ICICI Lombard Motor Insurance: Online Renewal: High Cost, Low Value

You all must have seen the recent ad of ICICI Lombard Motor Insurance. This ad has a person mentioning the following: "Raat ke 11 baje the, motor insurance khatam ho raha tha. I got it online at ICICILombard.com". Basically meaning that "It was 11 PM at night, my car insurance coverage was getting over, so I just logged onto ICICILombard.com and got it at an instant.

This ad from ICICI Lombard Insurance, sometimes comes in solo, or clubbed with other ads like that of Travel insurance, etc.

So I thought of giving it a go. Had bought a vehicle last year and the vehicle seller had not offered me any choice of selecting the insurer for my vehicle hence I was forced with this ICICILombard Policy.
Now, it was nearing 1 year, so I decided to renew it online. See what happened.

When I tried to generate a quote for a new insurance (not a renewal) for my vehicle on ICICILombard.com, I was quoted a price of around 930 Rs.

However, when I asked for a quote for renewing my existing policy for the next year, it was higher 1076 Rs. Unfortunately, I generated the new insurance policy quote after I had opted for renewal, so lost 140 Rs. in the process.

That is the cost of getting everything at the click of the button from your office/home.

What is more interesting is the Insurance Declared Value - there has been a significant reduction in the IDV value of my vehicle (more than 13% reduction), but the premium then charged for the renewal was increased (almost 15% increase - from 930 to 1076 Rs.)

Now I agree that IDV can go lower as time passes by, but why to charge heavily (as high as 15% extra), just because a customer is renewing his insurance.

Is this the way the loyal customers are to be treated???

Then, as another sample check, I tried generating a quote for my vehicle on Bajaj Allianz Insurance Site. For the same vehicle, I got a price quote of the same 930 Rs. from Bajaj Allianz. Had I took my vehicle to a nearby Bajaj Allianz Insurance shop (just 1 Km from my place), I would have saved almost 150 Rs. (that's more almost 15% savings). Even if I had taken my vehicle to ICICI Lombard shop (around 3 Kms), and instead of renewing my exisitng policy, had I opted for a new one, I would have again saved the same amount of money from the same insurer.

What I cannot understand is why this kind of malpractices exists. I agree that a company needs to invest in infrastructure and operational costs for IT services, but is it justified to charge extra from a customer who is renewing the same policy, that to to the tune of 15% high premium??

I managed to identify this after paying the price. Do ICICILombard expects a customer to remain loyal to them with such practices??

Next time, I would better take my vehicle to a government insurance company office and get it insured. If I may not like to go for government insurance companies, then I will take it to the same ICICILombard counter, and instead of renewing the policy, I will buy a fresh one.

Must have Insurance Policies: 6 Insurances every individual must have

There are hundreds of kinds of insurance in the world. Most of the individuals end up beating their heads pondering about which insurance to take and which one to avoid and at the end of all the head-ache, they take whatever their insurance agents advice them to take. Most of the times, these insurance advised by the agents are those which earn the agents the maximum commissions, and not necessarily those which give the insurance buyer the best and cheap insurance quotes. Below, we have configured a list of insurance policies which each individual should have (as per our experience and analysis). We have attempted to provide some detailed justification about why our proposed insurance is a must have. Anyways, The readers are advised to use their own heads to assess their own situation. Also, insurance rules vary from one country to the other. Please take those factors also into consideration. The recommendations are based upon our own experience, studies and various resources and articles available on internet and print media.

1. Life insurance:
The no. 1 in our list of recommended insurance is the most obvious one, the Life Insurance. It helps your dependents and family members take the benefit in case of your untimely death. It is a must have for the earning member of the family. Also recommended for both the parents in a single family, if there is clear segregation about the duties.

2. Health insurance:
You work your entire life for a better and comfortable lifestyle. However, one fine day you may end up in a situation where due to your highly stressed life or just by chance of you meeting an accident, you end up in a hospital and see all your hard earned money being taken away by the hospital bills and the doctors. So, health insurance is a must have for all.

