Gone are the days when you had to only depend on your
trusted neighborhood insurance agent to find time for you and explain you about
various insurance policies and then sell you the one most profitable for him
only! With the advancement in technology and e-commerce becoming huge as a
business proposition, now you can fulfil all your insurance needs while sitting
at home with the click of a button. Buying insurance has never been so easy
with every major insurance player offering their service online and making it
easier for you to buy.
However, there are certain things to consider before you
click on the BUY option. You got to act smart and think before you choose an
insurance plan for you.
Let’s help you with the following strategies so you can take
a smart and well-informed decision:
1) Comparing Products
The first step while choosing an insurance product for you
is to compare various options. It is not difficult to do so as there are various
websites that act as a platform offering detailed information on all insurance
products offered by all the players in the market. This way you can check out
various deals and then choose the one that best suits your needs. Go in
details, find out everything about the different products on offer and then
only decide.
2) Company’s Profile
Once you have chosen the product, check out the company’s
background that’s offering the product. The company should be reputable, should
have a long-standing in the market for credibility and shouldn’t be too new to
the business. Your association with the company will be on a long time basis as
insurance is a long-term investment. Hence, knowing about company’s profile is
an absolute must even if you have to pay a little extra as a premium compared
to paying less with a relatively new or less-known insurance provider.
3) Your information
Most of these online sites ask you to fill a questionnaire
with your details so they can calculate the premium amount for you. Make sure
that you don’t hide any information that is relevant like details about your
health, diseases, habits, etc. so that there is no confusion at the time of
processing your claims later on. At the same time, no need to give out
extremely personal information at the first stage itself to save you from
getting that information misused! That includes your phone number or address too
early in the dealing stage.
4) Terms And
Conditions
Once you have shortlisted the product and the company, the
next step is to study their terms and conditions. It sounds boring, but do
understand that devil is in the details and so is God! You got to know what
kind of agreement you’re entering into with the Term Insurance Policy provider and are your
benefits being taken care of or not rather than the agreement being lopsided in
the company’s favour. While signing the papers we feel all is hunky dory, but
when it comes to filing for the claims, a lot of unpleasant truths tumble out
of the closet that we lazily overlooked in the first place. Read between the
lines, take an expert’s help if you don’t understand anything, but do your
homework thoroughly!
5) Handling Claims
Another important thing to be considered is how is the
insurance provider’s claim settlement ratio? What percentage of claims filed
with them are actually settled and how many are denied? Also, how much time
does it take to settle a claim? You can find these figures easily on the
company’s websites and various other platforms. You don’t want your near and
dear ones to run from pillar to post for settling the claims in case of an
unforeseen tragedy.
6) Talk With The
Insurance Provider
This is the last and most important step before you click on
buy. You might be buying a policy online, but in future, you will have to deal
with their representatives mostly on phone for any queries or sorting out any
issues with them. Talking with their back office before making your decision
will give you a good idea of how they are while dealing with their customers,
what is the response time, how easy or difficult it is to deal with them etc.
This gives you a better understanding of what you’re getting into!
Source: (http://blog.easypolicy.com/follow-these-strategies-when-you-are-buying-online-insurance/)
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