Location/place: Gurgaon
Name of company/service: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd
Dear Sir / Madam,
I am submitting this complaint with a lot of hope, kindly help me get my due refund.
I was sold this policy with limited facts & in a time when I am not able to afford it. The person who sold me this policy got a top up loan on my home loan to pay the premium which is totaling to Rs. 87,500/-.
Sequence of events:-
The consistent increase in the Home Loan ROI lead to a drastic increase in the loan tenure from original 240 months to 519 months.
I contacted my ICICI Bank relationship manager – Divya Yadav, to help me with the same.
Devender from the ICICI Home Loan department, contacted me and offered a solution to bring down the tenure. The offer was to increase the variance, which would result in reduction of ROI and tenure as a result. The variance increase was brining my down from 519 months to 239 months, which sounded fantastic. He mentioned that the same would need to pay a fee, of Rs. 14,860/- + ST., which I was okay to pay. Along side, he also mentioned it is compulsory for me to buy an insurance policy. The insurance plan offered, was Home Safe. The premium for same was approximately Rs. 87,500/-, which I mentioned, that I will not be able to afford. He said, it is compulsory for me to buy the insurance, if I want to increase in variance. Trusting his words, I agreed to pay the premium, however, I mentioned that I can’t afford a one time payment of Rs. 87,500/-. I asked him to kindly make it a monthly / quarterly payout. He said, that is possible. This conversation happened in the presence of my RM & her supervisor Mangal.
ater, to my surprise when I received the documents, I came to know, that Devender, actually bought a top up loan on my existing home loan to pay the insurance premium. And now, I have an added EMI of Rs. 932/- for the next 20 years.
I bought the same to Divya & Mangal’s notice. They said that they are completely clueless on Home Loan front, and will figure out if it is possible for them to get a reversal. However, they reverted saying, a refund is possible however, it will attract a penalty of 20%. I let it be, and decided to accept it as it for now.
But this amount and procedure had been troubling me for a while, so I visited the ICICI Bank, Phase I, Gurgaon branch and HDFC Home loan, Vatika, Gurgaon Branch and what I was told there compelled me to write to you. What I was informed, at both the places was that there, is an insurance which is offered, however it is not compulsory for the customer to buy the insurance for variance increase.
I was completely taken aback with this information. I called my other contact in ICICI bank to confirm, if this is a standard procedure to buy an insurance, he also mentioned the same that there is no guideline which says the same, however, it is a suggested buy.
Post that I wrote an email to Ms. Chanda Kochhar (MD – ICICI Bank) in March 2012. I got an acknowledgment of the email and lot of calls from the bank, but no resolution…the constant answer that i get from them is that you need to pay 20% and get a refund, and no one has answers to the following questions:-
Why should i pay this 20%, I never asked for this policy, I don’t need it, I can’t afford it & without this also I got have achieved what I wanted?
I have paid approximately Rs. 7000/- towards the home loan, what will happen to that?
Who will help me with the foreclosure of the top-up loan?
Hence, I decided to knock the customer complaint department.
I am really looking for resolution, please contact me at +91-9953597027 or [email protected]
Thanks & regards
Parul Varghese
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