Buying online is supposed to be a one click thing and with significant savings in distribution costs. But it ain’t that simple!

Here’s an account of Hitesh, an informed guy(after all he’s my reader!), who wants to buy term insurance online. But there are many hiccups along the way and he recounts them in his mails to me. Here it is:

You may also be interested in reading, How to buy life insurance

ICICI Iprotect is one of the cheap online term plan, but not the best till now. It has many initial troubles, which the customers face, hence making it really useless one. I have seen lot and lot of customers that have taken it online and still not received the policy even after 2-3 months and that too after constant follow up and complains (Some have taken there money back and others are waiting for it).
It seems ICICI is not much concerned about it and hence its reputation. It makes everyone think that when customers are having that much trouble just in getting (buying) the policy, what will happen in sad incidence of claim, that to, which will be done by wife / children in your absence.

I have done some initial study on these term plans and finds that Kotak is little better then ICICI in terms of getting the policy without much follow up and has exactly the same premium as that of iprotect for male of 30yrs. There is also Metlife term plan (Met Protect) offering same type of plan in same type of premium (it has the advantage that you can take policy up to 35 yrs; of course with extra premium.)

Now deciding which is the best out of these 4 companies is what I am still unable to do.
1: Religare Iterm
2: ICICI Iprotect
3: Kotak Eterm
4: Metlife Metprotect

Can you help? I was going for ICICI, but seeing customers in lot of trouble/harassment and getting there policy canceled, I withheld my decision to go with ICICI with the time being.

Subsequent Mail:
I tried to buy it from Kotak, and can you believe they have Delhi & NCR as the city and, when we fill in the details like my address and my company address, it takes Delhi by default in address and does not give option of Noida and Faridabad. And it cannot be changed there.

And when I asked their Customer care, (1800 209 8800), he was most useless fellow, he first said, it’s not available in your city, then he said, NCR, you can cut the address in the print out and write there manually your city, and sign, then i asked there won’t be any problem in future, he said, you cannot buy it.. I asked why its written NCR then, and how you say its in 52 cities. He said you cannot buy it.

This is the type of experience I have just before I can buy the policy.
And that person was taking like he was doing a big favour towards me by talking with me, and I am the seller and he is the customer. Very unprofessional of him.

Now what you suggest, should I go with ICICI. Also ICICI customer care was comparatively better , Actually there buying policy did not allowed other then credit card or there own (ICICI) bank net banking. I wrote to them and I think after a week I got a call that all other online banks are available now and you can complete your buying the policy.
My ICICI experience is better this time.

This is a real account of a net savvy guy trying to make an informed decision. But the level of services leaves much to be desired. Infact I tried to use the Premium Calculator on Kotak’s website and they asked me to get Internet Explorer! It did not work on Firefox!!

I had a feeling that ICICI would be technologically more advanced than the others and Hitesh experience validates that. But is that reason enough to go for ICICI iProtect?

Can you help Hitesh by sharing your experience? Thanks

Ranjan Varma edits Personal Finance Online Weekly, conducts Financial Planning Workshops and is building RupeeManager software and can be contacted by email @ ranjan@ranjanvarma.com and by mobile +91 9867755615

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