Misleading tactics in selling of Insurance Policy by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Policy No. 03483966.
Sir,
With reference to the above policy, I want to bring to your kind notice the exploitation of common man by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance a private sector Insurance company.
1. A Officer of ICICI Life Prudential Life Insurance visited my house and asked me to invest in a single premium policy. I had agreed to invest in the name of my minor son Agam Ghai, aged 1 Year at that time for Rs. 2.00 lakh on 21/09 out of my savings over years.
2. While selling the Policy the Officer of ICICI Life Prudential Life Insurance told me that the policy is a single premium policy and has a option of withdrawal almost double the amount after 3 years. As I was aware of single premium policy of LIC on similar lines, I relied upon his words and agreed to the proposal.
3. There is no denial to the fact that Policy Papers for the above referred policy were received by me, but I being only 12th pass with Punjabi medium and with little knowledge of English, I could not read & understand the terms and conditions of the policy properly.
4. As my policy completed 3 years on 10 and I needed the money urgently for my personal needs, I contacted the company in the month of Feb to get back the maturity amount against this policy. But to my surprise, I was told that the policy had already elapsed as the due premiums for minimum 3 years was not paid. Further it was informed that the amount of Rs. 60123/- in the form of a cheque payable against the policy had been dispatched through Blue Dot courier on 16.01.2010. It was a great shock to me to know that my initial capital of 2 lakh instead of appreciating has eroded by 70%. Even a simple FD could have yielded approximately Rs. 2.75 Lakhs, but against this I was only getting back about 22 % of this amount, this was biggest shock of my life. It is to be mentioned here that Courier till date is not received. When I contested that policy was a single premium policy, I was told that the policy was not single premium and I was supposed to pay the premium for minimum three years.
5. It is further brought to your kind notice that during the last three years I had never received any letter/reminder from the company for payment of premium or any outstanding premium. Also I was not approached by any officer of the company to deposit my outstanding premiums.
6. My yearly income of Rs. 150000/- is mentioned in the application forms and the company had made the policy of Rs. 200000/- per year, how that is feasible. Can a person having income of Rs. 150000/- per year go for a policy of with premium of Rs. 200000/- per year? When the fact is that even this one time investment is out of my savings over number of years.
7. Even if the policy was sold by misleading facts, had there been any notice or information sent about the outstanding premium, it could have helped me to know the reality in the case and to avoid such a big loss, somehow, I could have arranged the balance premiums.
From the foregoing facts. it is very clear that there has been a wrong intentions of these companies to adopt malpractices to maximize their profits at the cost of hard earned money of common man. The opening of insurance sector was aimed at competition and generating more options for the benefits of common man. But with such unfair means being adopted by these private companies, there seems to be no difference in attitude of these companies than the old timer money lenders in our country who had been exploiting the poor and uneducated masses of this country. Such unethical practices of these corporate are required to be to be immediately controlled.
Sir¸ In view of the above, it is my humble request to instruct the company to return my capital saved out of my hard earned money over many years along with nominal interest. Also it is my sincere request to issue necessary guidelines to control such malpractices by these companies so that no common man suffer at their hands in future.
Thanking you.
Vijay Kumar Ghai
House No. 227, Sector 20
Block 3 Subhash Nagar
Mandi Gobindgarh
Ph: 9878000023
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