the COMPANIES WITH LEAST REJECTED CLAIMS..Kotak is right up there as also HDFC and i totally agree with Mr PARAG about more than 90% claim settlement ratio for ICICI PRUDENTIAL..
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/analysis/how-to-ensure-your-insurance-claim-is-not-rejected/articleshow/8188427.cms?curpg=2
Parag
Yes , your understanding is totally correct 🙂
Hi Manish
I am also planning to buy term plan and for this also in an online manner. Currently there are five players providing online plans:-
1.ICICI
2.Metlife
3.Aegon Religare
4.Aviva(New Entrant)
5.Kotak
Now I am going to select from Kotak or Metlife.I have not selected ICICI because of its customer service, Aegon because of its high rejection ratio (thanks to above mentioned ET article) and Aviva because it is not available in my city.
What are your views on them?
What is the customer service in Kotak e preferred plan?
Neelesh
Hi Manish,
A very informative article in ET..
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/analysis/how-to-ensure-your-insurance-claim-is-not-rejected/articleshow/8188427.cms?curpg=1
Please see page 2 of the article where KOTAK is placed in top 5 position for CLAIM SETTLEMENT RATIO, next only to LIC..
Dhawal
thanks for the post , will look at it
Hi Manish,
first of all i am amazed to see how much care you have taken to reply to all and sundry. thanks because it has kept the debate alive, let me share you with my experience with LIC and ICICI, I have taken money back policy from LIC SA=10L, and 2 policies with ICICI prudential namely LIFE time super pension and Life stage pension, just because icici agent is my close relative and on his insistence. I know all these policies are financial misadventures after coming to know about term insurance. After depositing 10k for three years, my super pension scheme says my fund value is only rs. 25000. The other policy after depositing 15000 p.a. says my fund value is 46000 around. What should i do please advise me. Should i stop all these and go for term inusrance+PPF, as i have learnt that will give me better return. I am Central govt. employee, and my pension is secured,,, almost (I m in New Pension Scheme, which is yet to be passed by parliament and linked to Market equities and debt, so future is uncertain). With LIC one good thing is that their agent take care of all your payment, I got my moneyback cheque almost 2 months before it was due without any hassle. But the same cannot be said about ICICI. Please advise me suitably whether to go for i protect or not because after reading all articles, there are strong argument both for and against ICICI.
@ abhishek
please do not follow anybody’s advice blindly……everyone have biases….what i have learned…donot complicate life…..keep it simple stupid (KISS)….use these free informations and make your own judgement….your every discision should release you from anxiety and load….cheers….
ujjwal
Abhishek
All the poilicies which you have might be having high charges intially becuase of which despite average performance in last 3 yrs , the actual return for you might be lesser or at loss …
For term insurance , you can go through ICICI iProtect or Kotak or a new one IndiaFirst Insure . Just make sure you fill the data correctly , based on the expeirence of reders , i can say now its luck if the processing etc would be faster or slower .
Manish
I have applied for pure protect classic 40 days ago.Medical test done.All accepted. Now application tracker says everything done except D-IUW requirement not met.. What is that? My local ICICI pru manager also doesnt know what it is?
pl reply
R.Sahnmugasundaram
Shanmugasundram
I really have no idea what that means , didnt Customer care help ? Tell them that its 1 month already and now you are moving to insurance ombudsman (cc insurance ombudsman and IRDA email) , it should help a bit !
Manish
Try this: https://www.iciciprulife.com/ipru/GrievanceRedressal.jsp
I applied recently and got a policy issued. This requirement still shows as pending but I have a policy number now and it is in force.
With their contact center, complaints at the junior level does not help. It is best to ask to speak to the floor manager or their next level supervisor.
The experience i am giving here is not only mine, but few others as well.
Once we start any product from ICICI these are the things happened and will happen, I AM SURE…
1. During Payment or intial subscrption they act as if they are only made to serve you
2. You pay the amount they are only available on Phone
3. You will not receive the documents in time, even if you receive, you have mistakes (i should say blunders) in the hard copy (The most important document)
4. You call the customer care for the correction, they say its their mistake and are going to send a person to corret them
5. Person comes to your door step again and take the docuements for correction
6. You will never ever get to hear from that person again in your lifetime
7. You call customer care they ask yuor agents Janma Kundli as well as if we have hired him
8. Go rounds to their office and frustrated decide to quit the policy at any cost…
I knew there are good experiences as well but they are less than 40% and 60% its really bad experience with ICICI.
I personally adivce everyone to keep away from ICICI (What ever it might be).
Manish i will greateful if this message can be passed across to authorities (I am not sure if i can ask you this, but still taking a chance).
I am planning to go with Kotak and LIC for my 60 Lacs (splitting between these two)
Hi,
Just for info , include Aviva also in your list. I am an NRI and get the policy in hand withing a Month providing documents they have requested.
Also they are the cheapest in Return of Premium Plans. Beneficial also if you are non smoker..
I am impressed with their services and There is no chance of mistakes in form as i myself filled the form and then submit to them.
for 30 Lac it costs me 13000 with Return of Premium. ( good option for split one)
Thanks
Jignesh
thanks for your information 🙂
Sunil
I agree with you . there are the things happening and is accepted by many other readers who dealt with ICICI .
Manish
I was almost about to buy this insurance(seeing the online feature as I live in US) but googled for some reviews.
All I see is Horrible horrible reviews in application handling itself. God knows how they handle claims if one has to go through them
Please read comments in below site before making up your mind
http://www.perfinindia.com/2010/08/icici-prudential-iprotect-term-insurance-review/
Praveen
Even if you are in US, You will have to be in India to get the policy as you will be required for medical checkup , giving address proof and income proof in India . Also we have lots of comments in this articles comment section as well .
Manish
Hi Manish,
I bought a i-Protect II policy from ICICI for SA 1cr+50L accidental rider on14th Apr. They have been very prompt until now, contrary to what other people have to say in the forum. In 2002, i was diagnosed with a slipped disc which I’ve declared in the application form. However, due to an over sight, I’ve marked ‘no’ in reply to the question, if I have undergone any x-ray or scan in the last ten years. I realised this & immediately mailed them about the discrepancy & rectify the error. Now I keep getting varied replies to my concern. One exec told me that I may need to submit reports if the underwrites demands for it. The other told me to email scanned copies of the report to their email id. Now I fear, that they might use it as an excuse to repudiate my claim. What should I do?
Al
I assume you have not got you policy yet in hand , Before you get it , make sure that the extra information is taken into consideration and the policy is issued after that . There might be some loading in premium also if the matter affects the risk of your dying other than normal circumstance .
Manish
Thanks for your prompt reply Manish. Spoke to their exec today & told him that I don’t have any record of MRI as it was diagnosed in 2002. The exec said that I’d have to send them a scanned copy of a declaration letter about my MRI & it would be considered. So far so good. However, i’ve heard so many negative reviews about pvt. insurance companies, that now I’m in two minds. Is it worth paying extra premium to LIC & have piece of mind? Are private insurers really rogue companies?
Thanks
AL
If you provide all the right information , there should be no issues with the claim , all the negative things come from the people who share experience about those cases which were bound to be rejected as they had hidden the right information or made mistake in providing hte info
Manish
Recently I was in the market for a Term insurance and each and every agent is talking about claim rate and how better their company compared to others. Every one is carrying their “own” document to prove their statement.
I agree with Manish below. If you are not hiding anything and your medical is through them no need to worry about.
Dominic
thanks
Hi,
Pl. read the story of Mr.Shashank before buying any policy from ICICI PRU
http://www.bimadeals.com/insurance/icici-prudential/icici-pru-iprotect/
Hello all,
I have one question after reading the article below:
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/comment_taking-a-large-term-cover-be-extra-careful_1529885
I have recently taken ICICI I Protect Option-2 for a term of 30 years for Sum assured of 50 Lac + Accidental death benefit rider of 50 Lac.
I have mentioend that I didnt have fasting blood sugar while filling the proposal form as I nerver was diagnosed with fasting blood sugar in the past.
but surprisingly, In Medical Tests conducted on behalf of ICICI Prudential, My fasting blood sugar is little high and I was charged around 5500 INR extra premium,.
My question for you is: As I have no clue about fasting blood sugar initially and it was known that I had fasting blood sugar in the medical tests, will it be a cause for insurer at the time of Claim( in eventuality)
Thanks for your patience and answering this question..
one more question: what if I have no fasting blood sugar if i go for medical tests? Can I ask my insurer for re-exam/ re-calculate premium for coming years?
thanks
Sridhar
Sridhar
What ever comes in the medical tests is final and even if you have ticked as “No” on something , it will considered if it comes on medical test, so company can not create any issue later , becausee they are charging extra premium anyways .
Sridhar
Thanks for your reply.
could you please answer my 2nd question ( pasted below): thanks in advance.
one more question: what if I have no fasting blood sugar if i go for medical tests Now? Can I ask my insurer for re-exam/ re-calculate premium for coming years?
Sridhar
I dont think they will entertain this, the one does earliar should be final from there side, ask them for the reports once you get the policy
Hi, Thanks for the very useful information!
I have heard that insurance companies generally a re not very keen on handing out money covered under the accidental death (or similar) riders and they find excuses not to pay up. Is this true? Even if it is partially true, is it worth paying th extra premium?
Rahul
Go through the comments , its already discussed
Manish
I want to take a term plan. Please let me know what are the exclusions in I Protect? I Term covers death by terror attacks as well. Does I Protect too covers it or excludes it?
Death in terror attack is unfortunate and causes sudden loss of income, if that is not covered, my dependents will have face financial crunch in case something were to happen to me.
Tarun
Terror attack is generally not covered .You will have to contact the customer care to know if its covered or not
Manish
hi
I applied for online aegon-religare term insurance plan for my husband. But after the medical test they jacked up the insurance premium. the reason they gave was COTININE LVL beyond acceptable range…whereas my husband is a non-smoker. they refused to accept that their reports could have an error, claiming that they make no mistakes…they gave back our money after we told them that we would not sign on any such claims until we have a proper proof of such reports..i wanted to know whether a medical test done by us is accepted by the insurance company as a check back.
Mahimapawar
Did your husband follow all the instructions which medical team gave him like having fast etc .. becasue it has been noted that if your husband has walked long to the medical check up or ate something in morning which was not supposed to be taken , then there can be certain temporary things like these , which are actually not there .. .check that
No he followed the fasting schedule and did not consume anything in the morning and the medical guy from the company had come home to take the blood & urine sample in the morning.
Mahima
hmm.. but then the company will not give you the reports . Can you do an independent checkup for your own and see if thats there .
Manish
Lot of thongs said about this plan. But I dont have good experience with ICICI prudential they are irresponsible they dont reply they dont help their customers. I visited their office for some work related to my plan I have to wait for 1 hour. if they dont have man power why they are running a company.
For pure life insurance Nothing else than LIC is accepted. These private companies just wanted to sell their product once it is sold they dont care.
HdfC services are good not anyone else
Ravindra
Thanks for sharing your experience with us . Its sad to know that you didnt had a good experience with ICICI , there are many like you and some have also experienced good with ICICI .
Manish
Manish,
I intend to buy term plan for 1 cr (15 years) online. I am 38 years old and have a familiy of 4. My friend suggested to buy 30 lakhs each from three different companies. Need your views.
Nilesh.
Nilesh
Dont take 3 plans , you can take upto 2 plans only. And check how much insurance is enough for you by doing proper insurance planning , just dont go for random values
Manish
Sir Ji,
Nice one, I am planning to buy term plan for 50L but zeroed on Kotak e – Preferred, can you help me out to compare both the plans. I have just checked the premium in Kotak is less & it also has riders. Need your valuable help.
Rgds…Uma
Kotak is a good one , you can go for it
I am planning to take term insurance for Rs. 50.00 L from Kotak. But the agent I know is registered with Kotak from different city where I live. He lives in my city only and assuring that all medicals shall be done in my city only. Will it be OK to take policy through him or I should find the agent from my city. Kindly advise. What will happen to the service part?
Chaitanya
Which city are you from ? You can prefferably take the policy from the guy in same town , but once you complete taking it , very less is left in servicing part anyways
Manish
I live in Bhilai.
Hi Manish,
I have few doubts and i tried to clarify through the toll free number.
but that was not working. can you please clarify.
What is the difference between option I and II?
Does the I option covers for death by accident?
Who needs medical test?
Can a beneficiary be a minor?
Is it compulsory to declare existing policies?
is there any case of death which is not covered other than suicide?
Finally what are the documents that i need to produce while taking the policy?
Ananth
– Option 2 gives more money in case of death by accident , Option 1 gives normal money equal to sum assured only .
– Yes , option 1 gives money on accident
– Yes , beneficiary can be minor
– Its compulsory to declare existing policies, obviously
– Suicide is not covered just in 1st year , after that even that is covered . Death by War is not included
– That would be basic documents .
Hi, I had applied for iProtect policy for myself and wife in mid Jan 2011.
The medicals were over in a week’s time and courier guy came and collected the documents. Then they said they did not receive the documents. So I sent a scanned copy of all the documents. My wife’s policy was issued immedidately(roughly in about a month’s time, which I think is fair).
Since I have an existing disease, they told me fill a questionnaire and send me all the previous medical reports. I just sent the scanned copies. After receiving it, they charged some extra premium. After paying it online, my policy was issued roughly about 2 months of application which I feel is reasonable considering the high SA and pre existing disease.
I had to follow up several times(by email/phone) regarding the issuance of my policy, but never visited the branch. You may have to actively followup since there is no agent involved.
Balaji
Thanks for your comment. Your personal case gives a good idea of the procedure !
Manish
Just wanted to point out, the time taken by PruICICI to issue the policy is not very high when compared with other players. Infact I have waited for almost 3-4 months in some cases for very less SA.
can u tell me about TATA MAHA GOLD POCLICY is it good for pension/child plan.
Deepak
You can look at this article which talks about that policy : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/forum/product-review/1069/
Manish
Manish,
I was wondering if it would be good for this article to have some collection of all such advises people have put at one place. In a form of list (Tips) 🙂
Also, not sure if everyone is seeing it but I hate when I try to click on comments link (after being subscribed) in my email. The corresponding link opens but shortly after screen blanks out and a note of ” Do you like to get subscription” opens up. It kind of screws up the link you are typing and the page becomes multi-framed with lots of advertisements. Its very annoying. While it is understood that advertising is must but i think this can be done in other better ways in flash etc.
As always thanks a lot for your efforts and informative articles.
Cheers
Hi,
An update, once you have the policy you can ask the insurer to send the medical reports to you. I have recived the medical report from ICICI.
You will have the copy of the same…
Thanks
Pankaj
thanks , thats a good update , a lot of people do not know this 🙂
Manish
Thanks for your excellent blog Manish! Really appreciate the effort.
I am 43 years old (going to be 44 in end-June) and am already covered for 50L with LIC policies. Want to take a term plan for another 1Cr to cover myself adequately. Two questions:
a) Should I go with ICICI iProtect / some other online plan with low tariff, or opt for offline plan like Aviva Lifeshield Platinum? Servicing of online plans does not inspire confidence after looking at various comments… but big trade-off with premium amount.
b) What tenure should I opt for – 20, 25 or 30 years? I should be out of any liabilities by the age of 60.
Of course, my LIC agent is pressing for LIC Anmol Jeevan but I am not buying his logic 🙂
Self Learner
1. You can go with Kotak or ICICI , just make sure you have all the things filled in the form in right manner . Should not be much issue at the end . Regarding your LIC cover , is it with term insurance or other kind of policies ,becuase you want to exploire that also , you can convert to term plan and have your premiums redirected to Balanced funds for wealth creation .
2. 20 yrs look good to me .
Manish
Thanks Manish for your quick response. Will explore both ICICI and Kotak.
