From purchasing smartphones to booking international holidays, the online medium has emerged as the first choice for many of us. What’s more, online platforms are also helping one to keep one’s financial life sorted. There are investment platforms to access capital market products such as direct equity and mutual funds, thus helping one to save for long-term needs. Similarly, one can buy insurance products online, thus taking care of the financial risks in life.
Term insurance plans, the purest form of life insurance, can be purchased online either directly from the insurer’s website or by accessing the website of an Insurance Aggregator. While buying a term insurance plan online directly from the insurer’s website, nothing changes as far as the policy contract is concerned. However, the only thing that goes missing is the role of the insurance agent or the intermediary. You and your family members as nominees will have to directly connect with the insurer for policy changes or for claims.
Here are certain distinct advantages of buying a term insurance plan online:
Simple buying process
Buying a term insurance plan is simple and easy and can be completed from the comfort of your home or office. One just needs to furnish details such as age, gender, sum assured (amount of life cover), and the period for which one wants the coverage. Based on these, the online term insurance calculator lets you know the amount of premium which could be payable annually, quarterly, half-yearly, or even monthly with some insurers.
As a buyer, you may change or modify the term and the sum assured that fits your needs. Once you zero in on the right term insurance plan, the payment process is entirely digital. The submission of documents is also online and only medical underwriting may have to be completed offline, in case it is required.
End-up paying a lower premium
The biggest advantage of buying term insurance plans online is the cost. On the same parameters such as age, sum assured, and term, the premium that you have to pay while purchasing online from an insurer’s website is lesser by nearly 25 percent or even more compared to the premium when bought offline. Since online purchase doesn’t involve any intermediary, the insurer ends up saving the cost which it passes on to the online buyer.
Click here to know your term insurance premiums.
Once online, you can also explore various other types of term insurance plans such as increasing or decreasing life insurance plans, etc. One can even add optional benefits called Riders such as accidental rider, and medical rider to enhance coverage in one’s plan. On the platform of an Insurance Aggregator, one can explore plans and features of various insurance companies in one place.
In Control
As an online buyer, you have full control of what you are buying. From disclosing your medical and family history to furnishing the details of your existing insurance policies, online filling up of the application form by the life insured keeps transparency in place. It has been observed that the life insurance plans bought online have a higher persistence ratio than those purchased offline. A high persistence number indicates that policyholders keep paying premiums till the original term and do not exit from them mid-way, which in a way shows an informed buying decision by the buyer.
Contact points
Although purchased online, there’s always a point of contact for the buyer of a term plan. If you are buying it on an Insurance Aggregator’s platform, help is just a phone call away, and even the same if you buy it directly from the insurer. Importantly, it’s always better to speak to the insurer or to the executive of an Insurance Aggregator website before starting to buy. Get a fix on the document submission and on undergoing medical tests before finalizing. Once the payment is made, you get the policy document through email and a physical copy as well.
Finally, make sure your nominees are aware of the policy and the whereabouts of the policy document. To keep things simpler and to avoid forgetting the renewal date, give standing instructions to your banker to debit the bank account on the due date.
Buying a term insurance plan for an adequate sum assured is the right step forward to ensure your family members’ dreams, aspirations, and goals are not derailed. A term insurance plan works as an income replacement tool. No wonder, most financial planners suggest buying it even before saving a single penny for your long-term goals.
