Buying Health Insurance From Tata AIG? Tata AIG Health Insurance Review
Tata AIG is a joint venture between the Tata Group and American International Group. The company provides an extensive range of insurance products for both individuals and corporates. They provide products like Home Insurance, Motor Insurance, Travel Insurance, Health Insurance, Rural-Agriculture Insurance, etc for individuals and for corporates, they offer Property & Business Interruption Insurance; D & O, Professional, and General Liability Insurance; and special products like Reps & Warranties and Environmental Insurance.
They’ve mentioned on their website that their mission is to offer innovative risk solutions and peace of mind to customers and create a better tomorrow for them.
To test this out, we interacted with Tata AIG on the pretext of buying health insurance. Our Research Team went through the actual journey of a health insurance customer to find out how is the experience of buying a health insurance policy from them. So, how is Tata AIG Health insurance? What are the pros and cons of purchasing a health insurance policy from the insurance company?
We find out - in this Beshak Test Drive: Tata AIG Health Insurance Review.
Easy to find products 👍
Tata AIG’s website is well-designed and user-friendly. The Tata AIG health insurance plans are listed in a well-structured way and are easy to find. All details about the Tata AIG health insurance plans are readily available in one place as well.
Brochure & Policy wordings readily available 👍
On some insurance company or aggregator websites, you’re redirected to another page if you want the brochure and the policy wording of the insurance product you’re browsing. This is not the case with Tata AIG. The brochure and policy wordings are easily available - there’s a download section right below the product details.
If you want the company to send you the policy documents on WhatsApp, there’s an option available for that as well.
Options to compare the products 👍
Tata AIG also allows you to compare health insurance products - their premium, features, drawbacks, rider options available, etc. on their website easily. You can compare and opt for a plan that will perfectly fit your needs.
Product explanation 👍
The advisor explained everything in depth. They explained the claims, cancellation, and other processes as well as the features and benefits of Tata AIG health insurance products to us in detail. They also patiently resolved all the queries we had regarding the policy features, terms, and conditions, limitations, etc.
Proposal form 👍
The proposal form of the health insurance policy we purchased was simple and easy to fill. Sometimes, insurance companies and web aggregators ask you to fill out an additional form right after you make the payment. You don’t need to do that on Tata AIG - all forms that you need to fill are before you make the payment.
Policy Purchase and payment process 👍
At the time of purchasing the health insurance plan from Tata AIG, we insisted to the advisor that we wanted to fill the form ourselves. She, however, filled the form on our behalf and then mailed the filled form to us before making the payment.
The payment wasn’t successful in the first try because of an OTP timeout. However, when we tried to make the payment again, it got completed quickly and the advisor was there throughout to guide us. After we made the payment, we received two calls to confirm the payment status and check if we got the policy papers or not.
Policy issuance 👍
We received the soft copy of the policy in our mailbox right after we completed the payment. The mail we received also mentioned that the hard copy of the policy would be delivered to us within 10 working days.
When we enquired about the hard copy, the agent told us that she couldn’t commit if we would receive the hard copy, because of Covid-19. They said that we can use the soft copy of the policy at the time of claim. We, however, received the hard copy of the policy a week after the payment got completed.
No unsolicited calls or messages 👍
Unlike some insurance companies and aggregator platforms that start spamming you with calls and messages the minute you enter your mobile number on the website, we got no unsolicited calls or messages from Tata AIG.
Endorsement 👍
Similar to other insurance companies, at Tata AIG, a financial endorsement (opting for riders, changing the policy term, etc.) can be done only at the time of renewing the policy. A non-financial endorsement (changing name, email address, mobile number, address, etc.) however, can be done at any time during the policy term.
For endorsement, you’ll have to either contact the company’s toll-free or send them an email. There is an endorsement option available on the website as well, but to make the changes online, you’ll need to enter your policy number to proceed.
We contacted the company toll-free and raised a request to change our email address. Tata AIG’s agent made the necessary change, sent us a confirmation link, and told us that after clicking on the link, the email address would be updated within 24 working hours. The email address was changed in the promised time, properly.
Claims process explanation 👍
The advisor explained both the cashless and reimbursement claims process in detail to us. They, however, did not give us a proper list of the documents needed at the time of a reimbursement claim. When we asked about the same, the advisor told us that the policy wordings mention the document list - they even gave us the exact page number for the same.
The advisor also told us that they settle all claims in-house, and no TPA (Third-Party Administrator) is involved during the claim settlement process. This ensures that your claim will be settled faster as it reduces the back and forth between the insurer, TPA, and you. You can directly contact the insurer, submit the necessary documents, and get the claim processed quickly.
Cancellation & refund 👍
At the time of buying the policy, the advisor explained the cancellation process to us in detail as well. They told us that if the cancellation was done within 15 days of purchasing the policy, only the stamp duty would be deducted and the remaining amount would be refunded. And, if the policy were to be cancelled after the free look period, the amount refunded would be on a pro rata basis. They also told us that a cancelled cheque would not be required during policy cancellation.
At the time of payment, we asked the advisor about this again - and they told us that a cancelled cheque would be required, if asked. When we asked her to confirm the same with someone and let us know for certain, she went through the policy wordings and told us that no documents would be required for cancellation.
Then, we called the toll-free and raised a request for cancellation. The agent asked us some questions for verification purposes, the reason for cancellation of the policy, and some policy-related details. They told us that the policy would be cancelled within 1-5 days and a full refund would be processed in 7-10 working days. We got the refund in 2 days itself.
E-insurance account 👎
An e-insurance account allows you to store all your policy details electronically, eliminating the need of going through the hassle of getting new policy papers if you misplace or lose your original copies. At the time of claim too, you or your nominee can easily and quickly access all policy-related documents in one place.
When we asked about the e-insurance account to Tata AIG’s advisor, they told us they didn’t have this facility currently. They asked us to download the company’s app from the Play Store and told us that all policy-related details would be available on the app. So, we decided to download the app.
However, when we tried to login, the OTP was delivered after three attempts and we were then asked to enter our policy number. When we entered the policy number, we got an alert that the app can’t fetch the details of the policy number we entered. When we contacted the agent for the same, they told us that the policy would be reflected in 2 working days.
Multiple premium paying options not available 👎
Generally, most insurance companies allow you to choose from among the monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly premium payment options. However, you won’t be able to customise how frequently you want to pay your policy premiums on Tata AIG because only the annual payment option is available on their website.
Free look period details not mentioned on website 👎
Usually, after you buy an insurance policy, you get a free look period of 15 days where you can go through your policy in detail and if you’re unsatisfied, you can return it to the insurance company. Although the details about the free look period were mentioned in the policy wordings of the health plan we chose, we did not find any details about the same on Tata AIG’s website.
Our entire experience of buying health insurance from Tata AIG was good - we did not face too many hiccups during our health insurance purchase journey with them.
- The products are listed systematically and you can even compare the features, limitations, and other details of the products on the website.
- Tata AIG’s agents explained the claims, cancellation, and refund process, as well as the features and benefits of Tata AIG health insurance products to us in depth.
- They also guided us throughout the purchase, payment, and cancellation process.
- We received the soft and hard copies of the policy as well as the refund within the promised time.
One thing they can work on, to make the insurance purchase experience entirely seamless, is improve their app so users can keep and manage all the policy-related documents in one place.
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