Almost all of my existing LIC cover is term plans (except 5L of endowment) – total annual premium around 37K. Guess I should continue with these plans for ‘peace of mind’ over private insurers.
Looks good to me , just check with some LIC agent what will be the premium if you take a new term insurance policy now ? because 37k looks too high to me as premium unless you are 45-50 yrs old
Manish
Sad news is that only other COMPLETE INDIAN (SAMPURN BHARTIYA) insurance company(RELIANCE LIFE) other than LIC has also sold its 26% stake to foreign partner 🙂
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/insurance-news/nippon-life-buys-26-in-reliance-life/articleshow/7706631.cms
So now again, the field is left closed only to LIC for the readers of this thread who are looking for COMPLETE BHARTIYA SARKARI company for insurance 😉
I already mentioned above my bad experience after taking this policy. Just want to add here, as it did not not end up even after canceling the policy.
After canceling it on 31st Jan, I waited for seven working days for refund. After that, I called up several times but no satisfactory reply. I started writing e-mails daily. Then on 18th Jan, I received a reply that refund has been processed and will be in my account in two working days. Happy? Not really. After three-four days when I contacted again, they replied that it is already refunded to AXIS Bank account. WTF? I don’t have any AXIS bank account. I paid through my ICICI credit card, and obviously expected to get refund in that only.
After that it was just a nightmare dealing with ICICI Prudential. I called up them daily, I emailed them daily till 8th March. No benefit. Also, I wrote to their GRO team. Finally on 10th of March, I received the refund.
Earlier I thought that as i-protect policy was new, so they were finding it difficult to manage. Overall company is not bad. But this experience changed my opinion totally. Company is worse than the product (at least for me).
I am really happy that I cancelled the policy and did not believe on them for insurance. If 6K took this much time what about 60L? Thought, of my family members running after company daily, was scary. My bad experience has vindicated my decision!!
Prasoon
That was really bad than the worse ! . I am not sure why some of the people are having good experience , but overall most of the people have really bad exerience , yours is really on the top 🙂 .
Anyways . Now which company are you going for ?
Manish
Hi,
I applied for the iprotect and have received it with out hassles. It us pure online policy.
Few things which we need to understand
1. You don’t get policy immediately after paying the money.
2. Once you pay the moeny the process starts. They will send you the letter asking for the set of medical tests. They will give you the option in case of any doctor visits.
3. In case of pathological test they have fixed hospital. They will come to your home and collect the sample.
4. I was asked to go for the TMT test. They had given me choice of hospital near to my residence. My friend had also applied for the policy, he got the choice of hospital which was near to his residence.
5. Once the process is over you will get the policy.
Since its an online policy hence sometime you get frustrated because you are not talking to someone in person. But that the choice you make for getting this cheaper.
You can keep track of your application with icici pru application tracker. You can call the call center and get the status update.
I would suggest people to go for it if they like the policy.
Regards
Pankaj
Thanks for the info 🙂
My son is 22 years old,studying medicine.
He is an non-assesse.
He has no liabilities as of now, directly or indirectly.
He may opt for an education loan.
Shud I take an Term Insurance for him ?
If yes, at what age ? What will be the first choice, w.r. t. his age, premium,tenure,riders, settlement ratios, etc.
If no, Why do Insurance co.’s have dt. of inception as 18 yrs.
Thanks in advance
Nilesh
Who is dependent on your son ? If no one , then no need to take insurance .
You can take insurance for him at any point when someone is dependent on him . Criteria are mix of all the points you have put .
Manish
Dear Nilesh, For your given query, My take is a bit different. As rightly pointed out by Manish, having no dependent, your son does not require a life cover as of now. Also as he is not earning, Insurers may not offer Term cover at all as no financial loss is involved at present for his life.
In case of Education loan, I’ll ask you to avail the loan & pay it from your own sources, this ‘ll bring down your tax liability for the interest paid on the education loan. In all probability you are around 50Y age hence your Tax slab should be in higher zone i.e. 30.9% tax slab So you ‘ll save a neat amount of Tax from the education loan.
As you are taking education loan & paying it & at the same time you do have income source also, you should take Term plan for your life if not have already up to the extent of your financial liabilities.
Thanks
Ashal
Nilesh,
If your son is going to take the education loan then I would suggest take the policy equivalent to his education loan.
Otherwise no need to take the insurance policy for him. Like Manish, said if there are no dependent on him then there is no need for policy.
But if he is taking education loan than I would suggest that you opt for policy. ( I will differ with Ashal here. )
Regarding the insurance policy go for the pure term plan. You can opt for additional policy when he gets married or any depedent on him. Moreover since his age is low..he will get benefit of low premium.
I am not sure of this – ( Ashal is saying…. )
“Also as he is not earning, Insurers may not offer Term cover at all as no financial loss is involved at present for his life.”
Regards
Pankaj
Nilesh,
If your son is going to take the education loan then I would suggest take the policy equivalent to his education loan.
Otherwise no need to take the insurance policy for him. Like Manish, said if there are no dependent on him then there is no need for policy.
But if he is taking education loan than I would suggest that you opt for policy. ( I will differ with Ashal here. )
Regarding the insurance policy go for the pure term plan. You can opt for additional policy when he gets married or any depedent on him. Moreover since his age is low..he will get benefit of low premium.
I am not sure of this – ( Ashal is saying…. )
“Also as he is not earning, Insurers may not offer Term cover at all as no financial loss is involved at present for his life.”
Regards
Pankaj
Dear Pankaj, Please try to understand the logic of taking Education Loan by the father. this ‘ll help to cut down his own tax liability. As the loan ‘ll run by Father, he required a Term cover equal to Loan amount at least.
As far as applying a term cover for non earning member of the family by the person who is only a proposer in the policy, most of the time, Insurer ‘ll look it with suspicion & may turn down the application altogether.
Hope it ‘ll clear the doubts.
Thanks
Ashal
Dear Ashal,
I understand what you are trying to say. But I feel the tax part and insurance should be treated seperately.
Children is taking the loan for his medical study. So he has a good future ahead and will be capable of repaying the loan. He can claim tax benefit from his income.
Father might or might not be in a position to repay the loan in case of some thing happens to children. In most of the cases children are earning higher than the parents.
Since it is insurance I am talking of negatives – ( I pray that it doesn’t happen to anyone )
1. Father mets with untoward incident – & He is covered with the term plan.
Is it useful. I feel no becuase children is undergoing medical study and after employement he is still capable for repaying the loan.
2. Children mets with untoward incident. –
Father might or might not be in a position to repay the loan. It is based on the children’s potential the loan was taken.
Having a term plan for children helps because the loan will be paid up immeidately.
This applies only for the education loan. For houseloan etc… the case will be different.
Regards
Are there any other better Online Term Insurance Plan in Pipeline from companies other than ICICI,Aegon,kotak ?
Nisheeth
There are more right now , Metlie and future generalli also have online versions at the moment , Not sure about other companies , but they will come soon 🙂
Manish
Manish can u guide on MWP ACT
On 5th jan I paid my premium for ICICI Prudential i Protect Option 1 and visited the medical diagnostic centre as directed by the company for my medical test. After that I did not receive any communication from the company. No body asked me to submit my documents nor did I get any communication regarding my policy. After a 15 days when I contacted the nearest branch of ICICI Prudential I got to know that my policy has been postponed for 3 months for some medical reason and I need to apply freshly. When I asked about my premium they said they have already refunded my premium to my account.
Since then I have been waiting for my refund. Everyday either I need to write them or call their customer care for my refund.
All my attempts are futile and I am really repenting for my decision to go for i Protect. I seriously doubt whether they actually settle any claim or not. Even if they do, then I can’t imagine the extent of harassment the nominee must be facing while applying for settlement.
Now I am thinking to lodge a complain with IRDA to get my money back.
KB
Thanks for writing your experience . There have been numourous bad and good experiences from other customers 🙂 . I would suggest you write them about your case along with cc to IRDA and insurnace ombudsman emails id’s
Manish
Hi,
I need a particular information regarding the term insurance..
My query is I want to go for one term insurance policy…. During the filling of form it is required to give information about existing/pri-existing disease, I am a rheumatic heart disease patient but I have this problem in my child hood but now I have no other problem but I am taking the precautions for that as prescribed by the doctors.
So tell me what I have to write in that field.
lee ramesh
Lee
You should provide the info about this rheumatic thing in the form
Manish
Here are a few more experience with ICICI
http://www.perfinindia.com/2010/08/icici-prudential-iprotect-term-insurance-review/
VIjay
Thanks for giving more experiences 🙂
Manish
Hi, (originally I posted this in Ranjan Varma’s blog) reposting for the benefit of more readers.
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. Then more than 30 days 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 Cos.
After several follow-ups and escalations I got my cheque back and got it credited into my account. Even now, after the problem is resolved, I get mails and SMS from ICICI Pru that they will resolve my query in 7 working days!!! Can you believe it? They have no clue what’s going on in their company.
I am conviced that ICICI pru is run by a bunch of clueless people. Stay away from them. I have chosen these term insurance policies
— LIC Term
— Kotak eTerm
— SBI Life
— United india insuarance for accident death benefit
Someone asked a question in this forum on how to split the cover. Please split 50-50 between the Govt (LIC + SBI) and Private (Kotak). Take additional accident death benefit from United. All the policies were delivered to me in 3 weeks flat (end to end – starting from my contact, to filling in forms, to medical test, to issual of policies)
Swami
Thanks for ur detailed experience , i am sure they need to improve “a lot” .. 🙂
Manish
just a small piece from me..
SBI is not a GOVERNMENT COMPANY as LIC..Its just another joint venture with FOREIGN PLAYER..
SBI LIFE is 74:26 JV where SBI owns 74% and BNP PARIBAS owns 24%, just like every other private insurance company in India..
dEAR DHAWAL,
THE COMPANY WITH STAKE LESS THAN 25% HAS NOT MUCH RIGHTS AND CAN’T BE NEUSENCE CREATOR THE MAJORITY STAKE COMPANY HAS FULL RIGHTS. THEREFORE CAN BE CONSIDERED AS sbi ALONE. .
Yes Manish. ICICI needs to improve its customer service a lot more.. Hope they get it right. I can’t wait for Health Insurance portability to begin in July ’11. I will switch my ICICI lombard policy to Max Bupa or Apollo Munich or some such company.
You are doing a fabulous job of spreading financial awareness. I visit your blog on a regular basis for the past several months. Even signed up for Hyderabad meeting – if and when it happens.. Ofcourse, this was my first comment in your blog – the issue (ICICI iprotect) was very close to my heart and had to comment.
Swami
Great, we will take some time in having those meets in each city . but stay tuned and keep reading and spreading the knowledge you are getting .
Manish
Just to clarify. SBI Life Insurance is NOT government company.
hi
I took iProtect last week through a DM(direct-marketing) guy from ICICI. Now, I want to change the agent for the policy, as I think my personal agent would do a better job. Earlier the DM would call me, now I end up calling him.
Can you please tell me if it is possible, or else, it is better if I cancel this policy and reapply for it again using my agent. Thanks.
Ashok
Given the customer service ICICI has shown 🙂 . Its better to cancel and reapply
Manish
Thanks Manish. Eh, how do I cancel it. Can I go to their office with the application number and give it in writing to cancel the insurance request. Thanks.
I have recomended this product to couple of my friends but have told me that in future neve recomend any ICICI Product. They have repect for customers and no one bothers to give good customer service. While they appreciate the cost structure you can never get a policy or by the time your medical is fixed one would have died.
Hello Manish,
Thanx for my 2nd query. please tell me two more queries.
(1) if i am 46 having high BP problem since last 10 years. what will be my pemium for 25 years icici iprotect for 40 lacs. will i get online term insurance. how much extra, will i have to pay for my BP problem( under control with medicines).
(2). Which medical test are done for on line term insurance , for people of my age.
Vatan.
Vatan
You can check the premiums on the ICICI website .
I am not sure of the tests done, but you have to disclose your BP issue anyways which will load your premiums
Manish
Hi Manish.,
I am 46 years 2 months old, having high BP problem since last 10 years. can you please tell me best term insurance policy for 15 years term and the lowest premium amount for som god company like Religare, ICICI PRU-iprotect online.
Raju
You can look at LIC and kotak as options .
Hi Manish,
Thanks for your good work.
I want to take term policy for myself of 1 Crore ruppees. I am 36 years old. I want your valuable suggestions for this.
1) Is it better to take four 25 Lacs term policy from 4 different insurers?
2) If you can you tell us how all can be the reasons for claim refusals? As I can see all the insurers have some % age of claim declination.
3) Also one of the ICICI agent told me that if you hide any of the medical condition now and you survive for 2 years, then ICICI is bound to pay the claim amount after two years doesn’t matter you have declared your medical condition truley or falsely. Also they are bound to pay as they give the policy after doing a medical test. Could you please tell me if this information is true?
4) Could you please let me know which all insurers including LIC offers term insuranace as of now? I read somewhere in this blog you were supposed to write a article comparing different term plans.
Thanks,
Pankaj
Correction for Point No 2. Its is
2) If you can tell us what all can be the reasons for claim refusals? As I can see all the insurers have some % age of claim declination.
Pankaj
1) No .. its too much .. Take 50 lacs from 2 companies .
2) The reasons are just misleading information given in the form in the start
3) Its not true .. that 2 yrs clause is for minor things and very limited . It will not work for major illness .. dont think of misleading companies . you will not get anything at the end .
4) All companies offer term insurance : here is ther comparision https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2010/12/term-insurance-plans-comparisions-india.html
Hi Manish,
i also want to know, if a person acquires some heart problem or BP after taking Iprotect., what he should do. and what will happen to his policy and premium.
Vatan
Anything happening after taking the policy should not worry you . you dont have to do anything ,.
Manish
if i am 46 having high BP problem. what will be my pemium for 25 years icici iprotect for 40 lacs.
Vatan
While applying for an term policy there is a section where in you need to input data about other policy held by you.This data is a sure sign of how much risk is involved.
Now i do have a non confirmed IRDA rule that if one policy pays out the sum insured that will force the other companies to toe the line.Can any one confirm.
In that case i shall buy a LIC policy for a small assurec amount and i am 100% sure that they will pay out forcing other insurers to follow suit.
Comment/Confirmation?
I have heard a saying a long time ago which goes like this..
“MEN BELIEVES IN WHAT HE WANTS TO BELIEVE”
The above mentioned COMMENT is similar to this saying..Firstly, the guy himself is saying its a NON-CONFIRMED IRDA RULE (Means he has heard from somebody and that somebody has read it somewhere which was published somewhere)..So no authenticity to this thing..
..And how come Mr CHANDRA is 100% sure that LIC will settle the claim..Haven’t he checked in the IRDA annual report that claim settlement ratio of LIC is 95.6%..What if his claim is amongst thr remaining 4.4% unfortunate ones whose claims have been rejected by LIC. Will that mean his claim from other company will be rejected too??
No sir, it does not work that way. Every company has its own procedures/rules to follow to settle the claim, and they differ from company to company..There might be certain clause which are covered by one company and not by the other one (For eg: Death by Terrorist Attack. Lets suppose KOTAK is covering it but DLF PREMERICA is not)..And the policyholder dies in TERRORIST ATTACK. His claim will be settled by KOTAK, cause it is covered under the policy but will not be accepted by DLF PREMERICA as it was not covered in the policy..How will this statement justify that since claim is honoured by one company then it has to be made good by the other company as well??
Its just that if its a genuine case, all requirements are met with, and if all clauses of the policy are met, NOBODY on earth can deny the CLAIM..
Sir Ji, hope you have got IDEA 🙂
Dhawal
THanks , thats clearly explains 🙂 .
Manish
ckeck out metlife new term policy online looks good
Chandra
yea .. I saw that .. it looks good to me
Hi Manish,
Have you published any comparison of various term insurance products available? Any latest one?
