[tp_dominator]

Originally Posted by GTO

Wait a minute. So, Tata-AIG is refusing renewal due to a customer actually using his insurance policy? What does that mean? That Tata-AIG wants to keep collecting premiums only? What nonsense. Thanks for sharing! We will be adding this to our news section for maximum visibility .

This behavior isn't only shown by Tata AIG, but an age-old practice followed by most other insurers including general and health insurers. This thread highlights the practice followed by one company but I am pretty sure, there might be few other examples of such practices by other insurers too.

Insurance companies run on the basis of a lot of speculation and analysis and as is amply evident, mere speculation and analysis are not the best predictors of future behavior but, still we see such practices till more data and more technologies are available to insurers to take a proper informed decision.

PS:- I am not a proponent neither am I associated with Tata AIG but I do belong to the same industry and hence sharing the knowledge.

[revv_maniac]

Hi,

I insured 2 of my cars and 4 bikes with ACKO, Coverfox which ever comes the cheapest and offers Zero Dep, my one year old Abarth Punto was refused Zero Dep in ACKO, so searched online in coverfox for policies which offered Zero Dep for my Abarth and took it. The difference in premiums are huge when compared with stand alone legacy Insurers. Like 2x , 3x times, crazy prices. ACKO and DIGIT said new cars cannot be insured through them, only renewals are possible ! wondering still, is it because 1st year claims have to be 95-100% ?

[padmrajravi]

Better move on to a PSU insurance company. They may be slow, but they never resort to denying claims and everything works based on well-documented processes. Both my cars are with New India Assurance and the claim process has been satisfactory till now. Since it is part of a dealership tie-up, everything works cashless as well.

[haisaikat]

A few years back TATA-AIG did exactly the same thing with me. My Getz had two claims in the same year on the same side of the car, the cause was also similar, car was left parked on the Street and someone scratched badly. The places were also different.

The surveyor from TATA AIG did ask me a lot of questions and even delayed the claim settlement by a few days saying that they are verifying whether it's the same claim made twice or two different claims. I told them that the car has been sent to the same workshop and there are bills from last settlement too, if they have doubt they can compare the two pictures they have from the two incidents. Eventually they settled the 2nd claim.

However the surprise came during renewal where instead of a renewal quote they sent me a regret letter stating they would not be able to renew my policy without citing any reason. I somewhat felt disgusted and moved on and never recommend them to anyone ever. Their product managers and policymakers do not seem to like people who make claims.

Incidentally I made lot more claims elsewhere and never received this kind of non sense behaviour.

[confused.geek]

I have found Bajaj Allianz and New India Assurance as being very easy to deal with for claims and renewals. Typically the showroom's insurance department will call to remind of the renewal and their usual statement is that I should renew before the budget is revealed because policy prices will go up. It hasn't in 14 years. I've renewed online from the Maruti site for the past 5 years and the claim process with B.A has been smooth (5 claims in total across 14 years). A close friend of mine had N.I.A insurance on his old Wagon R which he drove for 8 years and he never faced a problem either.

If I might add, B.A provides quick updates via SMS and the damage assessment is done within 24 hours of opening the job card in Maruti, (Sometimes the same day)

[landcruiser123]

This has to be the stupidest thing I've seen in a while. If they don't want your business, just walk away and don't bother asking them why. They'd make your life hell if you have to file a claim in future.

Look at alternate options like Bajaj Allianz, or IFFCO Tokio.

[NTO]

I have moved all my cars and two wheelers to Acko Insurance. They have a pretty simple claiming process. Also, I saved ~500 - 1000 on two wheeler premiums and ~2500 on four wheeler premiums with higher IDV than conventional insurance companies. I have worked closely with the company's founding team in 2017 when I was a part of Droom.in. It was turn for renewing my Vento's insurance and to my surprise, the premium with HDFC Ergo was much lower for a higher IDV compared to Acko. I stuck with HDFC Ergo for Vento. I have not claimed with Acko but, heard great stories from close friends.

[anumod]

I had a related case with my health insurance policy in last month. It is from HDFC, I started with a premium of 12K around 6 years back and last year I paid around 14K. This year I got a renewal quote of 28K+ . I contacted the customer care, and the response I got was , they upgraded my policy . I said I was happy with the old policy and now the response was , the old policy is closed now, so they can't give me the renewal in the old policy. I raised the issue with Insurance Ombudsman, and their response was more funny. The insurance company can raise the premium to whatever they want. (I have the written communication ). After the lockdown, I am planning to take the issue to consumer forum as this is clearly against customers. I request this case also should be taken to consumer forum. Seems like our government has given lot of loose ends to loot insurance customers. One more point, in last 6 years, I never raised a claim too.

[Fordlover88]

Just switch to any other insurance provider preferably those who are having tie up with FASS for cashless hassle free claims. My ecosport diesel is insured with Future Generalli via fass and i haven't faced any claim or renewal problems till date. My previous car was insured with Royal Sundaram whose experience was also good.

[vikram31]

Look at the quotes by Iffco Tokio - They are the only guys who give zero dep upto 10 years- i got my 6th year renewed thru them. Insurers' risk management systems are super strict these days but if you look around you will find out someone who is willing to give you a policy. I find no merit in being loyal to a policy provider as it will take one bad claim to lose their interest in you.. Best to renew at the best available quote. My only word of caution is to go with older insurance brands with some reputation vs some new gen ones unless absolutely necessary. I get a feeling a lot of them are like startups and once they are done burning VC cash, you may face claim issues...

[ron82x3]

Sharing my part of bitter experience with the insurance industry
I have Bajaj Allianz on both cars with bumber to bumper, Alto800(2015) and Grand i10(2017).
Alto has had 6 claims in 5 years and Grand i10 has had 1 claim in 3 years.

