If recent statistics are considered, the popularity of online insurance has increased significantly in the past few years. This has happened primarily because the process of purchasing insurance policies online is fast, cost-effective, and convenient. Top insurers gauge the requirements of potential customers and come up with the most feasible insurance plans. These include everything from health and life insurance plans to travel and car insurance plans. Read through the section below to know what makes online insurance such a cheap and expedient option.
What Allows Us to Get Cheaper and More Cost-Effective Insurance Plans Online?
To ensure cost-effectiveness, companies offering insurance policies online allow customers to deal directly with them. Customers can share their requirements with the insurance company and the company will come up with plans matching those requirements. Finally, you will be buying the plan you find most suitable for you online.
This process helps in eliminating the distributor’s commission from the premium. What’s more, you will be able to complete the process with minimum paperwork.
When you are buying your insurance policy online, you will get the opportunity of having a more informed deal. This means you will not need to bear any additional expenses later just because the insurance agent you were working with didn’t provide you accurate information. Getting claims settled will also become less troublesome for you as you will have a clear idea about the process.
Compare Offers
Aggregator websites like Policy Bazaar and Coverfox will allow you to compare offers from various providers online. As a result, before you buy a policy, you will get to compare the features, coverage, renewal, and claim process of plans offered by different insurance companies. You will be able to weigh the pros and cons of all available insurance plans against each other and choose the plan that matches your needs.
Often distributors promote policies that offer a better commission to them. Those policies might not be as helpful as some others available on the market. If you buy an insurance plan online, you will not need to listen to anyone else’s opinion. You may be guided by customer care executives, but the decision of buying will be yours. No one will be there to manipulate your decision.
When buying insurance policies online, you will have the option of reading reviews. You will get to see what people who have already purchased a particular insurance product think about it. Once you compare policies and shortlist a few from them, you should check out reviews of the shortlisted policies. Always opt for the product with maximum positive reviews.
Reading testimonials, feedback, or reviews will not only help you to understand the policy but will also allow you to gather knowledge about the reputation the insurance company enjoys. When buying insurance from distributors, you are unlikely to get the opportunity of checking our existing customers’ feedback.
How Else Can Platforms Offering Insurance Plans Online Help Us?
These platforms don’t restrict themselves just to sale. They also operate as competent and fast servicing channels. As a policyholder, you will be able to download brochures and policy documents, obtain online insurance quotes, renew your policies, pay premiums, make claims when needed, and track your investments on these sites.
These platforms will allow you to make transactions whenever you want. At times, we miss paying our premiums just because of our hectic work schedule. Having access to our insurer’s website will allow us to make payments at any time of the day. The transactions take just a few minutes to complete; so, you will always have the option of making the payment and going back to work immediately.
Other Benefits of Buying Insurance Policies Online
Cost-effectiveness and convenience are not the only advantages of choosing online insurance deals. The two other prominent benefits of opting for such deals are as follows:
Your Policy Documents Will Remain Secured
A common problem most policyholders face is losing their policy documents. Indeed, you can get duplicate policy documents reissued whenever you want and as many times as you want. However, the process of getting duplicates is pretty cumbersome.
Things become particularly difficult if you lose your health insurance policy documents. If you suddenly discover the absence of the documents in times of emergency, you may fail to present the papers to the hospital on time. Such situations can be avoided by buying policies online. If you buy your insurance online, you will get a softcopy of your policy documents. This means you will always find the documents handy in times of need.
There Will Be 24×7 Customer Support
Your car might stop functioning in the middle of the night or you may meet an accident on a national holiday, your insurance company will always be there at your service. These companies are represented by dedicated teams of customer support executives. You will only need to dial your insurer’s number and get connected to a qualified and experienced executive, who will bail you out of the problem.
These experts will also be there to help you if you face any issue during online transactions. However, the biggest advantage of having 24×7 customer support is the kind of assistance they offer during claim settlements. They will leave no stone unturned to make the process quick and smooth.
You’ll Be Buying Genuine Policies:
There’s a myth suggesting that buying insurance online is not safe, as we may end up buying unauthorised policies. However, the fact is that online insurance policies are mostly offered by top insurers in the country. These policies are completely legal and will be accepted by all authorised bodies and individuals.
For your information, every insurer needs to get their products approved before they sell them to a potential policyholder. In India, the process of obtaining approvals for insurance policies/products is governed by the IRDAI or Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India. The criteria a policy/product needs to meet of getting approved is the same for both offline and online policies.
You’ll Be Able to Choose Add-Ons During Renewal:
When we renew a health insurance or car insurance policy through a distributor, we often don’t think about including add-ons that may enhance the value of our policies. Many of us don’t even know that there’s an opportunity of including more perks and better clauses in the policy during the renewal of certain insurance policies.
If you renew your policy online, you will be given the opportunity of choosing from a series of add-ons. For medical insurance policies, the most common add-on options are increasing coverage, adding more ailments to the list of diseases covered, etc. When it comes to renewing auto insurance policies, you will get to include add-ons such as zero depreciation cover, key replacement, daily reimbursement, and so on.
Major Concerns
While the opportunity of buying insurance online is a boon for most of us. There are some who cannot make the most of this chance as they are tech-savvy. These include elderly people, who are not very well-versed with computers and online dealings, and people with limited knowledge about technology.
This leaves us with the question, “Will these individuals be denied the chance of purchasing insurance policies online and enjoying all the advantages discussed above?” It’s time for you to rest assured as the insurers’ websites offer online chat facilities to assist people who are not tech-savvy.
If you find any procedure confusing or want a question answered, you can join trained financial advisers representing the insurer for online chats. Additionally, there will also be the option of calling customer care executives and getting your problems solved. If you are still not happy, you can make an appointment for a face-to-face meet. Once you know the process and are happy with the offerings you can choose your policy and enjoy all the above advantages of buying insurance online.
The other concern potential insurance policyholders have about buying insurance online is that this mode of purchase doesn’t allow them to negotiate or request for discounts. There’s no denying the fact that the process of buying policies from distributors involves both negotiation and discount offers. However, you must understand that the distributors offer those price drops or discounts by sacrificing a small percentage of their commission. When you are buying insurance directly from the insurer’s website, you are not paying for the commission of any distributor. So, you should not feel sad thinking that you are missing on great discounts because of purchasing your insurance policies online.
Summary
We will have to admit that there are some genuine reasons why more and more people are looking to purchase insurance policies online. It’s the best option available if we consider how fast our lives have become in the past few years. Moreover, the absence of an intervener will ensure you will get to choose policies matching your requirements aptly. This decision will also keep your premiums much lower.
The only thing you must keep in mind when buying insurance online is that you shouldn’t end up buying insurance from a company with a bad reputation. You should stick to this rule even if they are offering lucrative deals.