Thanks
Siva
Siva yes
https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2010/12/term-insurance-plans-comparisions-india.html
mr.prasoon,
please let me know which sbi plan you opted… thanks
Plan name is SBI – Smart Shield. It provides options for three riders – Accelerated Critical Illness Cover Option, Accidental Death Benefit Rider, and Accidental Total & Permanent Disability Benefit Rider.
Not sure if you’ve already checked, but Manish has provided an excellent details for different term plans on page with heading ‘Best Term Insurance Plans in India [Comparison with Charts]’.
My experience with ICICI i-Protect –
Applied on 31st Dec 2010 for option-2
Received confirmation mail within few hours
Received welcome call on 1st Jan 2011, with assurance that I would receive details of medical test in 24 hours. And someone will come to my place to collect documents
On 3rd Jan, received e-mail with doctor allocation letter
Waited for weekends, took appointment for 8th Jan. Person came and did all tests. By 10th, status was updated on website regarding test completion.
I was enjoying a very good experience till now and was thinking that people, who was saying badly, must have done something wrong. BTW, Happiness ended at this stage.
Suddenly on 12th status changed to ‘ITR not found’ and ‘IUW requirement not met’. I enquired on phone regarding collection. They said that nobody will come and I can e-mail it. E-mailed scanned copy on the same day on ‘buyonline’.
No change till 16th. I called up daily; CC people had literally no info. They suggested me to write an e-mail for better communication. I wrote, but hardly they response – except auto-response.
On 17th status changed. ITR – completed, but IUW still not met. Called up CC – same response. On 19th IUW was met as well. Called up CC, and they confirmed that. A sigh of relief? Not really.
On 20th Status changed again – ‘ITR not found’ and ‘IUW requirement not met’. I called up CC, they said that they have not received ITR. I said that I’ve already sent, and they said to send it again. On 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th I sent repeatedly. Also, I called up daily. On 25th sent a courier as well. Wrote e-mail daily on ‘lifeline’, needless to say, no reply at all. By now, it was frustrating already.
On 27th, I wrote that either issue the policy or refund my money. Same day status got updated. Both requirements got completed. Status was ‘Policy will be issued shortly’.
On 29th, status changed to ‘IUW requirement not met’. Wrote e-mail – no reply.
On 31st I requested for the withdrawal by e-mail, as I lost all faith. Within hours status was – ‘Policy issued, waiting to be dispatched’. But by this time I made up my mind towards cancellation.
On 2nd Feb, status was ‘Policy is dispatched’.
I’ve not received the policy yet, but I’ll surrender it as soon as I’ll receive it. Problem is not the long time taken. Problem is communication gap and the way they change their statement. Nobody knows the answer on phone and nobody replies the e-mail. I have taken SBI policy as well in Jan, but they completed everything in 3-4 days and also, they reply all e-mails. Premium amount is just a thousand higher.
An example of how they don’t listen – They don’t have a text-field for Middle Name while applying online. Online chat support executive had suggested me to write firstname and middlename in same field without space. I did same and after that my name started appearing wrongly in all communication with ICICIPru. In each e-mail (around 12) I requested to modify it, as I was sending all scanned documents as proof. It was not corrected and finally policy issued with wrong name only.
If I am getting so many problems in communicating, if they are so unreachable at the time of issuing policy – how will my family handle in my absence? I really can’t believe them for insurance. As I already have a private/cheaper insurer as SBI with me, I’ll go for LIC after few months.
P.S. – Sorry to take so much of your forum space, just wanted to share my experience… 🙂 🙁
Prasoon
Thanks for sharing your experience , it will help others to take their decisions
btw, this forum is your space , not mine .. So please fill it up as much as you can
Manish
Hi Manish,
Just came across your blog after a frustrating call with the ICICI GRO person. I have had exactly the same experience as Prasoon, the only difference being in the climax; at the end after multiple emails and calls; one day I just receive a refund of the money. After mailing and escalating, I receive the reply now that due to unavailability of some form from my end, the policy was cancelled!!!. This was after providing multiple snapshots of the website applicatin status which states ‘Policy waiting for issuance’ and all other processes completed.
Not once in the past 2 & half months, have I ever been intimated or informed from ICICI Pru regarding any form left incomplete from my end, instead, the policy was just cancelled without any intimation. This just seems to be a racket, getting people to park their amount for 2 – 3 months!. Checked out some other sites as well, there seem to be umpteen such experience, especially with iProtect.
Would you be able to advise any future course of action? The ombudsman details states that they have a jurisdiction for policies only upto Rs. 20L. Going by the comments, it seems even after 3 Quarters of lauch, the company has not got its act right , or maybe does not want to!
Tom
Tom
YOu should file a consumer complaint , If you are ready to shell out Rs 500 , you can use a professional to do it , use : http://www.akosha.com/consumer-complaints-information
btw , thanks for sharing the information and your experience ,we really value it .
Manish
Hi,
Finally after checking all things I applied for ICICI Iprotect online on around 25 dec 10, and everything was quick for me.
within 3-4 days my docs were picked up.
I got the letter for tests within 3-4 days, tests done in around 7-8 days.
and I got the policy document on Monday 31 jan 11. The policy was active from 22 jan 11.
I think it matters if you live in NCR – Delhi, all documents pick up, and medicals become fast.
And also I think ICICI is improving, and correcting there shortcomings and mistakes.
So good luck everyone.
Hitesh
Hitesh
Good to hear that you have had good experience with ICICI , not many of other readers had it 🙂
Manish
I hope ICICI pru is improving !!!
🙂
I have gone through the content of the blog. Good information. But I have a question. Suppose the company through which you have taken the term insurance go bankrupt, what will happen to your policy? Kindly reply.
i gues you have asked this on forum >
I have not asked this question on forum. Government of India has opened the insurance sector for private players. As a result many private companies have come up in this sector. This is good as we have a wide gap between the people covered with insurance policies vis a vis the total population. But there are still doubts about private insurance companies. The question which comes in mind is “What is the protection an individual has against the down of the company ?” Presently very few private companies are making profit. Will they be able to sustain a constant loss? Can they withdraw themselves from the operations? In that situation what will happen to its customers?
Chaitanya , go through this article
https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2009/02/are-private-insurance-companies-safe.html
First of all many Thanks to Manish for valuable to suggestions and guidance. If I haven’t come across this site, I never have been thought of taking term plan.
Thanks again for giving the wonderful gift.
After 20 days of waiting and going through all comments, at last I have taken I protect for 30L /tenure 30y yesterday (25/01/2011).
I have updated this document in the virtual presence of ICICI I protect person from (02240777194). I think this number is official I protect office number.
I will keep you update the progress, if anybody interested.
Naveed
Great 🙂 . Keep us posted and congratulations to your family for taking up the plan !
manish
On 28/01/2011 I have received mail and call stating that …
Following tests will be conducted at your residence by our empanelled Medical Examiner / Centre:
COT
RUA
HV1
ECG
MER
S12
Same day I called and took the doctor appointment.
On 29/01/2011 Doctor visited my residence and took blood/urine samples. He also took ECG.
On 1/02/2011 (today), one guy came to my home and collected payslip, birth certificate and passport photo.
I will keep you update the progress.
Naveed
Thats great .. things are moving fine till now .. keep us updated
Manish
One month is over after submitting the application online. Medical and document collection are over with 4 to 5 days.
After that there is no update. I continuously in touch with CCC and every time they are saying that with in two days I will get the policy.
I am also tracking the application status @ https://www.iciciprulife.com/ipru/AppTracker.jsp . It is showing everything done.
Not sure what I need to do, instead of listening their stupid comments…
Naveed
Its known to be late , I would suggest you be patient for more time , after all if you can wait for decades 🙂 , why not few more days ? but its not a goood think from a company
Manish
I have escalted this isuue to grievance cell of ICCI, immediately after two days I got the my itream plan.
Thanks.
Naveed
Good to know that , it should that grievance cells work !
Manish
Hi Manish,
I have applied for ICICI I-Protect policy during my visit to india.
Paid premium as well went for medical check up. Now ICICI is telling this policy is not for NRI . Even i have given them photo copy of my NRI account as well salary slip still tht time they didn’t told anything.now they are telling to go for cancellation.
There is no information in brochure tht its not allowed for NRI.Is this paln not allowed for NRI’s. Did any NRI taken this plan ? Plz confirm
Below is my study on term plan for NRI’s.
http://www.licindia.in/nri_centre.htm
5.NRIs are allowed insurance on their visit to India where all formalities are completed during their stay in India. In such cases they would be treated on par with Indian Lives for the purpose of allowing insurance.
9.All types of plans are allowed subject to the conditions that
1. Critical Illness Benefit is not granted.
2. Term Rider Benefit would be restricted to certain limit of Sum assured
3. Sum Assured would be restricted in respect of term insurance plans.
Regards
Yogesh
Yogesh
If you can give the proofs of income and address in a city which was allowed by ICICI iProtect ,then it should be allowed , what is their explaination when you say this to them ?
Manish
i decided to buy term insurnse of ICICI of Rs. 20,00,000/- with disability and accidental benifits with premium rider. but there is two confusion in my mnd
1. my city Manali Distt. Kullu (H.P.) is not covered in on line city to buy online premium for this reason i have only option to buy through agent which are so costly as on line premium.
2. weather in case of happning my family gets the coverage amount easily or ICICI co. give the claim after lapse of time by litigation in court as private co. policy to earn profit not pass the claim.
Sunil
Sunil
1) You can go for Kotak preferred term plan which is offline option , but its premium is also very cheap .
2) If you provide all the right info on form , there will not be any issue
Manish
Thanx for the update Vino.
I guess that would be the reason for my case rejection as well. I remember my medical was not done properly. Some of the tests were skipped and I was told that they would take care of it. So most probably, medical tests have been goofed up.
In any case, this is unacceptable. A one-of case is OK, but so many cases turns me off this policy.
Hi,
Thanks for your views. Update on my case is as follows:
After writing on different forums and blogs, a sincere individual put me forth to the PR Agency (Ad factors PR) that handles PR for ICICI Pru Life. This happened on 14th Jan, 2010. But I haven’t heard back from them yet. No body even bothered to understand my case, maybe beacuse they have had similar cases in excess…..!!!
After numerous calls and escalations to the ICICI pru Lufe Customer Care centre, I finally got to know that the reason for withdrawal was due to internal miscommunication. Medical reports uploaded by the hospital had been reviewed and printed by the elevant team @ ICICI Pru Life. They in turn sent these documents to the Underwriting team; which never acknowledged the receipt of documents. And now the POLICY IS WITHDRAWN DUE TO NON RECEIPT OF MEDICAL RECORD AT THE UNDERWRITING DEPARTMENT.
I spoke with the Hospital Administrator responsible for uploading medical reports and got a confirmation that my reports were uploaded on 11-Dec-10. He also reconfirmed that they never got any follow up request for a reload of documents.
I was told by the “Escalations manager Ms. Lakshmi that even though its an internal mishandling of records, I’m unable to confirm if the policy will be considered for reissual. Pls provide 48 hours so that I can get back to you”.
I yelled at the lady and got my call transferred to Mr. Vaadiraj, a Sr, Manager with ICICI pru life, Mumbai. He has requested one day to resolve the case and I’m waitng to see if something comes through.
Now this leaves me and thousands of other customers who are waiting for policy issual with a very relevant question:
How On Earth Should We Trust Such An Irresponsible Company (ICICI Prudential Life Insurance company) To Handle Life Insurance Process for Us?????
With this being a company is so unprofessional and casual on approach, My sincere advice to people who have taken this policy is to be prepared for a showdown with the Insurance provider at a point in time (sooner OR later). Pls don’t count on ICICI Pru Life to settle your claims should a claim happen.
If you’re on a FREE LOOK UP PERIOD, you have a chance to surrender the policy and get the money back.
I will keep you all updated on any further events.
Vino
Thanks for the update . Its a irressponsibile behaviour by the company , I think you should complain to IRDA on this . Are you still under free look up ? I suggest if you are not comfortable with the company , better change it
Manish
I tried registering a complaint with IRDA call centre. They refused to register the cpomplaint as the policy was withdrawn and money refunded. They will accept complaints only if the policy is in force. It looks like any Insurance company in India can take money from csutomers and keep it with them at their will and later return it without any explanations.
When I tried to ask the executive about acts/ law pertaining to the same, she said she have no information on that and gave me ICICI Grievances office contact details……..
God save us……!!!!!
hmm.. Not sure what we can do with it at this point .. Regulators have to be strict on this !
Manish
I came to know from internal agent that ICICI had contracted the whole process to some or other third party. For e.g there are different third party agents for different tasks. It seems they are messing it up.
My view is this could be because of huge volume of applications coming due to less premiums. Remember that Maruthi Suzuki add ” For a country OBSESSED WITH MILEAGE” 😀
Anyways if a certain insuring company do not want to give insurance to a certain individual I think IRDA can’t do anything about it. Its the insuring companies business call. IRDA is to control what happens when after paying regular premiums if insuring company is not doing claim properly.
Tarun
Is it .. I didnt knew it , Its not a good thing to hear 🙁 from ICICI
Manish
Manish,
Same irresponsible behaviour was experienced by my brother and sister-in-law when I advised them to go with I Protect. Just for changing of Option I to II they took nearly 2 month (Option II have Accidental death rider). Finally they settled after lot of communication. Even I myself felt guilt in pushing them in such a trouble.
Basavaraj
Thanks for the update . Its sad to see these things because people will loose interest in online term plans and more than that , for pvt insurers , which is not a good sign
Manish
I faced similar issue with ICICI IPROTECT (similar to Vijay above)
History :
1) I purchased the iprotect term policy in oct and submitted all the documents (other than medical) within 2 weeks
2)I could not do medical test since Instead of sending me Chennai based doctors ICICIPRU CR send me Mumbai doctor list
3) After numerous follow ups and personal visit to chennai office I finally got chennai lab address by DEC Mid
4) I was travelling and was not able to do Medical immediately
5) Finally I did medical on 5th Jan at one of your approved center ” Raj Medico”, T-Nagar,Chennai
6) It seems Raj medico did not provided medical report on time (some mess-up by there Courier team) They delivered report on 10th Jan but i came to know that ICICIPRU had canceled my policy on 6th Jan itself
I am wondering is it good that the policy is cancelled since icicipru have given so much pain “while making me there customer” what level of service they will provide when my family “god forbid” may need the insurance benefit?
Regards
Nilesh
Nilesh
Did you try other insurers now ? Better go for offline option at the moment ..
Manish
Hi Manish,
It might be worth noting here that there is an option of “selecting an advisor” in the iProtect plan as well. I talked to one of the agents of ICICI he said that it will increase the premium by just 200-500Rs depending on the sum assured.
This seems like an awesome option where you get benefits of both. Good service plus decent premium. Would like to know if anyone has tried this way.
Yes, i tried this option. so though my premium is higher by Rs.450 pa but i got good service.
Yes, i tried this option. so though my premium is higher by Rs.450 pa for 1Cr policy but i got good service.
@Amit,
Great to know you tried this option. Will like to know how you did this. I went on to filling the application online. I came till the last page where it asks to click on ” I agree with the terms and conditions” However I do not see any place where we can choose the adviser etc. to put the ID number of adviser ?
Tarun , let us all know about this procedure , something new to me !
Manish
The way to do this is on the application webpage click on the link where it says
“If you are assisted in availing insurance product: ICICI Pru iProtect Option I or ICICI Pru iProtect Option II– Click Here”
Then answer “Yes” for “Are you an agent?” question. Then put the agent code and go ahead with the payment etc.
This process asks for internal report from the agent. Based on internal report (assuming agent knows you well) ICICI will give the policy.It seems to be less hassel as we are going through the agent.