3. Home insurance: This may or may not be applicable to all, but you must consider taking a house insurance especially if you are living in an accident prone area - like near sea shore (for tsoomani kind of calcmities), near a volnaco area or riverside which may get flo_d at times. Another thing is that A house is the biggest investment for any common man. Replacing it is not even thinkable, so please consider this seriously.

4. Professional indemnity insurance: It is so very common for companies to file legal lawsuits against individual employees working for them. Even worse, in countries where legal system is helpless, anyone can be put behind bars anytime. It is therefore very important that professionals like doctors to get insured in case of any legal action taken against them by their patients.

5. Disability insurance: This is usually covered as a part of life insurance, so check your policy documents carfully. If your life insurance policy does not cover disability insurance, then better buy it as a top up or as a seperate policy. Accidents can happen to anyone at anytime. Nobody is immune to accidents. This has further increased the possibilities of you getting disabled. So insure yourself against these unfortunate events. Disability has emerged as a big worry in the present uncertain times.

6. Auto insurance: Another important and must have insurance, probably that's why many countries in the world have made it compulsory for people to have motor insurance, car insurance or auto insurance for every single vehicle. A sure must have insurance.

Insurance Cover & Quotes: Customise Your Insurance Cover

This was eagerly awaited in India, especially by the increasing population who have seen foreign countries abroad and how insurance in foreign works. Now, India is all set to make way for Customized Insurance Package or making it possible for individuals to Customise the Insurance Cover or customise insurance packs they wish to seek for their own life insurance cover , Car Insurance Cover or Home Insurance Cover.
What is the current process of insurance and choices available for insurance?
To understand this, lets take an example. Say you own a car and you have insurance for that car. Now you are travelling on Mumbai Pune Expressway and suddely your car goes out of order. What do you do? It's all upto you - find an alternative mode of travel, search for a mechanic, bring him to the spot, get your car fixed and then drive. Basically, you have to do everything. And if unfortunately, your car is irrepairable at the accident spot, then you have to arrange for a tow away and then get it repaired. After all this exercise, you can make a claim to your Car Insurance Company and get your accident expenses back.
So in a nutsheel, its like you pay for insurance premium, but you still dont get any substantial help from your insurnace company other than the monetary claims. You have to do all the hardwork in the event that your car goes bad.

What is the process of Car Insurance in foreign countries?
Abroad, life is much simpler. Basically, along with the car insurance, you can pay something extra and get loads of add on benefits. For example, you can opt for towing facility along with your Car Insurance. This means that in the event of a car break down, you only need to call the insurance company and it will be their responsibility to come and pick up your car from the accident site to the repair garage.
Another such thing that you can opt for is that of a pick-up facility or an alternate car in case of your car breaks down. It means that the insurance company will provide you with a alternate car till your car gets repaired or it will provide a pick up facility from the accident site to your destination.

What is meant by Customised Insurance Cover
Till now, in India, there was no such provision of taking these extra benefits. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has approved the customisation of policies for extra premium that insurers for new products from January 2009. So the add-on benefits, like the case mentioned above, will now be available to Indian Insurance seekers. Being a competitive market, there will be loads of unique facilities offered at a cost by the various insurance companies and individuals can make their own customised insurance packages as per their need and requirements.

Apart from Car insurance, will this customization fo Insurance cover be offere on other insurance types?
Yes. You will be able to pay a low premium for your household and factory insurance cover if you are willing to share the claim with the insurance firm. "Insurer will be permitted to add on covers above the tariff in the case of fire, engineering, and motor insurance with appropriate additional premiums," a senior IRDA official said. There are also offers for permitted variation in deductibles in fire and motor insurance policies.

What all Add on covers will be available?
Cover for vehicles as well as add on services like temporary replacement of vehicles in case of a break down Cover for damage irrespective of the age of the vehicle
Lower premium if the policy holder is willing to share the cost of damages

And then, the market is open for the insurance companies to fight it out and offer the best products to keep customers with Low cost Insurance Quotes.