Online Life Insurance

Online insurance has revolutionized the insurance market by making the whole process of selection, comparing and buying of insurance convenient and quick. The ability to purchase insurance online and avoid high-pressure salesman is a luxury that today’s consumers enjoy. However, the task of searching, comparing and purchasing online insurance can seem overwhelming.

Some of the frequently asked questions about online insurance are answered in the following segment.

What is the advantage of buying insurance online?

The biggest problem with buying insurance through an agent is that they usually promote those products which allow them to earn better margins. Those products might not be better suited to your needs. If you compare their suggested insurance schemes to other schemes, you might get a better product which is more aligned to your requirements.

One major advantage of purchasing insurance online is that you can do an overall comparison of features and prices across various companies online on sites and then buy the policy that best suites you with out the help of a sales person.  If you use comparison sites that offer quotes from several different companies side by side, you are essentially forcing the companies to give their best rates in order to remain competitive. This means you can get much lower rates than you would be offered without this direct competition. You can see the best rates on offer as the internet is a transparent mechanism and companies need to offer the best rates to ensure the consumer does not go away.

Moreover, you can buy at any time during the day. These online insurance sites operate 24 hours a day and you can purchase anytime according to your convenience.

By going online, you would be able to save on the agents' commission on policies like overseas travel insurance and householder policy.

Again, you may have been postponing long due car insurance or motorbike insurance, in that case too, just get online, start clicking and benefit from being insured.

Purchasing online also saves time. If you try to get quotes by phone or even through the websites of several different companies, it would take too much time to compile the information. When you go online you only have to put in your information one time and are immediately delivered quotes from different companies. Also, you will learn about some smaller companies that you a have never heard of before, but which are often offering extremely competitive rates.

Is buying insurance online faster than buying it from an agent?

In many cases the online insurance seller will be able to generate a policy faster than your local agent. Your agent may be busy or have to schedule a time for you to come in, or maybe on vacation. The online insurance seller will use computerized systems to automate the enrollment process, which can result in your getting coverage up and running faster.

Is buying insurance online secured?

It is a secure way of buying an insurance policy, as the insurance company sends a hard copy of the policy you buy at doorsteps. And claims arising out of an online policy are treated exactly in the same manner as those of any insurance product sold by an agent. Most of the reputed online websites have s VeriSign certification that provides an evidence of its server's authenticity and safeguards you from unauthorized sites and allows the session to be encrypted. This protects confidential information – such as online forms, financial data, net banking information and credit card numbers – from interception and hacking. In case of somebody forgetting to log out from a session, auto logout feature is available to take care of your security.

WHAT ARE THE PAYMENT OPTIONS?

After filling in the required details such as name, age and address to buy the policy you have to confirm making the payment. You can choose your payment option from credit card or net banking. If you are wary of online transactions, you can pay by a cheque or DD at the time of document verification. 

IS IT COMPLETELY ONLINE?

The process of human interface or an offline agent cannot be eliminated completely from insurance. You have the option to pay either online or by cheque or DD. But the company has to send a representative for collection of documents to meet the KYC compliance, as prescribed by the regulator.

IS ONLINE INSURANCE CHEAPER AS COMPARED TO REGULAR INSURANCE?

Some insurance companies are rolling out insurance plans which are exclusively sold online, hence available at a cheaper price. Bajaj Allianz offers its iGain Ulip policy exclusively online. This policy has lower charges than comparable policies.

HDFC Standard Life has started offering three products online, which include YoungStar Super Suvidha, Pension Super and Endowment Super Suvidha and offers the benefit of lower charges for customers buying online.

Aegon Religare has recently come out with its iTerm policy. Depending on the age, tenure and value of the policy, it is cheaper than the next best term insurance. This policy is not available through the company’s agents, and payment has to be made online on the company’s website only.