I am going to try this in next couple of days will keep this post updated.
ok good to know this 🙂
Manish
Update. Yesterday I got my policy after about 40 days from the date of application.
1.SA 50Lacs + Accidental rider
2.Premium was slightly higher by 400Rs due to selection of Advisor option
3.Medical happened within a week. No one came for documents collections. My agent is in different place than where I stay so he recommended sending him documents by post. He later submitted it I believe.(This took long time due to my delay in submission)
4.Got a call from mumbai 4 days ago that my policy is issued and I will get documents in 15 days. It came in 4 days. 🙂
Overall my experience was positive (primarily because my expectations were very low after hearing all the bad experiences posted on this blog). Other thing is I had applied through online advisor option as mentioned above so was sure it will work out. I didn’t do any followups etc I let it go at its pace. My agent had told due to outsourcing to thrid party and due to overwhelming response to the product their processes have got tardy.
Thanks Manish for creating this valuable webpage. Leart a lot from this. Keep up the hardwork you have been doing. You rock.
Cheers
Tarun
Tarun
Thanks for updating us on it . It shows your commitement as a reader and your eagarness to share 🙂 . Good to know that you also had a positive experience . Looks like choosing the advisor option was a good thing in your case !
Manish
Tarun
Yea .. looks like a good option if you have a dedicated person for yourself to get advice etc . Just make sure that you dont take it as a freedom to be ignorant .
@Manish
“Freedom to be ignorant” – Do you mean to say there is difference between offline vs online i.e. you need to worry more with online after buying the plan even through adviser also? I thought with adviser its exactly the same “to be free of worry – as you will get good service same as offline”. All that you saved/company saved is paying money to adviser to market the product and convince you to buy the product.
If your comment is in general – then I will say there is no free food anyways. You pay the price either by knowing things or by paying someone who knows Or..not getting the food itself in any case price has to be paid:D
Tarun
All I am saying that a person who goes for that dedicated advisor should not just beleive him and take all his words for sure . He should not just let him fill the forms and never sees it . Just by paying the 400-500 you should not be ignorant of your responsibility
Manish
I was looking for a term plan and decided to go with ICICI Prulife’s iprotect plan since the premium offer was competitive and could be done online. The nightmare started after paid
premium on 01-Nov-10.
The company promises about a doorstep document pickup. I was not contacted by anyone for about a week and I called up customer care centre. I was adviced to provide Income proof, ID proof etc. They wanted me to email it to buyonline@iciciprulife.com When I tried sending, it all bounced back. I called up CCC again and was adviced to walkin to a branch and submit docs. I did the same at ICICI pruLife Thrissur, collected my medical checkup forms, compl eted medical checkups as prescribed by the company.
I called up CCC was told that I was an “Elite Customer” and to be “rest assured as all documentation has been fulfilled”. I was also told that the underwriting could be completed in 3 to 6 working days and policy shall be issued ASAP.
But, after waiting for one month, I received letter form their underwriting department asking for more documents like Form 16, bank statement PAN card copy etc. If I had known these documents were required, I could have given them on those on the day I walked into their branch in Thrissur.
This time, I walked up to ICICI Pru Life in Edappally, Kochi and submitted all docs and ensured that nothing was pending from my end. This happened on 11-Dec-10.
The worst part of story happens now-
A week later I get a call from some number in Pune. He introduces that he is Anshuman Mishra from ICICI PruLife, cites my application ref: no and requests for submission of Form 16 and ID proof. He started the conversation in Hindi. I requested for communication in English as I had challenges in speaking good Hindi. All he said was “pending document bhejiyega”, “pending document bhejiyega” and banged the phone.
I called up CC and explained what had happened. I was reassured that all documentation has been completed and policy was pending with the underwriting team.
In another 5 days, I got a call from ICICI PruLife again asking me to send my Form 16 and ID proof to buyonline@iciciprulife.com and another personal address on ymail.com. I did not want t do that and enquired with CCC again and got the same answer.
Finally on 30-Dec-10 I come to know through the online tracking system that the policy has been withdrawn and no explanation was provided. I called up CCC and had to hear from that they donot have access to why the policy is withdrawn. She also added that the company may send some “ hard copy letter citing the reason” for withdrawal. Until this time, I have not received any letter.
I found an utter lack of coordination and professionalism in the way they dealt with the application. Looks like their departments just toss documents over the wall and never talk to each other.
I have been following up with the company to know the reason for withdrawal and they keep extending deadlines committed. All this and the delay of 2 months make me to say, pls opt for some term cover other than ICICI Prudentials product. Or else, be prepared to gift your money to ICICI for 2 months and face the shame of the money being tossed back to you; without any apology or explanation.
I believe that there could be a minimum of 1000 similar cases happening at the same time and that gives the opportunity to ICICI to keep an amount equivalent to 1000 annual premium units (roughly INR 80 lakh) under posession without having to pay up any penalty.
Vino
It was really a bad experience at your end , a lot of readers have faced these kind of behaviour from ICICI iProtect . Is everything closed now or you want me to send your request to a company which acts like a PR for ICICI and consumers !
Manish
@ Manish
I’m still trying to find and understand for what reason the policy was withdrawn. I would appreciate if you could put me on to the company who do PR for ICICI Pru Life customers.
Regards
Vino Varghese
Vino
Can you send me an email with what questions you need to be answered at manish@jagoinvestor.com
Manish
I’m wondering why do they need form 16, for processing. Check my health and then issue the policy.
I think they are using it for calculating how much premium they can INFLATE after finding some minor issue in health.
Has everybody who tried at icici or any other company provided your form 16?
–Anand
I had been meaning to write this since long but wasn’t getting time.
In my earlier comments, I had updated that I had bought the policy and completed all the formalities including medical tests.
In the latest update, my policy request has been rejected by ICICI. And the situation is exactly similar to what has been narrated by Vino above. I have been refunded the complete amount immediately but Customer Care is not ready to tell for what reason the policy was rejected. I am supposed to get the details in postal mail which, of course, I haven’t.
So, it turns out that like many others here, there are some big problems with this policy and many other online policies. Whatever be the reason, a company of a stature as big as ICICI, cannot launch a product which it can’t sustain. The fact that it has happened is a matter of grave concern. To all those who have managed to get this policy, I would say only one thing: Be very cautious about this policy.
My father is a Senior Divisional Manager in National Insurance Company Ltd. and has been working there for over 20 years. He suggests me not to opt for private insurers, as his experience over the years has not been very good with private players even in non-life insurance sectors. He says they DO actually give silliest reasons to reject the claim. Still I tried getting this policy and it was rejected for God-knows what reason. So, I guess I will be sticking to my father’s suggestion and go for LIC’s term plans. The premium would be around 4-5k more annually for me, but I think that is fine.
Abhinov
In that case you can go with LIC only . I think its ok
Manish
Hi Manish,
I finally got the ICICI I-Protect policy issued after 3-months of followup.
Did wahat Pretty much similar to vijay’s & Abhinav’s suggestions
Go to branch offc and submit docs
Got my policy docs 3 weeks after tht 🙂
-cheerio
Roopesh
Roopesh
Congrats , good to see you implemented what you heard on this blog and it helped you 🙂
Manish
Hi ,
i want to buy a i protect policy from ICICI, just want to know i have level 1 diabetic problem and my age is 31, want to buy for 30 years with accident coverage of 50 lac, so total will be 1 crore 50 lac and the annual premium calculated as 15665 appx. due to level 1 diabetic problem is their problem to get the insurance or not and want to more due to this health issue will it impact later in claiming for my nomine.
Uttam
No , your medical problem can not make any issue while claiming IF you are paying higher premium right now , as the higher premium is charged only for your medical problem . incase you hide the fact ,then you will be in problem else NOT .
Manish
Hi Manish,
what do we mean by this:
d) Due to war, civil commotion;- Are death due to bomb blasts included in such category
e) By engaging in hazardous sports or pastimes
Are Mountain trekking, mountain biking included in such category
Reason: most of the agents also who sell insurance dont know in details and usually say yes…..and the doubts still remain unclear.
Since your last article on i-term i always was looking to do the term plan for my husband, as he has some big liabilities (50lacs) which as a spouse I cannot close on my own including our savings. Hence even the insurance calculator that u made I calculated (taking into consideration the inflation & future needs the amount goes exhorbidant. Hence did not want to fall under Over insured bracket as well.
Hence still thinking what to do….my personal deadline is before the start of next financial year.
Thanks
Archana
d) It means any big war with some country , like if pakistan puts a bomb in country and 100000 people die , that would not be covered .
e) If you are regular trekker and frequently go on these adventurous activites , then you are more risky person to cover from Insurance company point . but if you are going once in a while like once or twice in years ! , then its a normal thing .
Manish
I am from the town where i potect is not offered as online… I called and enquired. they told me to go to icici pru branch in my town. I learnt from the blog that premium is little more for offline purchase of i protect. My question is the premium difference should be for the first year only for offline purchase…isnt it? why they charge more premium(roughly 10-20%) for whole 30 years.
Shanmugasundaram
The agent will keep getting 5% commission out of your premium for all 30 yrs in offline model (and 25% in first year) .
Manish
Thats fine for first year and/or for few years.. even they can increase the first year commision to 30% because of their work
But for 30 years is somewhat irritating…..
Shanmugassundaram
Thats the way it is for offline model . Incase you want to save on premiums , go for online
Manish
Is it possible to pay the (subsequent) premiums online , after taking offline i protect.
Yes , you can pay the premiums from their website . even LIC has it for their all the policies
Manish
Manish, Do you any idea whether the HDFC Life planning to come-up with a similar online term insurance plan in near future? because they always compete with ICICI.
Thanks!
Thangavel
Dear Manish,
This blog is the wonderful thing happened to me in my life as I have got enlightened on so many things like Insurance, equities, mutual funds etc. Like so many I’m one of the benefitor of this blog, thanks a ton for that…
I have been a mute spectator for all these while , now I really wanted to thank each and every member of this blog for having shared their knowledge.
While writing this, I have received my iprotect policy after almost 1 month, it would have been received earlier if I had sent all the documents on time ( IT returns) , as sson as I submitted and after few follow ups with customer care , I got the policy now 🙂
On contrary to people’s comment above, ICICI service has been top class…I’ve always had good faith on ICICI and they didn’t fail me this time too with their prompt service. Just to mention here, I’m having a relationship with icici for the past 5 years by means of an SB account.
I can bet and say, among the private insurers ICICI is THE BEST!!! ( By the way I’m not marketing icici here. 🙂 )
Ravi
Thanks for your kind words .. Congrats on getting the term insurance 🙂 . Just like you , I also have good experience with ICICI till date, but there are many horror stories too 🙂
Manish
Thanks to All of you for the comments and Information. I bought an i-term policy on 1st week of DEC,2010 with premium Rs.8272/- per year, age@35yrs for 25yrs term,a Non-tobacco user. But later on, I got the mail from Aegon Religare that they found ‘COTINEN TEST Beyond acceptable limit’ and they provide a counter offer of Premium Rs.11,857/-. I already informed them that I am not a tobacco user in any form niether a smoker, but i drink capuccino coffee 3-4 times a day mostly empty stomach. And also suggested them I would like to re-test my COTINEN level. But they were not ready to accept it. And atlast, I decided to Cancel my policy. And today I got the cheque of full payment of my first premium from Aegon Religare.
Pls. let me know your valuable comments on this. What should I do next? KOTAK E-Prefferred OR ICICI iProtect????
From some of the forums/blog i came to know that ICICI is not trustworthy:http://www.perfinindia.com/2010/08/icici-prudential-iprotect-term-insurance-review/#comment-554
KAS
You can try other insurance providers like metlife or Kotak .
Manish
After reading this excellent article and great comments, I made my progress towards buying an i-protect policy option II. I’ve made my decision, based on policy details, extra rider, claim settlement, online payment option. I’ve taken it for 25 years and for Thirty Lacs. I’ll take for the same amount from SBI Life.
I’ve given them all small details, even which they did not ask. Like wearing glasses, and CT Scan twenty years back. Let’s see when I get any call/documents from ICICIPru. It requires some medical tests. I’ll keep posting regarding my experience.
Prasoon
If you take due care in filling up the form and providing all information , then there is no reason why your claim can be rejected . you can be rest assured !
Manish
I have 2 LIC policies. Now i am planning to buy iProtect. I will be disclosing the details of my LIC policies while appling for iProtect. Should i update LIC Policy with my new policy details? If yes, how do i do this? If No, then how is the claim settled from all policies?
rajeev
You dont need to update your old policies . for claim settlement for more than one insurance policies , read : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2010/09/9-most-asked-questions-about-term-insurance.html
Hi, I have a question about premium paid for term plans.
Will the premium constant for a term of policy period? or will there be any health checks every year and based on that insurance provider will increase the premium? please clarify
what if a person is healthy now and become ill health after 2 years? will there be any annual health check up every year?
thanks in advance!
Sridhar
The premiums are same every year
Manish
thanks for your reply..
also please let me know the below:
what if a person is healthy now and become ill health after 2 years? will there be any annual health check up every year?
illness has nothing to do with TERM PLAN..Term plan is an obligation on the part of insurance company to pay a certain specific sum of money to be paid to the nominee of the policyholder in case of the policyholder’s death..So as long as the policyholder is alive, healthy or ill, it doesn’t make any difference to the insurance company..
Yes, if the policyholder develop some major illness like cancer, heart attack etc he should let the insurance company know of this face and provide the medical reports etc so that insurance company can update these things in its records and there is no problem at the time of claim settlement, if at all it arises..
One of the main complaint/fear everybody has, is the claim settlement ratio of different companies..Let me tell you MANISH, if its a genuine claim and documents/information submitted at the time of taking policy was correct, then there is no way claim can be rejected, by any company; be it LIC, kotak, or even the newest enterent in the insurance market, INDIA FIRST..So just fill the form properly, provide all documents and information correctly and be rest assured, your nominee will get the claim without any hassel [irrespective of the claim settlement ratio of the insurance company 😉 ]
I understand this point and have already told readers , but they dont listen to this point !
Manish
What about the following reason which was given by one private insurer while denying the claim??
Reason: The person was traveling by luxury bus.
Don’t you think that the reason is unacceptable?
@ANAND – Where have you read this thing..whats the authenticity of the person telling such tales..have you cross-checked with the company who has declined such claim…
Actually it is human nature that WE HEAR, WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR..Inn baataaon mein koi dum nahi hai sir ji…
Hi Dhawal,
Thanks for this clarification; even I had same doubt in my mind but was of the same belief as you have mentioned.
Secondly, I have been an investor in ICICI Pru term plans for last 5 yrs. now. I too have switched to iProtect now :).
Fortunately, i am among those who have always had good experience with ICICI Pru till now. I showed for interest in this policy through one of the site, second day the ICICI Pru guy called me up, took appointment, met me over the weekend and i filled the application form same day, paid money and within 2-3 days got medical letter, did medical late(with delay from my side ) and after medical got the policy today within 2 weeks. Though, i was in touch with the ICICI Pru guy(he is an ICICI Pru employee) all the time. Have suggested the same to couple of my friends also and this guy called them up and came today and filled application etc. online for one of my friend today itself. I never had to run for submitting my documents or anything; everything was done by this guy.
I think i am fortunate that i met a nice ICICI pru guy or not sure though if they (ICICI Pru) have improved upon this ;).
Amit Thukral
Manish,
Terrorist attack is not covered by i-protect. What does this mean?
No money will be paid on death?
or,
No Accidental Benefit Rider will be paid?
Regards,
Prasoon
it means claim amount will not be paid if the policyholder dies during a terrorist attack..
..and one more…
http://wealth.moneycontrol.com/columns/health/your-search-for-an-agent-is-over59-enter-einsurance-/15832/0
Hi Manish,
Just found these two very interesting articles..would be a good read for everybody on the blog..
