Stay Clear of Kotak. Review on Kotak Life Insurance

I applied for a (Term) life insurance cover from Kotak Life Insurance

Company in March 05 and after 3 months, in June 05, I was told by them

that the insurance cover had not started by then for want of age proof

and the same would start only after the policy was issued.

For three

months they kept me under the false impression that my life was insured

and my family had a backup to fall back on in case of an eventuality

but suddenly this letter of theirs shook the ground under my feet that

told me that I was not insured for want of a document that I had

already submitted along with the proposal form. Even the premium cheque

had been encashed immediately after the proposal deposit.

Then, even

after I submitted another copy of my age proof in no time, it took them

another 2 months to issue the policy. The policy was dated 11 Aug 2005.

And more ... The cover commencement date had been marked as April 1

2005 and the premium had been arbitrarily increased from what their

agent had advised me.

Visits / phonecalls/ letters /emails and what not...I tried everything

but Kotak people are deaf to logic. Once they said that the cover would

start only after the policy was issued so the cover actually started on

Aug 11 2005 and then they said that they will charge premium for the

period of April 1 2005 to Aug 11 2005 also whereas they would not own

the risk for the same period.

My requests for cancellation of policy and refund of premium also fell

on deaf ears and I am still running around for justice.

So my advice to you all

1) Never deal with Kotak Life insurance

2) Before you take up any policy, get everything in writing from the

agent about when the cover will actually start.

3) Better still ... get insurance directly from the company offices and

avoid these agents.

Pankaj Bansal

Added today Feb 12, 2007

After a long battle of over a year I have finally been able to get my money (less stamp duty of Rs. 600) back from Kotak Life Insurance and policy cancelled. Really tough nuts to crack - these Kotak people.