If you are a person who enjoys working on the laptop - from home or elsewhere - and loves to get things done with a mouse click, you should opt for online insurance policy.
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.
In India, a large chunk of insurance is sold by agents, largely, and other channels of distribution, and online insurance is yet to make an impact.
As far as the online route is concerned, only products that seem simple to people are sold through it. Well if you are sceptical about on the authenticity of insurance products sold online better listen to what K Krishnamoorthy, head - underwriting, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, has to say.
He says 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 are.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance offers VeriSign certification that provides an evidence of its server's authenticity and safeguards you from unauthorised 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.
Krishnamoorthy points out that while in the case of an online overseas travel policy and householder product, an individual can save on the commission being paid to the agent, one cannot expect the same in the case of motor insurance, which is under tariff regime. He, however, says a significant chunk of online policies sold will come from the motor insurance category.
Bajaj Allianz, on an average, sells about 50 policies a month through online started a year ago. The product portfolio ranges from motor insurance and overseas travel to householder and pension policy. You can access most general insurance companies via an authenticated login and password.
For the convenience of the customer, a 'calculate premium and buy' option is also available which allows him/her to choose how much he/she pays as a premium. General insurance policies must be renewed every year and an automatic reminder provided.
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, net banking and bank cheque, as well.
For instance, on the ICICI Lombard Insurance website, you can buy an insurance policy in a matter of minutes.
The advantages of buying online insurance policy are many. They are speed, convenience and ease, online renewal of policies, online issuance of digitally signed policies, single view of all insurance policies held by an individual, 24x7 access to policy details, regular premium renewal reminders and, finally, the facility for calculating insurance premium.