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/analysis/I-couldnt-sell-term-insurance-Suri-Seeta-Ram-Insurance-Advisor/articleshow/7123201.cms
and
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/analysis/New-insurance-plans-with-low-premiums-What-does-this-mean-for-you/articleshow/7123089.cms
Manish,
Thanks for your reply above. I just need a suggestion here. Does it make sense to split 60L insurance as 30L with i-protect and 30L with SBI smart shield? Actually, I wish to have a policy with Critical Illness and Permanent Disabilty Benefit rider. Annual Premium for i-pro will be around 5K, and for SBI it would be around 9K (including 5L CI + 10L ADB + 20L PDB) for 30L S.A. Do you know any policy which covers these three, but is cheaper?
Comments from other members are welcome as well.
Regards,
Prasoon
Prasoon
There are many plans which have all these 3 riders . Those are
– Kotak Preferred
– Bharti Axa
– Aegon Religare level Term plan (Offline)
– Bajaj Allianz
– Birla Sun Life
See the premium on the website , I am sure it would be less for the Kotak one .
Also by tomm you can see an article which is for term insurance riders and all the information which can help someone to buy the term plan .
Manish
Manish,
First of all, let me congrulate you on a thankless job you are doing.
Would appreciate your opinion on this policy.
I hold American Express Platinum credit card and I got a call from Amex customer department asking If I would be intrested in buying a speical life term insurance product for Amex customers only designed by ICICI Lombard. This product is for American Express customers only.
FYI – I am not a great fan of ICICI and its products. But this product looks to good to belive. When I told Amex that I don’t trust ICICI, they said that they have a seperate cell for these settlement and other matters and ICICI will not refuse claims of Amex customers.
Here’s the link to amex site where it mentions about the policy.
http://www.americanexpress.com/india/campaigns/microsite/insurance/personal.shtml
A two crore insurance policy will cost less than 25k per annum and no medicals and the premium remains same irrespective of age. What do you think ? The policy also pays full amount for total disability. Apart from this, the policy also covers purchase protection of a nominal amount.
For renewal, I have checked that the premium remains the same, and one condition is that the person should not cancel amex credit card. The policy will not be renewed once the amex card is cancelled. The policy can be cancelled within 15days of being issued if not satisfied.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Cheers!
Manzey
Manzey
The plan is good . Its not very special as its a term plan and term plan costs are very much like this , infact 2 crore premium might come to be around 18-20k per annum for some of the online term plans . But overall this looks good . Just make sure you understand all features and the process of claim as the plans taken on phone are settled on phone only !
Manish
Manish, Manzey – This doesnot look like a life insurance.
1. ICICI Lombard does not issue life insurance, ICICI Pru Life does
2. Looks like it covers only accident, critical illness.
For me its looks like a General Insurance product. Any thoughts ?
Dear Manzey & Manish, Both of you missed the point that the insurer in this case is ICICI Lombard (the Gen. Insurer) & not ICICI PRU (the Life Insurer) & as rightly pointed out by dear Ajay, the policy in question is a PAP (Personal Accident Plan).
So I’m of the view to skip this policy.
Thanks
Ashal
Dear Manish,
In spite of frequent followup, I could not get the i-protect policy in time. No support from either escalation or ombudsman. Consequently I canceled the policy. But, I have received policy documents from Aeigon Religare Life Insurance promptly. Document pickup, Medical and other services of AR seems to be good(at least in my case). Nevertheless, the customer care people of AR are not efficient to clarify doubts regarding the policy details and schedule. Now, at least I am happy that I am (proud) owner of a term insurance policy. But I dont know what is going to happen in case of unfortunate claim conditions 🙂 or :-(.
In my colleague case things happened vice-versa. He got annoyed with AR services. ICICI Pru worked well in his case.
Any way, While browsing through your comments, I have encountered a concept of diversification of Sum Assurance among different Insurance companies. If possible, kindly through some light on it.
Thank you.
Pavan Kumar
Pavan
Yes , Good and bad experiences happen from case to case . Are you covered 100% or you still have some coverage left ? You can try Kotak offline plan in that case .
Manish
Dear Manish,
In spite of frequent followup, I could not get the i-protect policy in time. No support from either escalation or ombudsman. Consequently I canceled the policy. But, I have received policy documents from Aeigon Religare Life Insurance promptly. Document pickup, Medical and other services of AR seems to be good(at least in my case). Nevertheless, the customer care people of AR are not efficient to clarify doubts regarding the policy details and schedule. Now, at least I am happy that I am (proud) owner of a term insurance policy. But I dont know what is going to happen in case of unfortunate claim conditions 🙂 or :-(.
In my colleague case things happened vice-versa. He got annoyed with AR services. ICICI Pru worked well in his case.
Any way, While browsing through your comments, I have encountered a concept of diversification of Sum Assurance among different Insurance companies. If possible, kindly through some light on it.
Thank you.
Dear Readers,
You may visit this link
http://ranjanvarma.com/does-it-make-sense-buy-cheapest-insurance/
Parag
Thanks for the link
really nice review… I am planning to take a term plan for a while, I have a couple of loans and I would need a good cover of 40-60 lakhs… i was searching online and doing my research and I luckily stumbled upon your blog. I would firstly like to congratulate you on the efforts you have taken to give a detailed, sound and a logical, covering all the major pros and cons.
Some of the top term insurance products for online purchase are ICICI Prudential’s iProtect, Religare iTerm and Metlife’s MetProtect. But I think I will go for i-Protect term plan… I read one more review about i-pru which is also really good.
My hearty thanks to you! all the best for your future endeavorers.
Regards,
Harsh
Harsh
You should also try to see Kotak e-preffered as an option , its really a good one . I am writing an article on all the term plan options which will come next week .
Manish
Thanks God ! finally I got my money back which I paid for I-protect. I recieved within 7 days from the date of my request for cancellation of the policy. what an excellent service; but same is not for issuing the policy.
Utpal
Nice to know that . Thanks for the update ! .
Manish
Hi Manish,
I finally got the ICICI I-Protect policy issued after 3-months of followup. Some tips for anyone applying newly.
1>After you apply go and proactively submit the documents in the branch office.
2>Followup on the policy through branch office.
Since the online part is a new thing and they have out sourced the customer service for policy information followup it is in a confused state. A year or 2 they should get it streamlined is my hope. Cost wise for a term plan they are definitely the cheapest to date.
Thanks for enlightening on the endowment and term plan. I have surrendered all my endowment plans(surrender value invested in Equity MF) and taken a pure term plan of 50L.
No mixing of investment and insurance :).
Vijay
Great ! . Thanks for the tip . It would be helpful to others . Nice to see you taking right decisions in Insurance now
Manish
Hi Manish,
First of all, thanks for a very good article and wonderful comment section.
I’ve a SBI Term Insurance with increasing cover. Currently S.A. is 10L with 5L increment after every 5 years. So, I’ll get 30L S.A. after 20 years. I am paying premium amount 7000/- annually since last two years.
Now, with i-pro plan 1/2, I’ll have to pay 4800/5900 p.a. only for 25 years. And it’ll cover 30L from starting.
Am I making waste of my money? Should I close this plan. My overall requirement of insurance is around 70L. Will closing SBI and opting for i-pro & LIC make sense.
Regards,
Prasoon
Prasoon
Yes , you are wasting money in that , I also had the same SBI increasing term cover with 5% increase every year earliar . But when more cheaper plans came in , I stopped my plan . They are charging more . You should also reevaluate others premium and take another plan now
Manish
Hi Manish and other Gurus here,
Nice to see you spreading awareness and helping each others.
It is very nice and informative to see all the comments here.
I was just about to buy Iprotect from ICICI (I filled all the forms and was about to do the payment), when my brother told me, not to go with it as he was facing same problem as mentioned above. So I checked and found your site, and all these problems faced by by them because of ICICI.
Now my question is Which term plan I should buy; which will really be helpful and truthful at the time of need and pays its claims without hassle.
I know that its difficult to comment on the company because not many people may have claim settlement requests and other reasons..
Even then I want to know which company seems to be better..
1: Kotak term plan, (E term)
2: Metlife term plan (Met Protect).
Both have same premiums for online version.
Metlife is giving the option of term plan upto 35 years (of course with extra fees).
Please help me in making a good decision.
Thanks and Regards,
Hitesh
It seems all services of all online term policies are worst. I have faced same problems with ICICI, Kotak and Metlife online policies. At the same time I booked offline term policy with ICICI Pru through a agent, I have not faced any problem and received documents in time. My personal experience suggest to go for offline plans though they are expensive.
-Parag
Hi Parag,
Could you please let me know the policy details (plan name, sum assured, term and your age & premium) which you booked offline ?
when I enquired @ my nearest ICICI they quoted me Rs 8500/- but the same policy cost me Rs. 4700/- through online(iProtect). For SA 30L, term: 30yr age: 30yr
Thanks!
Thangavel
The plan name is ICICI Pure protect and its not very cheap like iProtect , if you want a offline cheaper policy , you can go for Kotak Preffered plan .
Manish
Parag
Yes, as these online term plans is a new experience for even sellers , they have not done their homework well before launching the products and are bad at delivering what customers expect .
Manish
If I compare the claim settlement ratio for the last year, It shows as the ICICI has the highest of the three, and Metlife the lowest.
I am confused, which one to buy.
Hitesh
In that case go for LIC , it has the highest Claim settlement ratio
Manish
I am considering between online cost effective plans.
Regards,
Hitesh
Hitesh
In that case I would refer ICICI or Kotak
Hitesh
You cant be very sure of online term plans , as they are same as ICICI Pru . Kotak and Metlife might also have similar problems like ICICI Pru . YOu can look at LIC or Kotak (offline)
Manish
I will suggest to go for SBI Life SMart Shield. though it is not the cheapest like online policies, but cheaper than other normal term products. Service is excellent and more dependable than ICICI or any other.
Thanks for your suggestions, did you go for it after you returned your ICICI iProtect ?
Manish
I am also facing same issues.even i am following with local branch people then also not able to get it.
Local representative have scalated to senior officer lets see what happens.
Never ever Buy iprotect policy from ICICI… Because the low premium, i let my other iscurance policy to expire and opted for i-protect. Since then it has been nightmare. I am following with them from nealr last one month ( around 20 calls, 10 SMS, and 15 emails) but nothing is moving. they have to simply e-mail me an additional questionnaire called ” respiratory questionnaire” which they havnt done despite so many follow. and this task takes less than a minute for them to complete.
Imafine hardship your loved one may have to go – god forbid if they have to claim the insurance
KEEP AWAY FROM I-PROTECT
regards
Amit
Amit
Thanks for your situation update . People are facing it with all the online term plans
Manish
also request for manish-ji. we got interested for this product as it was highlited in this site. so, manishni, please u talk to icici corporate centre on behalf of us so that their service improves and customers are not harassed.
Note that this blog is only for awareness and given information about new products , what happens after buying policy should be dealt by customer, there are good and bad experience in all the products .
Manish
I too got bad experience with icici for i-protect. i applied two months back, did not get the policy. customer service is also pathetic. my application OL00032866. I will reqauest everybody dont go for that one.
Hi Manish
I have had a very bad experience with iProtect from ICICI
I bought the policy online paying the premium on 21st Oct’10 but am yet to get any update on my policy status
I have already sent 4 e-mail reminders to ICICI and also called up their call centre but there has been no response.
Whom should I contact in order to resolve the problem ?
-Roopesh
Roopesh
Can you see what siva did in his case in comments section , there have been bad experience in this policy!
Manish
Hi Pankaj….
Pankaj this side too… Accidental Rider is one of the simplest riders….I dont know why the agent was suggesting to go for plain policy. Mostly the agent do not pitch in for riders as the commission earned on that is very less…. however if you want to take the rider, i see no reason why the agent was opposing that. What was the Sum Assured you were applying for?
And ya, most of the company’s do not allow to take the rider at a later time, however you can discontinue the rider anytime by stopping the premium payment for that, and continue paying premium for base policy.
Thanks & Regards
Pankaj Parashar
Hi,
Thanks for the nice article.
Regarding the accident rider. I talked to the customer help desk to check if I can buy the accident rider at the later time. He started saying that i can go for the policy with out the accident rider. There might be lot of queries while claiming the policy with the accident rider ( for accidental death ). He was suggesting to go for the plain policy. Not sure if like any other foolish sales person he was trying to guage my mood and trying the pursuade me for the same.
Are the terms condition mentioned in the accidental death exceptional ? or these are the similar conditions which are imposed by anyother policy also.
Regards
Pankaj
I would agree with the reply given by Pankaj Parasar !
Manish
Manish, Ajay,
Thank You so much. Your inputs were extremely helpful thank you once again.
Thanks Wilson
Manish
Hey Manish,
Came across your blog when i was googling for some info on I-protect. Well i have 2 questions for you and please do try and help me.
1)What is an accident rider? in I-protect,say a policy holder dies of an accident (riding a bike,plane crash,driving a car,train accident, etc) will my nominee get the covered amount (i am currently going for 1 crore) ie despite not having a accident rider will my nominee get paid or is it important to go for an accident rider also?
2) What are the medical tests that one has to undergo? Please can you list them out?
Regards,
Wilson
Wilson
1) In iProtect , by taking accidental rider your nominee gets extra money in case of death by accident , note that even if you dont take accident rider , the base amount they will get anyways .
2) I am not sure on this , they will go through basic medical tests . People who have already taken this policy can tell more .
Two points , You might not be aware but Nominee is not the final owner of the policy money , he is just a autorised person to get the money from company and resposible to hand it over to the actual owner as per WILL or succession law . If you have any other query , please ask it on forum : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/forum/
Manish
Wilson,
For #2 – Blood Sugar, Cholesterol, HIV, Hep B, Nicotine, Urine sample analysis, ECG etc. Typically a technician will come home around 8 AM to collect some samples and you will have to go to a nearby lab for the rest of the test. This is what they did for Aegon Religare iTerm.
thnks
which you rider you suggess>?
My brother has not given resignation yet in his present company.
and VISA has not come yet. it will come within a week.
for your info.
regds,
bharat
Dear Manish,
My brother is going to canada next month for further study (2 years).
He is an employee of one MNC in vadodara at present. (from last 2 years).
Query : 1. Can he buy kotak term insurance at present?
2. What will happen if he go to abroad for further studies after taking term insurance? (any problem in settlement)
3. Shall i buy other additional riders in the same policy for him?
Your guidance will be very helpful to me. We had a mail chat few days before. I became a good fan and regular visitor of your blog. Even i have forwared site address to all my company colleagues, few of them might have contacted you through mail and phone.
its nice to have such a nice blog.
regds,
bharat
Bharat
He can buy the policy now , but if he goes for that long period, he should intimate the company about it . Buying riders will depend on this requirement . Its just like any other product, if he feels need for it , he can buy
Manish
A new scam, cbi arrested 8 officials of major banks
a LIC housing finance scam
market under pressure
ahh .. more info ?
Manish
Manish.
I am from a place (working) in orissa which is not in the list of the online policy. However my permanemt address is Visakhapatnam which is there in the list. I have a address proff of Visakhapatnam. Now my question is can i apply to this online policy with visakhapatnam address eventhough i am not residing there. Even if they issue a policy with visakhapatnam address, i fear that they will create some problems in the future.
Please advice
Eswar
You can get the policy from vishakhapatnam, but make sure you tell them that you are residing at other place .
Manish
Is there anybody who faced similar problem?
Go through the comments section . I am not sure
Hi Manish,
After doing lot of research and going through this article and comments i finally applied for iProtect.
I had a good experience in applying for the policy and the service was excellent.
Call on very next day about the acknowledgment of the policy applied and got a call from the Hospital and the doctor for appointment within 2 days.The medical test done at home by doctor visit. I had scanned and emailed softcopy as well as submitted the documents at the branch proactively and now the application status is showing status as all completed and waiting for issuance.
