Oct 31, 2008 08:44 PM
9645 Views
I bought a policy with Birla sunlife last December (Dec 2007). I have to admit that I am a layman when it comes to ULIPs. I was completely brainwashed by one of Birla sunlife's agent that Saral jeevan offers excellent returns (30%). I bought the policy on December 12th. Policy number is 001333454. Premium amount was Rs 50145 (Fifty thousand one hundred and forty five). I received the policy document promptly and was schocked to see that there were monthly charges of Rs 1551.39 on the policy. A net amount of 18616.68 Rs would be deducted towards charges in a year, which is nearly 40% of the premium that I have paid. When the agent came to my house to get my signature and cheque, he gave me a brochure which HAD ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION OF CHARGES. I felt cheated.
I called him up and told him to cancel the policy. He told me that there are indeed charges in the policy. However, they are applicable only after the policy starts yielding returns..meaning the charges will be deducted from the profit and not from the premium amount. The premium amount of Rs 50145 will remain intact. After three months, I placed a call with Birla sunlife and I was startled to know that they have indeed deducted monthly charges on the policy. I got furious and asked them to cancel them the policy. They cooly replied that the surrender value of the policy is in negative.. meaning that I have to pay more money to cancel the policy. Ridiculous!!
I contacted my agent and he said that he will do the necessary to cancel the policy and that I will get my Rs 50145 after 3 years. I contacted the helpline and they said that there is no way I can get the money. They said that I have signed the policy and had a 15 days grace period to get out the policy. When the agent came to my house to get the form filled up he gave me a template to fill up and took just my signatures on the application form. I now know why he gave me a template to fill up and not the actual application form. The application form has all the charges listed in it. He wanted to deliberately hide the information about the charges on the policy.
This 50145 Rs is my hard earned money. I have worked round the clock to earn this money. I decided to fight against this misselling. I launched a complaint with Birla sunlife. They said that they will escalate it to the highest level possible. Finally I got a letter stating that my claim is not valid as I have signed the application form.
I have gone through a lot of mental agony over the past 10 months. As you can recall, I had invested about 50145 Rs in December 2007. Currently the value of the fund ( as of today - 31st October) is Rs 10984. Can you believe this? I am not going to renew this policy. No person on earth would renew this policy.
Birla Saral Jeevan is a clear case of ULIP misselling. But I am a common man and can do little against a big corporate house like Birlas. I will however advice you all not to buy this policy.
Better go in for LIC policies.. They are far better in terms of coverage and benefits. I would like to end by saying that the I feel cheated, deeply hurt and never expected this from a corporate house of Birla's calibre.
I would like to know the IRDA's stand on ULIP's misselling. Such things can happen only in a country like India.
Best Regards,
Karthick
