Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360

Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360 is a term insurance policy offered by the Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Company.

When you look forward to finding the perfect term insurance policy, you would mostly select the policy which provides you and your family with various benefits and fits perfectly with your requirements. The Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360 is one such policy that gives you a lot of customization options for claim payout, and other features such as increasing cover and comprehensive critical illness rider. Additionally, the insurer has a good track record of settling claims faster and received fewer complaints with respect to policy purchase as per our research. 

On the flip side, however, the insurer received a higher number of claim settlement complaints and the plan doesn’t offer many limited pay options to speed up premium payments.

Here are some of the key benefits and features the Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360 Plan has to offer. 

What are the key features of the Canara HSBC iSelect Smart 360 Plan? 

• Life cover benefit: The iSelect term plan by Canara HSBC pays an assured sum of money to your family if your death happens during the term of the policy. There is no maturity benefit in this policy - meaning, you don’t get anything back in case you survive the term of the policy. You can claim tax benefits under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act with this term insurance policy. 
• Entry age for the policy: The Canara HSBC term plan allows you to apply for the policy, when your age is at least 18 years and until you’re 65 years old.
• Cover duration: This product provides you the chance to choose a cover up to the age of 99 years - meaning, you can get a cover for your entire life. 
• Increasing cover: This plan gives you the chance of increasing your cover automatically once you have finalized a suitable sum assured based on your family’s requirements. It allows you to increase your cover by 10% every year with a maximum limit of two times your base cover. 
• Limited pay option: Getting a certain financial burden off your chest is truly a relief! The Canara HSBC iSelect term plan believes the same. You can opt for the limited pay feature and choose to finish paying off your premiums in larger and early installments in 10, 15, 20, 25 upto 60 years.
• Claim payout option: This product allows you to customize how you want your nominee to receive the claim payout. It provides various claim payout options such as -  
  • Lump sum payout option: Under this option, your nominee will receive the entire claim payout at once, in one go.
  • Monthly income payout option: With this, the claim amount is paid in monthly installments. This is a good option if you think your nominee won’t be able to manage a huge amount of money at once. They can use this money to take care of their daily and regular expenses.
  • Lump sum with monthly income payout option: The claim amount will be divided into two parts - your family will get the partial claim as a lump sum and the other half of the claim will be given to your family in monthly installments over a specific period.

What are the riders available with this plan? 

The Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360 offers some additional benefits known as riders. The riders available with this plan include - 

• Critical illness rider: This add-on pays an additional amount as a lump sum, in case you get a serious disease listed in the policy document. This money can be used to replace the loss of income and to pay for any additional health-related expenses your family might incur because of the disease/illness. 
• Accidental death benefit rider: This rider provides your family with an additional amount of money in case you pass away as a result of an accident. This rider can also be used to improve your overall cover in case you are eligible for a cover that is lower than the cover amount required for your family. 
• Waiver of premium rider: You must always consider purchasing this rider with your base term insurance policy. With this add-on, you will not have to pay any further premiums if you get a serious disease or a disability. However, you can retain your cover until the end of the term.  

However, it does not offer a critical illness rider and waiver of premium rider on critical illness rider. 

Why should you buy a policy from Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Company?

• Speed of claim settlement: Despite holding a poor track record in its purchase and claims experience, the insurer has managed to settle 99.77% of its claims in less than 30 days. This shows that your family’s claims will be settled quickly once they submit all the necessary documents. 
• Online tracking of claims: Further, your family will have the option to track the status of their claims online after they raise a claim under the term insurance policy.
• Claim Settlement Ratio: You should be aware of this before you opt for the Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360 term plan - the claim settlement ratio of Canara HSBC OBC is 97.10% and their claim amount settlement ratio is 92.61%.

What are the disadvantages of buying from Canara HSBC OBC?

Below are some of the disadvantages of buying from Canara HSBC OBC - 

• Length of the claim form: This insurer's claim form is moderately long with several questions to answer. This indicates that the process of filling out the claim form might be a little time-consuming.
• Claim complaints: As per our in-house team's research, we were able to gather that the insurer has received a higher number of complaints during claim settlement. 
• Home pick-up for claims: The insurer does not provide the option to pick up the documents from home. This means that at the time of making the claim, your family/ nominee will have to personally visit the branch to submit the documents.

How is the customer service of Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Company? 

Canara HSBC OBC provides its customers with toll-free service and also responds to them via social media platforms such as Twitter. 

• Response on Toll-free: Based on our research, we found that the response over toll-free service is average. This may lead to some difficulty for the nominee or family in case they have to clarify some queries. 
• Response on Twitter: As an alternative to clarify any doubts concerning the claim process over toll-free, the family or nominee can reach out to the insurer via Twitter as our research suggests that the company responds quicker over the social media platform. 

Make sure you discuss all the pros and cons including customer services with your family or nominee while buying the term insurance policy so that they don’t hit a roadblock and are aware of the next step in your absence. 

About the Insurer- Canara HSBC OBC 

Canara HSBC OBC is a Life Insurance company in India. It offers Term Life Insurance, Traditional Savings, and Unit Linked Insurance Plans. Founded in 2008, it is a joint venture between Canara Bank, HSBC Bank, and Oriental Bank of Commerce. The company is headquartered in Gurugram and has over 11000 branches across India. The CEO/CMD of Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance is Mr. Anuj Mathur. 

Final review of Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360

Based on the 100+ parameters analyzed by our in-house research team and considering its product benefits, customer service, and claims experience, Canara HSBC iSelect Smart360 gets a Beshak⭐Rating of 4.3/5.