Frankly, I must say that I feel insurance in India is often a racket with no accountability. When the premiums are being collected and the papers signed, all is gas and gaiters, but if the consumer suffers a loss and wants to claim insurance, it is incredible how the insurance companies try (usually successfully) to weasel out of the claim settlement.

Even their habit of delaying the settlement and making the consumer run around, results in a scenario where it doesn’t seem worth the trouble and hassle. Very often, the insurance companies quote something from the fine print to deny the claim. Corporate customers, of course, get their claims settled but the ordinary Tom, Dick and Hari…they wind up with a lot of hassle, and sometimes a claim settlement that is much less than the amount contracted for at the time of taking the insurance.

If you lose something worth, say, Rs.20,000, have paid the premiums, yet find that you have to go through intense amounts of paperwork and filing-in-triplicate-at-the-time-of-the-full-moon kind of conditions, and finally find that you are getting some 6K as settlement…. and get that cheque only after repeated reminders and a lapse of several months…..you wonder if it might not be better to do without insurance altogether.