I had asked that if I could get my medical report as was informed that once the policy is issued the same will be available free of cost after filling a request letter.
So overall good experience thanks to your article and the posts for the cautions provided in it
Pravin
Thats good to know , you are among those who had very good experience. however there are many people here who had bitter experience and did not like the whole experience at all ! . Keep us updated !
Manish
Hi Manish,
My status today is now showing as policy issued and awating dispatch!
Does any one have idea how the claim process works in case of online policy..is it online or offline ?
@Yogesh – i think it will a mixture of both…A dedicated toll-free number would be dedicated to the clients of online mode (This is what i believe would happen) as well as e-mail..And nominee of online policyholder can call or email the concerned authorities and they will initiate the process accordingly..
The claim process definitely has to be offline, you cannot scan your death certificate/policy document/police FIR in legal cases and expect the claim to be approved, there are forms which have to be filled, All documents have to be submitted to the company for them to process your claim. The only online facility which you have is sending them an email informing them that a claim is being put up under your policy Number.
It is important to note that all those going in for online plans make sure that you have informed your nominee about the very existence of such a policy and the procedure to be followed in case of a claim. In the absence of a trusted family agent/advisor/friend it is going to be quite difficult for the nominee who is already grieving at his/her loss to follow up with the insurance company. Always avail the services of a TRUSTED FAMILY ADVISOR/FRIEND who can help you in those troubled times
Hi Manish,
Very timely and in-context article..Please check this out…
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/analysis/Should-you-buy-an-insurance-cover-online/articleshow/6938831.cms
Dhawal
I checked the article , I think it would be wise to wait for claim settlement ratio from online policies ? Will IRDA give that info seperately ?
Manish
no, i dont think so..its not feasible even..Company does not specify that its claim settlement ratio is such and such, more in NORTH india and less in EAST india etc..They just give the plain figure and thats all..They wont seggregate claim ratio for ONLINE and OFFLINE modes..
I just want distinction in online and offline term plans 🙂 . thats might be a big concern in future if not today , atleast companies which have good figures can publish it .
Also if company does not provide it , is there a way one can approximate it ?
manish
Hi ALL,
Any one know how the claim process is triggered in online plans ?
Is it also online or it is manual ?
Regards
Yogesh
Yogesh
I shouldnt be just online, the claim can be done online through some sites like policybazaar.com etc , but its not the only option . However It would be a good idea to ask at forum : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/forum/
Manish
hello pavan
you did the right thing as you are an informed investor and knows how to force private companies to provide good quality service.
in private companies they use software’s and communicate using mails.
and if you send them mails to their nodal officer their senior management they will act quick and say sorry.
this is a big difference between private and public.
public companies do not have email communication and for every request one need to write a application and GOD only knows what happens to Application in india.
i remember a very good serial from jaspal bhatti ” flop show”
its still true in current times also
every time i see any PSU a smile come on my face and thanks goes to jaspal paji for making flop show but alas nothing changed in so many years.
Dear Manish, Excellent Blog!. Kudos. As far as I-protect is concerned, I too have bad experience with ICICI Prudential I-protect Plan. Quite big story!. I first logged in ICICI Pru’s site on 18/10/2010 to buy this product. I filled in application, but because of some bugs, I could not pay the premium. After one hour, I have got call from the Pru office as inquiry. They mailed me a broken link, so that I can pay premium online. On a fine day (21/10/2010), I paid premium online. from 18/10/2010 to 21/10/2010 , I received almost 31 calls from ICICI Pru. Once the premium is paid, Interestingly calls stopped. I called back them inquiring about medicals. After couple of a days medicals are over. I was told that documents are picked up by some “Corporate banda”. Till now no body has come to me and picked up the documents. I lodged my complaint with Grievance cell , They said they take six days to redress grievance. I have got calls from ICICI Pru Nagpur office for appointment, But nobody turned up. I do not know what is the problem. When I call them, they simply transfer the calls without any result. I visited Nagpur, Civilines Branch to deposit my documents. This branch is horrible. The executives are very much decorated with no commonsense and manners. They are reluctant to receive documents. They claim that their services are excellent, they Why they are taking this much time to just pickup documents. Now I have lodged a complaint with Insurance Ombudsman. I have a big question to them, IF THE SERVICES LIKE THIS AT THE TIME OF PURCHASING POLICY, IN CASE OF ANY UNFORTUNATE CLAIMS…… WHAT WILL BE THE SITUATION?.
So, This is my case..(Application No OL00036117).
I fee services are poor. Lot of bugs in web page. I don’t say that everybody encounter the same situation. But, be cautious. As far as LIC is concerned, the policy servicing matters are damn poor, but the claim settlement is good.
This is not generalized comment….
As Mr. Nitin Said “Internet is a big power”. Before buying a policy , one should inquire and browse the information regarding product, companies profile , customer services etc.
Thanking you,
Pavan
thanks for showing your concerns , I am sure you will get some help from ICICI Pru , I am following your complaint to an agency which deals with them . I have mailed you .
Manish
pavan & all,
take ur document & directly to branch..they will scan & upload the document on their system.
Reg. service quality & claim settlement..if their is online policy frm LIC then same will be result ..LIC don’t have such online policy so we can’t compare ICICI Iprotect & LIC..their customer service can be more worst.
Reason of slow service can be as the executives won’t be getting much commission or incentive for this policy so they may be showing less interest.Claim settlement will be different thing.
In my case i m getting good service from ICICI as i m pushing them to get thing faster by daily giving a call to them.
I agree with Yogesh
Customer service upto some extent also depends on how hard you are commited to get customer service , The other party will always have less interest in your work , but with constant followup , give them a tough time 🙂 . It works in most of the cases
Manish
i am saying this in the statement which says LIC is good as it is backed by govt
this statement is false as in today’s technology world you cannot buy policy from LIC online.
Lic is only having 2 term policy as they dont have concern with the people life and want to fill their pocket with endowment policy.
i am comparing LIC with icici in terms of service provided
the only good thing is that
LIC is politically driven and pay the claims when any natural calamity occur
to everyone knowledge india is highly under insured country as LIC dont sell term policies too much.
i have a horrible experience with all the govt companies and now go for services from private companies but with caution as i read all the terms and conditions and never think of paying 1000 rs additional if i am served better.
i cant say about others but problem with india is we have some problems with pur ears and tounge we dont speak and hear at all untill a BOMB explodes and then remain in fear for whole life
enjoy
Nitin
Your views are very different from an average person 🙂 . Do you have personal bad experience from LIC or generalising it as you had bad experience from other govt sector companies. Note that you might have accidently got great service from ICICI for your iProtect policy , however there are many people who had horrible experience with the same company .
Manish
i know people have horrible experience from icici ,for that you need to be cautious and read all the documents before signing anything
problems is not with icici or any other private company its with people
the only problem with icici bank is
1) they give loan easily and then make you cry as you dont read the documents properly ,if you read and research properly then you can get a better service from icici or other private companies as private companies have sale targets and they work on commissions
learn the art of bargaining !
2) icici gives you credit card easily and people misuse it
i am using icici credit cards and paid my dues in time and also collected lots of free gifts ( credit card is not free thing it must be clear to the people)
3) they open your demant account for free and charge you high brokerage and AMC (its not their fault )
people argue with vegetable vendor for 5 rs but never argue with a banker or in big bazar ( a big problem with indian mindset)
my exp :-
one of friend opened a trading account with SBI and they were charging 400 rs AMC and high brokerage then i asked him to open in india infoline as they are offering 555 rs for life time membership and brokerage is 1/5 of SBI and good customer support too.
my advice to all investors here is, internet is a big power ,use it to save more and bargain everytime you do any trade or investment
our parents were good because they were good in bargaining and never feel shy and ashamed of bargaining at a big shopping place
bargaining is one of the best skills which can make your life easy and you can get good services ,indians are loosing this skill as we never think of paying extra and then cry and make allegation on companies
its simple companies make profit and they dont take responsibilities of your mistakes.
@NITIN & MANISH – For the very first time, i am writing in favor of LIC or PSU { 🙂 }..
Dear NITIN, as you’ve said LIC has only 2 TERM PLANs can you name any company (PVT COMAPNY) having more than 2 or 3 TERM PLANs???…TERM PLAN has no charges or conditions, so there are no variants of TERM PLAN as such and so no company offering 2-3 TERM PLANs..
Second thing, LIC dont need ONLINE model because LIC has such a HUGE agent force that it can be reached anywhere in INDIA, any part – any corner..The ONLINE gimmick is used only by PRIVATE PLAYERS to reach to the public at large..
Now with 21 private players in the market, insurance penetration rate is still around 8%..and the biggest market share is with LIC..so we cannot blame LIC alone for INDIA being UNDER-INSURED..Infact, 85% of the business of the private companies business comes from ULIP and not term plan..
And the final thing is…please dont compare/confuse ICICI BANK with ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE..These are all together 2 different entities..It does not mean if you have bad experience with ICICI BANK then you will definitely have bad experience with ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE and vice-versa..
As MANISH has tried and everybody including me have tried to tell this blog to everybody is that there is NO SINGLE PRODUCT or COMPANY out there which is best..Not LIC, nor KOTAK, or IPRU..Everybody has to read and understand the product/products, make the comparison and then select the one which meets most of the requirements of an individual…
Dhawal
Agree with you 🙂
Manish
@ manish
i said the same thing that one should read everything and then go for it!
it s the mindset of people that they want to go with LIC or any other provider
but my point is that Govt never functions well so did their partners like LIC
every year we have a scam and these partners are also included in ballooning the market
LIC is a big player and if they remain idle and play blindly in satyam and lose 950 crores its a big concern they were in board of satyam and knew of their balanced sheets and bank account.
LIC is such a huge player which can make any company to give their every detail and check their validity but they failed in satyam case and now will loose a big amount in Telecom stocks due to a Scam by the lovely RAJA
Everyone know the story of UTI scam
they all are PSU’s 🙂
what do you want to say on this thing ?
Nitin
Yes .. I agree with you . I misunderstood you earliar 🙂 . I hope you have read LIC 14,000 loss in their 3 plans : http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/16085127/LIC8217s-triple-blow-Rs14.html
Manish
yeah i read it already !
its a big concern as people are investing without thinking and not learning from past mistakes.
anyways i dont want to hurt anyone here i just want to say be cautious and learn to survive in this cruel world as everyone is eying your money
Nitin
For your first point ,anyone who does not read documents properly should actually not complain later for things mentioned in the documents, Its investors responsibility
Manish
everyone’s experience with govt organizations is horrible
take any service and you have to pay bribe and make round trips to their office
for your whole life you bought a term plan from LIC or any other govt company
and when you are no longer alive ,your family life will become hell as they will make them cry and give bribe,make lots of trips to their office
its better go for icici as they have a good customer support and you can force icici as they are private body and would never want to harm their interest for stopping your payment,in icici you pay for service and can feel relax that ,your family will get the money
i dont belive in govt organizations ,they suck money and nothing gives you a down thumb also.
you can feel this
1) when you go to public bank for loan(they will make you cry)
2) when you go to SBI ,to open PPF account you will cry a lot
3) when you want to open a bank account
4) when you go to renew your motor insurance
5) when you want to get the duplicate copy of your driving license
6) when you want to get the duplicate copy of your vehicle paper if you lost them
lots of examples
for everyone info i already own this policy from icici and relaxing
jago bhaiya jago
Nitin
Are you saying all the cases where people claim term insurance from LIC have to pay the bribe? I dont think so , Do you have any experiences ?
Manish
manish,in india it is very possible & likely thing.
Today I have applied for ICICI I protect.Once payment was done received a maeessage on screen that need to deposit the documents.
Which document exactly need to deposit & where.
I choosed
a)passport=for age proof
b)bank statement=for salary proof
So do i need to deposit bank statement & passport copy.Can i directly go in branch & deposit them.
Plz suggest
@Yogesh – No, you cannot go directly to ANY BRANCH..As this service is centralized at IPRU head office, they will themselves be coming to you to collect the documents or will let you know the branch where you should approach…
This is great. I was looking out for Term Insurance and after reading this post I will surely be investing in ICICI’s iProtect. Thanks for a great review 🙂
You made my day!
Vinod
Welcome 🙂 . JUst make sure you go through the comments also and read the review of actual buyers !
Manish
Hi Manish,
Very good article in ECONOMIC TIMES about Kotak’s online TERM PLAN..Hope it would be of some use to everybody on this blog..
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/insurance/insurance-news/Kotak-Life-Insurance-launches-e-insurance/articleshow/6938845.cms
Dhawal
Yea . looks good to me , however their site is designed only for IE , which is a big turn off for me 🙁
Manish
hey Manish,
New enterent to this ONLINE bogey is FUTURE GENERALI..Check out the link below..I am not that tech-savy to comment on IE or something..You check out and let everybody know…
Dhawal
Thats great . Looks like all the companies will launch their online term plan soon now. Except LIC 🙂 .
manish
Today I was checking Aegon and noted that for 50lakh my premium was 12K and 49 lakh I got a quote of 17K. On checking with Aegon, they told me that it was a special rate for the SA of more than 50L. I am already having a term insurance of 15L with Aegon and there I am paying almost 10.5K. Its called competition 🙂 isnt?
Yes .. also you might be having the term insurance through agent , thats the reason you have high premium
Manish
The services of AEGON RELIGARE are better. I found BIRLA Sunlife, SBI Life and HDFC Services are best. Being a public sector services of LIC are better. But ICICI Prudential Life insurance are just cheaters.
my id is yogeshanand.mca@gmail.com
hi all,
does any one have IRDA report for 2009-2010 yr..plz share the link or paste information here itself.
Hi Yogesh,
i have IRDA’s annual report in PDF format..Please give me your mail id so that i can forward that to you..Its not possible to share it here as its 214-page long and you will need whole day to dig out information that you are looking for
useful link which has inform abt claim rejection reasons.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/iw/2010/05/02/stories/2010050251491100.htm
hi manish & all,
yes can wait. no problem in that.but kotak is not in even top 7 list..so why to wait for such product response.
more over i m to visit on india & want to take some insurance this time.My plan is to take 25 lach frm icici iprotect & later 25lach more if there is any good plan in coming future.whts ur view on iprotect plan ?Shd i go for it ?
Is customer service response is criteria to go or not go..from my views its not as it can be normal response for some & not for other..depend on company executive interest & work load at particular moment.
top seven list is
1 LIC 591097 95% 1% 2%
> 2 MaxNYL 3938 90% 8% 2%
> 3 Birla SunLife 2757 89% 10% 1%
> 4 HDFC Std 2898 88% 5% 7%
> 5 Bajaj Allianz 12011 87% 8% 4%
> 6 Reliance Life 3701 87% 6% 8%
> 7 ICICI Pru 10753 87% 5% 8%
Yogesh
Many readers in comments section have shown their dissatisfaction for bad service and they say that current performance might be a good indicator on how it will be in future when they die and family members have to run around 🙂 .
Manish
Yes Manish..But is it the right criteria to judge..the response may be slow due to many reason.their last yr claim ratio is 89% n thts look good.it means 89 out of 100 people have got their claim successfully..if response is criteria then many more won’t have got their claim.
today i talked with some icici officer thy were telling claim rejection is due to lack or wrong information mostly.if we avoid tht thn any company shd be ok.
Yogesh
Yes , thats a right point actually , if you take care of the information you provide , then there should be no issue while claim .
Manish
hi manish & all,
Yesterday the icici person came to my house for iprotect plan.
I m frm jodhpur & city name is not present for online plan.
Jaipur is present.He is issuing plan using jaipur account(selecting jaipur in online form) & in between thy will put the my city name.
he told me this is work around & there won’t be any issue as if there is any issue in this procedure the policy won’t be issued to me.I told him i want to show all correct information.he mentioned there is no problem & thy do same in such city constraints things.
