Review in one line for quick readers: easy way in but difficult like hell to get out.
I made a mistake of investing through them more than 5 years back when I was new to investment world. Back then a friend of mine convinced me to buy from them(for a hefty commission he was earning through me). My horror started when I tried to close this policy this year and kept on finding more and more hurdles in doing so. Today, it has been 3 months and I still am not able to close this policy.
There is no easy way to exiting the policy and taking out money. Sure they have everything online to accept premium payments and send email alerts when premium is not paid in time. But to cancel your policy you have to visit the branch - get in queue, maybe wait for half an hour before you get to speak with some busy executive who’ll give you his 5 minute of precious time. Then they will tell you you are missing those policy paper that they sent a decade ago and you should have saved it. And the drama goes on. They’ll have 100 excuses to make you give up on closing the policy.
The basic strategy of big companies like ICICI Prudential is simple: you can easily invest with them without even getting outside your room, i.e. agent comes to your home, collects money and basically everything is done automatically while you are sitting and watching TV. However to close the policy you’ll have to work like hell, and if your time is more expensive than a plumber then you end up wasting money just waiting in their office.
Guys this is one of the best advice ever I received: You can’t trust a bank to manage your investments. Banks have no interest in making you rich, they have their own interests at heart, and your interests as a customer comes at last. If you really want to invest, learn stock market investments and manage your portfolio yourself. Sure it’s difficult but so was learning A-B-C when you were a kid.