I was looking for a term plan and Religare’s iTerm plan came across as a cost effective and modern term plan, what with all the buy online and you are done promises.However, once I bought the plan online from Religare’s website, the real face of Religare came out in the open.
Customer Care calls:
First, it was the numerous calls they made to confirm if I was able to buy it online. Now, I had bought it online successfully after one failed attempt due to some network or browser related issue. I felt like they don’t even strike your name off their list of failed transactions once you confirm that you have bought it successfully.
Documents:
Then, they asked me for the documents to be collected from my home. I got a mail informing me about the appointed date and time of documents collection. I stayed at home one whole day waiting for the Religare guy to show up to collect my documents. But, he didn’t show up.
When I complained to the person who sent me the mail, she told me to courier it instead of waiting. So, I couriered the docs the next day. Then this guy calls me the third day and makes some excuses for not showing up.
Medicals:
The medicals were the best part of the whole experience. Probably because they were outsourced to Sagar Clinic who sent two of their docs to my home and conducted all tests (blood samples, urine sample, ECG etc). I have no complaints regarding the medicals.
Processing/Issuance:
I had some doubts about the documents to be submitted as I had quit my job and started a business. The same person clarified the documents required and I had couriered the same.
But, after waiting for one and half months, they send me a letter form their underwriting department asking for the same documents that I had sent and their back office person had acknowledged receipt.
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.
All this and the delay of > 1.5 months made me rethink about my decision to go with Religare.
Throughout these 1.5 months and even beyond that, I kept getting follow up calls from their sales department if I was able to complete the online transaction. I kept telling them the current status of my successful application and requested them to remove my name from their list. But, looks like they get access to a "read only" database which can’t be modified in any way.
No doubt, they are charging 1/3rd the premium of the costliest term plan (from LIC). But, the lack of good service, coordination and professionalism of their stay made me nervous about their service and commitment towards their customer in the unfortunate event of a claim by my family members.
This time, I was around to deal with these guys. But, when and if I am not around, I don’t want my family members to jump through hurdles to get what is rightfully theirs.
So, I took a call to withdraw my application (before it was issued) and started gearing up for a fight for the refund of my premium.
Luckily, as the policy was not issued yet, I got full refund of the premium I paid online via cheque.
Funnily enough, I got another copy of the same letter from their underwriting department for the documents about 7 days after I received the refund for my cancelled application.
This confirm my suspicion about the lack of coordination and utter mismanagement that prevails in Religare.
I hired a financial advisor who totally rejected Religare’s iTerm as a reliable term plan as Religare is very new in the insurance industry in India is yet to prove it’s reliability in terms of good solvency and claims settlement ratio.
If you want 100% peace of mind, please go with LIC’s Amulya/Anmol Jeevan Term plan. With LIC’s 99% claims settlement ratio vs 87% avg for private players, it’s best to stick with LIC even if you have to pay higher premiums.
Your soul will regret saving a few thousands on the premiums when it sees your loved ones running helter skelter and being tortured by these greedy insurance companies.
Having said that, if you really like private insurance firms, a smart strategy to hedge your bets and save on premiums could be to split your required sum assured among a mix of private and LIC policies.
But, please think twice before going with Religare.
If you’re still not convinced, read this -> https://bachatkhata.com/2011/03/claim-settlement-ratio-for-life-insurance-companies-2009-2010.html
On Aegon Religare it says - "Information published in IRDA website also shows that Aegon Religare settled only 24 claims out of the 50 claims it received in the year 2009-10 ending the year with a claim settlement ratio of 48%."
So, everything else being equal, at the end of the day .... " You get what you pay for " ;-)