I told him want 25 lach for 30 yr .sp premium is rs4900 yearly(roughly).there won’t be much medical also for 25lach..medical test will be diabetic,BP,question on family medical history..
While filling form i told him i m NRI..so he told me he can tell better plan.In which i will get insurance of 25lach for 30 yr on low cost.(rs3900) & u will be able to invest as well.both things together.
Take ULIP(life stage waelth II) for one lachs yearly .25lachs insurance will also be there from mrotatity charge which is 3900 yearly.In this way can invest as well as can get insurance of 25lach for 30 yr.
in this ULIP charges are very low 2% first yr & then 98% of money is invested.For 2nd yr 100% investment. Investment (75% equity & 25% debt). In this policy there is auto trigger set by icici for 15% rise & fall.Let say there is increase of 15% then that 15% will be put in money market(which is similar to debt fund). and so there will be three things Equity,money market & debt running in parallel.Now lets say there is fall of 15% then the amt from money market will be used to purchase units at low cost.this whole process is auto & nothing to do frm our side.
previous life stage waelth I yeild 26%..plan doesn’t look bad to me considering low cost as well as this trigger thing.
i don’t want to get plan in place of iprotect as need to pay one lach for 30 yrs instead of 5krs..but in parallel thinking to go for it for some 10-15k ..
whts ur suggestions?..
hi all,
i have made my mind to go for 25 lach icici iprotect plan.Any advises?
dhawal sharma,
how is kotak plan different frm icici iprotect plan..any thing special in kotak plan ?
Yogesh
Why not wait for couple of months and see how the response of customers on their services (Kotak) . You already know from comments that iProtect is not that great in customer service .
Manish
Dear Manish,
Good news…
Even Kotak has come up with its E-term plan..Please check the link below..
https://customer.kotaklifeinsurance.com/einsurance/
First discouraging thing is that the link does not open in Firefox browser; and requires only IE.
🙁
Anand
Agree , they are not thinking about non-windows users , even kotak online buying can be done only via IE 🙁
Manish
I had very very bad experience with this plan. ICICI Pru is poor in customer services. I suggest not to purchase any product from ICICI Pru.
Kumar
A lot of people had this bad experience with ICICI Pru iProtect plan , however there are good experience also . What exactly was your experience , it will help others too ?
Manish
@Manish – With almost 95% of the people facing problem, getting this policy issued ONLINE…i dont think even in urban centers, we AGENTS have to fear for loss of clientage to INTERNET 😉 Whats your take???
Dhawal
yes in a way, there will be no shortage of clients offline , however there would be class of clients whom you can miss after 4-5 years when internet buying is more prevalent and these companies improve their services .
Manish
It’s been a month since I paid the premium in full. Those people collected document TWICE and everything is still pending. The email support is terrible as well, as they do not answer for 5-6 days.
Being a victim, I will strongly advise AGAINST it. If they are this bad in just issuing the policy, imagine the unfortunate scenario of claim.
Vikas
thanks for your update , Its unfortunate that you had bad experience with them , read comments from Siva and others who also had similar experience with iProtect .
manish
I have same experience, I also STRONGLY advice AGAINST iProtect.
I applied for iProtect on 25th Aug 2010, amount is paid on same day, till date policy is not issued.
Narasimha
Narasimha
Bad to know that , why dont you try out what Siva did , go to the office of ICICI Pru and ask them to look into it , better cancel it if it continues after that
Manish
Thanks, One of the Manager, Customer Relations said she will resolve it in a week time. If policy is not issued within a week i will cancel it.
-Narasimha
ok
Hi Manish,
Finally after 2 and 1/5 months.
Online Application tracker showing policy issued on 10/11/2010, some body from ICICIPru called and confirmed that it will be delivered in a week time.
thanks,
Narasimha
Narsimha
Nice . so finally are you satisfied with it or disappointed , what is your next action ?
Manish
As i got the policy i think it is good to stay with it for some time, if the issues continue(i keep watching this blog) then i will stop paying premium.
my iprotect is for 60L, i wanted to take another 50L from LIC.
thanks,
Narasimha
Narsimha
Ok nice to hear that .. better go with it, I dont think there should be issue , keep an eye on the the settlement ratio for next 1-2 yrs
Manish
i think its useless coz i feel 82000 premium if i invest in MF DIVERSIFIED fund for 15 yrs is better than this….
whats your say manidh bhai..
Yes .. you are correct . just make sure that you understand that MF investing is full of volatility so your 1 lac invested today can be 50k in next year , however in long term it would be a good amount , so you need lot of patience and good understanding of mutual funds investing 🙂
Manish
hey Manish Bro…
TODAY i shared everything i learnt with my classmates..they asked me where did u learn it such details..i gave the name of your BLOG..they are also intersted to be a part of this site.
thanks.
i also bought a book today called INSURANCE FOR EVERYONE BY PROF KSHITJ PATKULE.and j hari narayan.(chairman irda) awesome book.
Now bro. teach me some basics of MF..
Amarjit
Nice to hear that 🙂 . Thanks
You can read about mutual funds from archives https://www.jagoinvestor.com/archives
seee : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2007/11/what-is-mutual-funds-easy-explaination.html
Also search on the top search bar on blog and read all articles on mutual funds at https://www.jagoinvestor.com/category/mutual-funds
Manish
hey manish bhai….
today i received an email 4m policy bazar saying 12 to 13 % guaranteed returns……
i am giving details for your analysis……..duration 15 yrs
insurer policy name premium money back tax adjusted returns
guarntd. variable total
kotak money back plan 82790/- 1200000/- 408900/. 1608900/ 11.03%
similarly icici pru has 13% returns…………
what is it actually…….????
plz share with us..
Amarjit
It might be playing with words , They might have used returns before tax , so if you get 13% return from your policy and then apply tax you give at 30% , then its return is 9% , so eventually the actual return is 9% only , when we say returns in financial world, it is generally the return we get after paying tax , but in this product they might have used the pre-tax returns. Dont go for it .
Any product which has “Endowment” or “Money back” word should be avoided .
Manish
hi,,,,,,,,,to all in this blog………..
and special hello to MANISH…………
THANX for a nice blog…………its really awesome and practical site for one to learn from others………………i saw it today(8th nov 2010 )only……..it happened by chance to visit your blog………………and instantly i liked it…………..
i m a medical student going to be intern next year………….so you have rightly guessed my knowledge about money ,economics,,,,,,,,and insurance………….i m totally ZERO in these except medicines…………….
so manish i ask you a favour to teach me some basics of insurance……………….for which i shall be evergrateful to you………
i know you will laugh out loud answering to my questions…………..but please bear it…………as i m only a starter…………or so called a beginner………
MY FIRST QUESTION IS——in a term plan say i have 1 crore insurance……….for 30 years………..
now after 30 years………considering nothing happened to me…………will i get 1 crore or nothing at all…………..
i hope u take my knowledge about insurance as learning A,B,C,D………….
as till now i never thought about it except science………
plz reply
i searched in net but i could not understand…………..like
Amarjit
Term insurance is for risk cover , you will not get anything if you are ALIVE till end, but you will get 1 crore if you die .
Manish
hey bro…………….my mother had lic policy…………………and after its maturity…………they returned the sum for which she was insured………..
what type of policy is it??
if i dont get anything at last……………then i think……………1 crore term isurance is not at all right………….better have 10 lacs term……………rest invest in mutual funds…………..whats your opinion bro……….
and also bro………….whats an endowment plan……………??????
Amarjit
You are talking and thinking in the same way like every common person does , you think that “not getting anything at end” is bad , which is not the case , note that the purpose of both term insurance and investment product is different and we pay different cost for it .
You should read these two articles :
https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2009/08/why-people-dont-like-term-insurance-and.html
https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2008/10/why-endowment-policy-are-never-best_08.html
PS : In your comment ,why do you leave so many dots “…….” like this , it makes the comment unreadable and sometimes tolerable 🙂 torture 🙂
manish
My friends whom I asked
“You pay car/2 wheeler insurance or health insurance premia every year, do you really wish you bang your vehicle or got sick just because you want something in return ?” answered “No”.
My next question was “Then why do you expect to get back something from the Life insurance while you were alive?” 🙂
I explained them how they can get a term insurance and MF to create something similar to the ULIP. And with MF they had the choice to select various Fund Houses.
If they really did not want to get through all these then go for ULIP.
Ajay
yes … Another point with Car or 2 wheeler insurance is that its compolsory to take those insurance , and unlike life insurance there is no variant which pays them back the money incase there was no accident . What do you say ? does this point make a difference ?
Manish
There is no vehicle insurance policy that does not pay the amount back, but there is always no claim bonus. I guess that acts as a “dangling carrot” for the consumers to make or not to make any claims 🙂
Ajay
ahh yea .. I missed that no-claim thing 🙂
Manish
dear manish bro…………
THANX for the link.I told you that i am a beginner so i asked questions like idiot but after going through calculations in the link, Now i am pretty clear about term insurance..really even if i dont get something its really helpful,cause nobody is secure in todays world….
BUT since i am 24 years now i think….i should have a term insurance of 30 lacs for 30 years,,,,so that i am covered upto 50 years and then take another policy when i am say 45+ years for 30 yrs so that i am covered upto 75 yrs..(if i survive,then by that time i can make money from MF and my profession enough for my family to survive)…and if i dont survive then term policy will take careof my kins .
THANX….in the first day itself i learnt many things…..today i read only your blogs whole day……amazing..thinking of yours..HATS OF TO YOU.
hey manish bro…………
THANX for the link.I told you that i am a beginner so i asked questions like idiot but after going through calculations in the link, Now i am pretty clear about term insurance..really even if i dont get something its really helpful,cause nobody is secure in todays world….
BUT since i am 24 years now i think….i should have a term insurance of 30 lacs for 30 years,,,,so that i am covered upto 50 years and then take another policy when i am say 45+ years for 30 yrs so that i am covered upto 75 yrs..(if i survive,then by that time i can make money from MF and my profession enough for my family to survive)…and if i dont survive then term policy will take careof my kins .
THANX….in the first day itself i learnt many things…..today i read only your blogs whole day……amazing..thinking of yours..HATS OF TO YOU.
Amarjit
Thanks for your appreciation , read all the articles in archives section and you will get a lot of cool stuff to learn 🙂
Manish
and hey BRO……………there is a comedy then…..look for policybazar advertisements FOR TERM PLAN……………..they say…………become a crorepati @ 55 yrs by investing………..rs 561 only…………..THAT MEANS they wish us to die @55 yrs……………..hahahaha…..lol
Yes
then its really funny 🙂
Manish
hi Bro………hw r u??
i m really thankful to you.In 1 day i learnt about term and endowment plan..thanks.
i will never invest in endowment plan.seriously after the calculation shown by you in the link.thanks once again.
i feel 4m my heart that you r doing a gr8 job..coz you r making a non commerce people like me understands the basics of life.otherwise i would have landed up in same trap with others..thankx bro..one day i will definately give you treat..
I HAVE DECIDED TO GO IN A BALANCE WAY AFTER READING ALL YOU BLOGS–
TERM +PPF+MF(both ELSS AND DIVERSIFIED).
what do you think ?am i right?
Amarjit
Yes , in a way you are in right direction , atleast you are not in wrong direction now, but you still have many things to learn and implement it to make your financial life from better to awesome 🙂 .
So keep reading 🙂 . You can give me treat by spreading this knowledge to others and forwarding this blog link to more and more people .
Manish
Hi Manish / All,
Finally I got my money back on this week. Thanks for all the help and advice.
Jagoinvestor Rocks.
Cheers !!!!
Siva
Good to hear that 🙂 ..
Manish
Hi Manish & All,
Through email conversation with ICICI pru life came to know that This policy applicable only for following 58 cities.I not from these cities so does it mean can’t buy this policy..This is online policy still cities constraints.Is it true?Can any one explain.
AHMEDABAD
ALLAHABAD
AMRITSAR
BANGALORE
BEHRAICH
BHOPAL
BHUBANESWAR
CHANDIGARH
CHENNAI
COCHIN
COIMBATORE
DEHRADUN
DELHI
FAIZABAD
FARIDABAD
GONDA
GURGAON
GUWAHATI
HALDWANI
HUBLI
HYDERABAD
INDORE
JAIPUR
JALANDHAR
JAMSHEDPUR
KANPUR
KOLKATA
LAKHIMPUR
LUCKNOW
LUDHIANA
MANGALORE
MUMBAI
NAGPUR
NASHIK
NOIDA
PANCHKULA
PANIPAT
PANJIM
PUNE
RAIBARELI
RAIPUR
RAJKOT
RANCHI
SALEM
SECUNDERABAD
SITAPUR
SURAT
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
THRISSUR
TRIVANDRUM
URAN
VADODARA
VARANASI
VISAKHAPATNAM
Yogesh
yes thats true , you should have a valid address proof in those cities if you want to buy the iProtect online version , however you can always buy iProtect offline version from an agent, which will cost more 🙂
Manish
I want buy iProtect from Belgaum what to do?
SK Birbi
If you look at https://www.jagoinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/files/img/files/iProtect%20list%20of%20citites.txt , Belgaum is not listed , but I think you can still buy it from an agent , kindly go to ICICI prudential office in your city and enquire
Manish
Hi,
I am a resident of Kannur. I was able to purchase the iProtect online
HI Ashwin and Vijay,
Yes, you are true what you have said with ICICI but you see their true color when you approach them to close your Bank / Loan Account. This happened to one of my friends. However, they are the best in Indian Banking industry.
Thanks for sharing your experience and pls keep continue to do so. So, the rest of the readers will benefit out of it.
As Manish rightly said, these issues will crop up at root level but how quick they are overcoming it up that matters.
Today i requested them to give me a soft copy of the medical report and they gave it to me within a day. Atleast I need not do a medical checkup for one year 🙂 BTW they had issued me the policy as a Standard policy.
Ashwin
Good to hear that 🙂
I have a query here. If the insurance company wants you to undergo medical checkup then who will pay the bill for checkup?
we have to pay or the company will pay? Also who will choose the hospital?
Thanks
Anand
Anand
Company pays for that and they will choose the hospital , however if you return your policy within lookup period , they will cut the charges .
Manish
Siva,
I too had bad experience with ICICI, I went through the same things as you went. Canceled the policy and got my refund after two months. That also after several follow-ups and reminders. Better to invest in good renowned companies like LIC, don’t mind paying higher premium.
At least you will have a peace of mind and know for sure that if anything happens to you, your family will be secure. I don’t think IRDA does anything, they get over hundreds of mails and calls daily.
Would love to get feedback from members on ICICI claim settlement experience.
Rakesh
Hi Rakesh,
Nice to hear your experience too although it was not pleasant. As you rightly said LIC is best despite their expensive premium. With them the claims are not an issue for the genuine cases but I doubt with ICICI. I don’t hear anyone had settled for their claims.
Members: Pls share your claim experiences.
Thanks Ashwin for the information. Will check out ICICI Pru branch tomorrow. My experience has been just phone calls.
1> Bought online on 24th.
2>Got the medical center doc and completed tests on Oct 2nd.
3>Documents will be collected is what i get from the past 11 times that ICICI has called. 3 times to verify the document content, 3 times to check if i have completed medical, 2 times to take feedback(before i gave they hang up :). ) Sent an email with the problem and they replied policy is being issued (without documents). Raised Level 2 escalation on there website and no response there also…
I have had around 8 years of banking with ICICI and still hold them best among all. But this experience has left a very bad taste. I hope the branch will be able to help.
Regards
Vijay
@siva & @manish
True. I & my family have been a customers with ICICI since 2000. I have occasionally seen such slip-ups from them whenever they have launched a different product, which of course are unforgivable. But they seem to pull up their socks after some time. I guess same might be true with ICICI Pru. My last 10 year experience with them has been above average to good. Based on this relation I did not cancel the policy but gave them one more opportunity. The too big or too old to fail theory has been tested recently, but i still preferred ICICI.
