I have 2 ULIP policies from HDFC Standard life insurance. One for life insurance and pension plan. ULIP comes with very high upfront charges which makes them unattractive. Let me explain my experience with the insurance company.
Positives:
1) Bought the plans through an agent who gave a good service. He did a good job servicing the policy and setting up the online account.
2) Once online account was setup, all the policy maintenance service is very good.
Negatives:
1) Very high upfront charges. Always better to buy a ELSS mutual fund and a term insurance then buying a ULIP plan.
2) All the HDFC ULIP equity plans have underperformed the market in past 2 years. Since one have already paid the charges upfront now you cannot switch to a different scheme.
3) Now that the mutual fund entry load has been removed for direct application and service tax has been imposed on all ULIP charges, it makes ULIP much more expensive.
4) I tried to make premium payment online and has requested for the same one month in advance and nobody has contacted me in past 7 months after I gave the request.
Overall the HDFC service is not so bad but charges are extremely high. I will be closing my policy after the payment for 3 years.
Avoid ULIP(Think before you Leap) in 99.99% cases. Best would be take a ELSS mutual fund with an term insurance.