Insurance Misselling continues unabated

Online forums are abuzz with complaints of amounts being deducted from consumers’ accounts — without their written consent — towards payment of insurance premiums solicited by telemarketers.

Though guidelines of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Hyderabad — the administrative agency for the national insurance industry — lay down that insurers preserve voice records of these conversations, consumers remain in the dark about these norms.

J Gopalakrishnan, a retired deputy general manager of TNSC Bank, rues the lack of transparency surrounding telemarketing businesses.

“I got a call from a private company, which has tied up with several banks, offering to protect my credit card if it gets lost. If I signed up for the policy, I was told, the company would ‘arrange to get my card back’ and pay for my accommodation and travel expenses in case I was in an unfamiliar city. But, it did not give me details on how this would be done. I asked them to send me the necessary documents so that I could sign on them. I discovered the next month that the money was already debited from my account,” he said.

In the documents the company subsequently sent across, it was stated that the firm would “merely act as a facilitator between the consumer and the insurer for the payment”, Gopalakrishnan added.

Individuals like Tamil Nadu Progressive Consumer Centre (TPCC) coordinator T Sadagopan are bewildered that a private company has access to people’s credit card details.

IRDA guidelines also stipulate that “no inconvenience, nuisance or harm shall be caused to clients” while soliciting business or thereafter. Replying to a query from TOI, M Ramaprasad, member, non-life matters, IRDA, said the first port of call for a complaint is the grievance redressal officer of the insurance firm concerned. If there is no response or the action taken is not satisfactory, consumers may register and track complaints on the Integrated Grievance Management System on the IRDA website.

 

Karthika Gopalakrishnan,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Consumers-question-payments-solicited-by-telemarketers/articleshow/13680865.cms