Hi Ashwin,
Its good that finally you got the policy after approaching the branch. ICICI could inform the customers to visit the nearest branch to complete the formalities rather than not responding to the customer mails / or not sending the executives to home. But my concern & doubt is whether our family members can handle these un-scrupulous people in future suppose if we are not there. Eveyone wish not to face those days 🙂
However, I wish you all the best !!!
Just want to share my experience:
1) I applied for iProtect on 12th Sept. I got a welcome call on 13th Sept, and was told that someone would contact me within 48 hours to collect documents and medical exam details.
2) Nothing Happened till Sept 26th (13 days), althought i called their call center, and wrote emails to their helpline id. A standard answer to wait for another 48 hours and a diplomatic courteous reply was always give.
3) Since I had to leave India for a business trip on Oct 4th, I called up the local ICICI Pru branch office in Mangalore and spoke to a nice gentleman Sunil. Sunil within 3 days arranged and completed my medicals exam and collected all the required documents. The part was completed by Sept 30th.
4) The policy was issued by Oct 19th, and today I was able to access the policy details online.
In Brief: The policy issuance time period was similar to a regular term policy issued to me earlier by SBI Life, but ICICI Pru needs to get its setup streamlined. The initial 13 days were a total no show by the company, either due to logistics reasons or some other bad messup.
For people who want to go in for this policy, please do, but beware that you might have to go down to the branch for some document submission. Remember there is no agent involved, and you have to do all the work 😉 I would do it, if it saves 50% of my premium costs.
Overall experience (3 out of 5) – mostly due to communications gaps on ICICI Pru’s side. But the branch gentleman saved ICICI Pru’s face value.
My part done, and hope that ICICI Pru will deliver when it matters (Hope that day never comes :D).
Ashwin
Thats good to hear . Another reader Siva didnt had that good experience (0 out of 5) and had to finally cancel his policy after frustration for many weeks 🙂 .
Good to hear your comments , it adds value for others . Keep commenting 🙂
Manish
HI,
When you choose occupation as “Home Maker” the webpage closes with saying “Sorry we can’t process for you” something like this.
🙁
Siva
I suggest you call customer care and ask them for which category is it , might be you get a chance to choose another,if still it does not resolve , try other online insurers
Manish
Hi Mangesh,
Good to hear and you are lucky. Unfortunately this policy is not offered to the home makers.
Siva
Do you mean house wife ? Or anyone who is not earning ? What if house wife also has some income ?
Manish
As I wrote in one of the posts above, I applied for metprotect from metlife through online last Sunday. Immediately I got an email confirming my application number, premium amount and the list of documents to be submitted. After two days I got a call from their representative confirming that the credit card payment is processed and medical tests would be planned soon. On Thursday I got a call confirming the center where I need to go for medical check up and I have scheduled it for Sunday.
So far experience is not so bad!!
Mangesh
Good to hear that 🙂 . First review about Metprotect 🙂
Same thing happened for me with ICICIPru for iProtect.
After one month they called me and said they need some more documents, they will come and collect, Now it is 2months nothing happened.
I sent lot of mails to lifeline email, most of them has no answer. 2 days back some one sent a mail from his company email(not lifeline email) said he will revert back in 2 days.
waiting for his updates.
HI Manish /All Readers,
Yesterday morning I had personally visited the ICICI Pru Hosur Branch and gave them a written request to cancel my application and got the acknowledgment of the receipt also. In the same evening ICICI Customer Care had sent a mail to submit the relevant documents to the nearest branch. I don’t understand why this suggestion or information had not been given to me 15 Days before ?? This is because I had given them a written request. Otherwise they will simply hold the money without issuing the policy to the customer. How do we call this practice ? Cheating ? Anyway I opted for application cancellation.
Readers — Please don’t see 200 / 300 rupees savings while taking the insurance policy. Kindly look at it in long term prospective, better corporate image and best claim ratio. Because, do you want your children / wife want to have such kind of mental agony from this unscrupulous people ?? Can they handle them after 30 years if we are not there? Definitely not. LIC is always best and they don’t deny any claims for genuine cases. They may not be much advanced in Technology stand point but their customer service is much more better than any other insurers.
This is why ICICI is hated by many. I had taken a personal loan long time back from them and I was told there will not be any processing fees. But when loan was sanctioned, it came with 1% processing fess.
In short, they do not keep their promises.
I’m planning to go to Kotak for term insurance. Hoping for better experience.
–Anand
Hi Anand,
As per my experience all the private insurers are in the same line except HDFC.
HDFC is little bit better than all other. My personal opinion is to take either from LIC or HDFC. Think of down the line 25 – 30 Years.
We just need to decide the insurers what if we don’t outlive the term. But in general we think as if we outlive entire term, so the premium is to be cheap.
You don’t believe, the BIRLA Sun Life people had forged my signatures in some places when I filed the application the Dream Plan. ICICI & BIRLA taught me a good lesson.
Dear all,
Today I have called up IRDA Call centre and registered the complain against ICICI Pru Life Insurance. Lets see whether ICICI will respond to them or not.
COMPLAINT NO# 637/ICPLI
Siva
thats great to hear 🙂
Dear All,
Recently ICICI Pru Life had launched a online policy called iProtect where you can buy this insurance product without any advisor and thus you can save lot of money on the premium payment. They call it as a first of its kind policy in India. I lured by this and bought this product online by paying the premium Rs.2356/- for 12 Lakhs coverage. My application number is# OL00031197. I bought this policy on 30-Sep-2010 and I have got a mail saying someone from the nearest branch will collect the necessary documents before issuing the policy. But till today no one had contacted and I had sent around 30 Mails to customer care, grievance rederessal team but no response from them.
It clearly shows that ICICI had come up with the very good fake insurance product just to loot the customer money. This is a classic case of Corporate robbery.
I advise all the readers not to take this policy… Instead of taking this policy you can donate that money into your nearest temple Hundi / Charrity.. Atleast you and they will be happy.
Kindly call me at mobile 8124676122 before you make any decision.
Siva
Thats sad to hear, did you call their customer care and try to find out why this is happening , surely there has to be some issue, as many have got their policy successfully .
Manish
what kind of document are required to be collected for iterm?
Even if some doc are required it may due to laziness of some employee or some other reason.Better go to branch directly and report matter to their manager.
I think its not a big issue.U can resolve it easily
Siva,
Better to send one mail to IRDA instead sending 30 mails to customer care & grievance redressal. Better to try once. Will be good for others to hear outcome of this.
Regards
HI,
Thanks for the replies. I marked copy to IRDA and Insurance Ombudsman in all 30 Mails but it all gone down to the drain. No response from their end as well. As it is a online policy I dont think local branches will help out.
Siva
I would suggest you now go to the consumer court if IRDA and ombudsman is not working , did you try to call them on the numbers they provide for help .
Manish
Hi Siva,
I had faced a similar issue initially. When I called customer care and quoted my application no they told me that they can’t update me on that coz they have data of only processed applications. They told me to go to nearest ICICI Prudential office.
When I went there, I got an update that my application wasn’t processed because I hadn’t submitted the docs… but I told them that nobody contacted me to get the docs.. they said that I can submit the doc there itself.. So I decided to submit it next day but I got a call from courier agency that they are coming to collect.. and then it went ahead… few days later got an email with medical test details as well..
So I guess the problem was the inefficiency of the courier guys. Suggest you to do the same.
Abhinov
Good to hear your experience , I have escalated Shiva’s experience directly to the PR dealing with ICICI pru , hope to get some positive response from them
Manish
Me too, think the logistics was not tied up properly for this launch, esp in some cities like Mangalore. Abhinov, where city did u apply from?
Hi Ashwin,
I am applying from Pune. I am yet to get my policy, but I guess it usually takes about a month for policy processing. I believe it is the third-party courier guys which are acting as bottleneck for smooth processing of applications. So my suggestion to everyone applying for this policy would be to wait for a max of 1 week after applying for the policy. And if you don’t get a call from courier guys to collect your docs, rush to the nearest ICICI Pru office so that things move ahead.
Manish,
It would be great if you can communicate this issue to ICICI so that they can improve their service.
Abhinov
They should be following up this comments thread by now 🙂
Manish
What is the same in case of KOTAK?
It is not even in list. Can dhaval provide his views on this?
How much right to look in these figures for decision on buying?
Jig
Past claim ratio definately helps , but you should understand that mainly you have to concentrate on proper documentation and right information in the policy document .
Manish
As claim settlement is low for Metlife ..i think till now ICICI protect looks best if any one is looking for online term insurance
As per me for now can take 25 lach from ICICI and wait for some time as other companies will also come in market with iterm plan that time take 25 lachs more.
Yogesh
Yes you can wait for some months , as there will be new companies entering the market with their online policies , which one are you waiting for actually ? LIC ? it will probably not happen 🙂
Manish
I applied for metprotect and for 39 yr, non smoking, premium is around 15000 (inluding service tax, education sess). They have scheduled an appointment for some one to collect the documents and also listed all the medical checkups that are to be done. So far the response seems to be quite positive. Will update once all the formalities are completed.
There is no additional accident death coverage option with metprotect
Mangesh
Good to hear that you feel positive about it . Wait for some days to see if they come on time and do all the formalities , as most of the people did not have good experience from puntuality point of view from these companies offering online term plans .
Do keep us posted
Manish
Hi Manish & All,
Met-Protect is cheaper than ICICI _Protect for 25 lachs sum assured and for 50 lachs is bit more than icici.
Met_protect has another benefit ..U can get insureance 35 yrs but in icici its only for 30 years.
In term of claim settlement Met-protect ranking seems to below ICICI.
Met-protect is not in even top seven.
1 LIC 591097 95% 1% 2%
2 MaxNYL 3938 90% 8% 2%
3 Birla SunLife 2757 89% 10% 1%
4 HDFC Std 2898 88% 5% 7%
5 Bajaj Allianz 12011 87% 8% 4%
6 Reliance Life 3701 87% 6% 8%
7 ICICI Pru 10753 87% 5% 8%
Manish is my analysis correct ?
http://www.metlifeonline.co.in/wps/portal/metprotect/buyonline
Regards
Yogesh
Yogesh
Yes you are correct ,but those are features only , is there a case where you need 35 yrs of insurance ? You have to take insurance for the remaining years in your retirement .
Manish
Metlife has come up with a similar product now. The product name is metprotect. When I compared the premium, it is slightly on the higher side compared to iprotect. But I guess Metlife has a better name compared to ICICI Prudential.
Mangesh
Is it ? great to know about it
Manish
Hi
At last after going through your blogs, I’ve decided to purchase a term insurance of 25L (25L is available through group term insurance at office). I’ve narrowed down between iTerm and iProtect. Since Religare is new to this business it’s a bit scary to enter iTerm. I would like to know if the following things are covered in both these policies or whether I need t
o get some riders to avail these..
1. Natural Death – Covered in both
2. Death due to Accident – Rider required?
3. Suicide – iTerm is providing insurance cover after one year, not sure about iProtect
4. Death due to Natural Calamities like Tsunami
5. Death due to Terrorist attack
6. Permanent Disability – Rider required?
Once again thanks for your wonderful blog and I’d come up with more questions if I have.
Regards
Ravi
Ravi
read this : https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2010/09/9-most-asked-questions-about-term-insurance.html
HI,
I don’t know much about the policies. but i just need to know in iprotect term plan what will happen to the premium. can it be withdraw in the middle or at the end of plan?
Please clear.
Thanks
VIjay
Its a term Insurance plan . It covers you for the risk, thats all . You wont get the premium at the end or in middle , which is fine as it gives you protection .
Manish
Is I protect gives money back if on the maturity of policy the insurer is alive? If yes than how much? or it is pure term plan which returns nothing at the end.
Sandeep
yes its pure term plan , nothing at the end
Dear Manish,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I had taken ICICI pure protect elite (offline ) with ADB, Critical illness riders last year in nov.
i checked at icici iprotect & religare iterm. for 5oL the premiums are 5600 & 5050 respectively + service tax. however the poilcy years are 30Y & 25Y, adv. ICICI.
I am thinking of going with ICICI, it is better known in the market and stop the one purchased offline.
regards
Looks good
hi manish,
wanted a small suggestion from you. i have taken ICICI Prudential Pure Protect Elite for 50Lakh, the annual premium is 12K, i am 29 years old and would be 30 in november and taken this policy when i was 29 years in December10.
I read this and saw that the premium cost for 1crore is 15k, fro my age for 30 years, shall i close my existing policy and take this one for 1 crore, i would be paying 3 thousand extra but will get 50L additional sum assured? what would you say? by the way i am a smoker.
Vikrant
First of all , is this current premium of 12k for 50lacs is considering your are a smoker ? have you disclosed the fact to company or not ?
Yes it would make sense to close it and take online term plan for 1 crore , as right now u are also paying agent commission . Split into 2 companies
Manish
Yes manish, i did disclose. one more question if i split into two companies then i wont get this special rate ? also would be i paying more cause this one is the cheapest?
hi manish
Thank you for posting this nice article.I am 29 Y old. I had taken term plan from icici for 50L & 12k as premium. Now i want to close this and go for iterm policy. is it a good idea? can you eloborate on “split into 2 companies”. Which 2 companies?.
regards
Sekhar
Yes you can go for iterm , but better thing would be to take more insurance in iTerm rather than closing the icici term plan (is it iprotect) , see how much difference is there in premium . Two companies should be one which you feel should be the best in claim settlement .
Manish
Hi,
This is Anil and I want to buy a onlice policy but i dont have credit card . So please let me know how can i purchased online without Credit card???
Anil
You have to see which other payment ways are supported by the company you want to buy it from , It might support netbanking or debit card .
Manish
I-Protect plan by ICICI Pru not for the people who are smoker, Alcohol user and had any disease in past whether it is treated successfully. They are thinking the person who is smoking, drinking alcohol and any health problem will die soon after getting this policy and company will not able to pay the claim. Company will offer insurance only healthy & wealthy persons. If someone is financially strong, non-smoker and non-alcohol user can contact them. They will immediate insure you upto selling the plan, because they are thinking the healthy person will not die soon, and all his/her premium will put in pocket.
Rajpal
What is the basis of what you are talking , can you give reasons of why you think like that ?
Manish
Dear Manish,
Around 25 days ago, I have bought this policy online and fill up all the information as per available options in the online form. After that I have 2-3 communication they have confirm the application form in the proposal stage. Finally today I received the confidential mail letter of rejection of application due to medical assessment by doctor and their team. I got surprised that without any medical test how they can assess my health risk as every 2nd person in India are smoker and drinker. Even I disclosed the I had tuberculous in past but I have cured successfully and this would not be major health risk in future as by doctor. And as per my knowledge every 7th person in India having T.B. problem either chest T.B. or throat infection related.
Rajpal
Sad to hear that .. But its not a general case , there are many people who are smoker and have health issues , but they were issued policies for more premium . So I would say there is some reason for rejection which was not communicated properly from company
Try to consider offline options like Kotak or SBI , I am sure you wont be disappointed .
Manish
what is difference between option 1 and option 2 in i Protect?
whether in option 1 will cover accidental death?
most of the customer care executive in icici dont have enough information about iprotect…i dont have confidence in taking the policy in icici
Jayakumar
May be you have not read the article properly , its clearly mentioned there.
option 1: Regular term insurance ,accidental death is also covered .
option 2 : You get an additional money if you die from accident , you already get the regular cover money .
Manish
Thanx
I lived in nilokheri distt. Karnal haryana. Our town is not included in list of cities reffered for i term and i protect. Both company asked me i have any relative in concern city . I think their purpose behind it to show me resident of that particular city. After receieve policy bond they will change my adress to m