After reading my experience with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, you decide if they are cheaters or not.

In early October 2008, as soon as I passed the mandatory medical tests, ICICI Pru Life cashed my Rs. 3,00,000/- cheque. Then they called me to say they cannot give me the best rates because of the anti-cholesterol medicine I was taking at the time. I protested saying they were penalizing me for being honest. I still asked them to send me the mandatory letter that requires my signature for issuance of the Policy with reduced benefits. But, nothing was sent to me until November 12th (that too after repeated calls/reminders from me). They have my Rs. 3 Lakhs, BUT I AM NOT COVERED!!!!

I was able to finally get the letter on the 12th November. By this time, I was sick and tired of their tactics and rejected their reduced coverage terms. I also gave them a 2-day deadline to return my Rs. 3 Lakhs and we will drop the whole thing. They simply will not return my money! My money is stuck with them and now they feel they can dictate terms. Talk about corporate arrogance! It took me countless e-mails and phone calls before they quietly deposited my money back on December 4th.

They kept my Rs. 3 Lakhs for 2 full months and gave me a paltry Rs. 633 towards "interest".

Now, because of this fight, ICICI Pru Life is playing a new game with me: They claim that my old Term-Life policy (Policy# 00935891) has lapsed because I didn’t pay the premium! They have standing instructions from me to debit my ICICI Bank Jubilee Hills branch savings account (they’ve done it for the past 4+ years), but now they claim I haven’t manually paid the premium! I have sufficient money in my savings account, but it appears that ICICI Pru Life simply wants to dis-honour the original contract and they want to concoct a story to void my life insurance policy.

Umapathy Iyer and Bhawta Jagtap from ICICI Pru Life MD’s office are supposed to be looking into this latest fiasco and get back to me. Let us see how they handle it.

Very disappointing behaviour from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd. I will continue with my fairly modest term-life insurance policy with them, but I cannot recommend them to anybody... particularly those ULIPs.

-sai nellore