This is regarding the most recent one in my Hyundai.
My car is WB registered, and I live in Noida for a year now. Recently someone had damaged my car by scratching the LHS side of the car, trying to scribble something. The damage was fairly bad and looked very ugly. Left 2 doors and rear bumper were affected.







So I decided to call their customer support and asked for a possible solution. They said one simply needs to register the complain online/ through telephone and except for basic documents no other paperwork is required.
I asked specifically if I need to get a FIR/GD for the same. They said, it's not needed for such cases. Later I called again and spoke with a different representative and asked the same about FIR/GD, to which their answer was the same. So, I registered my claim on the same call and completed the formalities.
When the surveyor came to survey my car, he strictly refused to pass my claim without a police report of the incident (FIR/GD).
There was too much drama regarding the same and I finally had to get a NCR(Non cognizable offence report) from police to get my claim settled.
I was hesitating to go to police because
(1). My car was from a different state
(2). It's UP police, their reputation is not that great.

It was altogether bitter experience. It was a very bitter experience and they took 9 days for a NCR report to be made, where everyday I visited the police station at least twice daily.
Sure I got my job done in the end. But if something similar happens again, will I ever go to UP police? NO. NEVER.

I might even switch to another insurance provider altogether after this experience.

[Highh5]

Thanks for bringing this issue on this forum. There was a time when my alto used to go for accidental clam once in a year, I was using TATA AIG at that time and I have lot of issues with them when it comes to claim processing. Since that day I never went back to them, getting hold of surveyor is another headache even for getting the clarification from his end.
Next up was Bajaj Alliance, since these were the two big names at the start of this decade (2012-2014), and the experience with them was also not at all pleasing.
From then onwards, I have opted for Kotak, Hdfc ergo and right now Reliance. Can't say which one is better since I have not availed their services.

Basically now I avoid going for insurance until and unless there is considerable damage, get the basic denting and painting of panels done on the local workshop in order to avoid the headache, time and above all the hassle of going through the whole process.

I think entire insurance survey to claim process needs a major revamp along with accountability and transparency.

[confused.geek]

Originally Posted by ron82x3

Sharing my part of bitter experience with the insurance industry

Sorry to hear about this experience Ron82x3, this is terrible. Especially for what seems to be a fairly straightforward claim. I don't think the Customer Service was wrong. I had this happen to my Alto a decade or so ago, where I parked it and returned to see the sides keyed. I din't raise the claim right away because it was a few scratches, but a few weeks later I got rear ended by an autorickshaw and incurred bumper damage, so when I raised the claim, I asked them to take a look at the doors. The surveyor told me, I had to submit 2 claim forms and my NCB will be impacted, but they were okay with processing the claim without any police documentation. I have seen the onsite surveyor have a different interpretation of policy compared to what phone support from Customer Service tells you. Might I suggest you drop a note to their grievance cell. If you google "bajaj allianz auto insurance complaint" the first search result should be Customer Service - Bajaj Allianz and if you scroll down, you'll find 2 email addresses you can use to share your experience. (I am providing information this way, because I am not sure if I can include email addresses from their site in my post.)

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by GTO

Wait a minute. So, Tata-AIG is refusing renewal due to a customer actually using his insurance policy? What does that mean? That Tata-AIG wants to keep collecting premiums only? What nonsense. Thanks for sharing! We will be adding this to our news section for maximum visibility .

This has happened with me on my previous car with Bajaj Allianz. Made two claims in the first year (due to me being finicky about my new car and claiming for minor scratches). They refused to renew stating that I had claimed two times (total of 5-6k I guess on a Premium of 13k) and it was their discretion not to renew.

[Tgo]

Here is my case:

Originally Posted by Tgo

IDV: 10,50,000/-

Spoiler: Turns out that the above mentioned quote was not to materialize. I learned a new word by the way, its called MORATORIUM

The person dealing with the insurance company called up late evening day before and said that the request for insuring the vehicle was rejected by TataAIG. Yesterday, on probing he was told by the company that the vehicle is under Moratorium - which in their words mean that Rajasthan govt. had put a ban on this model of vehicle.

I frantically called him up to confirm, checked on the internet, confirmed with the dealer in Jaipur and everything was opposite to what the insurance company told him/me. So I got back on the phone with him and relayed the information i gathered. He said, that companies are not willing and even if they are they are quoting close to 45K for the same coverage because they aren't offering any discounts on this model. Other than that the newest company on the block Liberty Videocon will match the coverage and TataAIG's rates. Explains why I was initially getting a quote for 51K from BhartiAXA which also provided last year's coverage for the vehicle. And also why only two companies returned a query for quotes on policy bazaar.

I decided to go with Renault Assure. Simply because there was no other reliable resource to bank upon. It cost me 37K for Zero Dep, Engine Protection and consumables cover.

NOTE: I am quite confused about whats happening behind the scenes. Another acquaintance through TDI Club who is based in Bangalore is also probing into this as he found out that there are totally crazy rate slabs and what not for insurance companies dealing with Renault vehicles in Rajasthan.

The above saga describes a situation in which there were two claims on the policy which was to expire. both times there was no FIR or NCR submitted while claiming.

So I guess, when the insurance guys say they have no limit on the number of claims, they mean that the policy will not be renewed further if there is more than one claim.

Secondly, the surveyors do not tell us the consequences when they say that there will be more than one claim in cases where there is damage to more than one panel of the car (like in the opening post).

In this case they trouble the customer after the policy and its associated fine-print has expired. Their way of recovering the losses or you can say, transferring the hassle of legalities on-to the customer.