Buying different types of Insurance policies is a common practice in India. With many policies issued, several papers that hold sensitive information, including your policy number, expiration date, and pending premium amount, are often accumulated and often need to be found or forgotten for several reasons.
This situation often leads to unclaimed insurance policies in case of the policyholder’s death due to lack of communication. Thus, IRDAI introduced the e-Insurance Account or eIA account, allowing you to store and monitor your policies from anywhere.
In this article, you’ll have a deeper look at the e-Insurance Account, know the process to open your own e-Insurance Account and all you need to know about them.
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Advantages of e-Insurance Accounts (eIA) – Is it helpful?
e-Insurance Accounts (eIA) offer several advantages and make the overall process efficient. Some advantages of using e-insurance Accounts are discussed as follows:
- Reduced Paperwork: As a consumer, you opt for different insurance schemes of other companies based on your needs and research.
- Different motor, life and term insurance schemes have separate documents, making the claim process difficult. Losing a policy document when filing a claim causes unnecessary delays or may result in rejection.
- Using an eIA, your insurance policies are stored in demat form digitally, and you are not required to maintain a record on paper; thus, easy claims and a hassle-free process!
- One-Time KYC Process: Opening an eIA requires you to submit all the necessary self-attested KYC documents, such as ID Proof and Address Proof, along with your application form to open an account.
- After eIA is opened, insurance companies give you an eIA number in place of your KYC documents.
- Through this, you can easily skip through the KYC procedure of all the further policies you buy, thus speeding up the whole process.
Just like we keep our health in check, picking the right health insurance is equally crucial. Wondering how much cover you need? Well, it’s like fitting a puzzle piece in the right spot. There’s an article, ‘How Much Insurance Cover Should You Opt For?‘ that breaks it down into easy steps. It talks about looking at your life, your health, and your pocket to figure out the best fit for you. It’s pretty handy for making sure you’re covered just right.
- Track Premium due dates: One of the proposed features of the eIA is tracking all the premium due dates of all policies from a single platform.
- Multiple policies have different due dates for the payment of premium amount, which causes cancellation of policies when missed.
- This problem is solved by an eIA where users can track all the policy due dates and their premium amount to avoid policy cancellation. In the future, users can pay insurance premiums from the eIA platform.
Did you know your RuPay card has a hidden perk? Yeah, it’s like finding a secret pocket in your old jeans. This perk is all about claiming free accidental insurance. It sounds complex, but it’s actually not. There’s a simple guide, ‘How to Claim Free Accidental Insurance with RuPay Card,‘ that walks you through the process as if you’re learning to tie your shoelaces. It’s something you don’t want to miss, especially since it’s like getting a safety net for those just-in-case moments.
How can you open an eIA? A Step by Step Process
Different organisations, including CAMS, CDSL and NSDL, offer eIA services in our country. However, it is essential to note that an individual can only open one eIA in any mentioned organisation.
The procedure for opening an eIA requires you to submit your KYC documents to the concerned authorities along with a form. After opening the website of the organisation, the general process is described as follows:
- Filling an eIA Application Form: After opening the website, you must fill out an account opening form. You can download this form by clicking the download button in the account opening section. In CAMS and CDSL, you can fill in your details on a web portal, after which a pre-filled form is downloaded, which has to be sent along with your KYC documents, whereas in NSDl, you have to download an empty form, fill it with a pen and then continue with the process.
- Collecting Documents: After you fill out the application form, you must compile all your required documents, such as Aadhar Card and PAN card, along with bank statement and passport size photographs, etc. and any other documents as mentioned on the organisation’s website.
- Courier Documents to Authorised Personnel: After you collect all the documents, you must visit the AP Locator section on your organisation’s website. After you locate the nearest AP’s address, you are supposed to send all the documents via courier for verification. AP stands for Authorised Personnel which verifies your documents and finally approves your account opening request.
- Generate eIA Password: After your documents are verified, you will receive an eIA number on your email address which contains guidelines to set up a password for logging in to the eIA. Thus, the account opening is successful!
Is your eIA already Opened, and How do you check it?
It is also possible that your e-IA already exists without you noticing it. As per IRDAI Regulations related to eIA accounts in effect from 1 October 2016, All the insurance policies bought by the consumer were:
- In any Insurance policy, the annual premium of the policy is equal to or exceeding Rs 10,000 or in the case of term insurance plans, the annual cover of the policy equals or exceeds 10 Lakh.
- The cover of any life-related insurance policy is equal to or more than 1 Lakh, or for the case of health insurance, the insurance cover amount exceeds 5 Lakhs.
In both cases, after fulfilling any listed conditions, the company issuing insurance opened your complimentary eIA, which you may not have noticed.
You can search your mailbox for unnoticed emails from any repositories, including NSDL NIR, CAMS REP or CIRL (CDSL Insurance Repository Limited).
Imagine investing in a mutual fund and getting a life insurance policy for free. Sounds too good to be true? It’s like ordering a coffee and getting your favorite cookie on the house. There’s an article, ‘Free Life Insurance Policy with Mutual Fund,’ that spills the beans on how to get this combo. It’s straightforward and shows you how to add an extra layer of protection while growing your money. For anyone trying to make their financial planning a bit sweeter, this is a must-read.
Some Alternatives to E-Insurance Accounts
You can consider several alternatives to opening an eIA. Some of the popular and commonly used alternatives are discussed as follows:
Importing Policies on Digilocker
- DigiLocker is a popular service that promotes paperless documentation of essential documents. Being Linked to an Aadhar Card, it automatically imports your policies after you enter the company name and policy number issued against your Aadhar Card as a KYC document.
- Importing policies on DigiLocker such as health insurance and term insurance allows you to access the scanned copy of your policy within the app, thus making it easily accessible.
Google Drive or Cloud Storage Platforms
You can also create a dedicated folder on Google Drive or any other cloud platform, upload scanned copies of insurance-related documents to the specified folder, and share their access with your family members. This is an easy and hassle-free way to access your documents as required.
Conclusion
eIA has tremendous potential to reduce the effort of the policyholder. They can even help ease the process of buying insurance for consumers, allowing them to lead a better life in case of any mishap. For now, opening and using an eIA is complicated and needs more ease of usage.
As e-Insurance accounts are at a developing stage, the organisations responsible for maintaining the online user experience of the eIA have yet to pay attention to bringing a solution to the user’s requirements, leaving several queries unanswered.
You can always opt for other online alternatives, like uploading your insurance policy documents to online storage platforms and sharing their access with your family members, making it accessible when needed. Moreover, when opting for insurance policies from online platforms, you are asked to open an eIA account in NSDL’s National Insurance Repository, which you can consider as per requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Question: How many e-Insurance Accounts can I open?
Answer: Only one e-Insurance Account is allowed for an individual. You can only open a single account in any of the mentioned organisations.
- Question: Is an eIA different from DigiLocker?
Answer: Yes! Digilocker saves a scanned copy of your policy document, whereas an eIA account has the demat form of your policy linked to your eIA account number.
- Question: My eIA is open. How should I access my account?
Answer: As you receive the account opening email, you should generate a password by following the guidelines mentioned in the email received or visiting the website of the concerned organisation.
- Question: How can I add an existing policy to my eIA?
Answer: After logging in to your eIA account, click the “Add Policy” section. After selecting the company name and policy number and uploading the required scanned documents, you can add your policy on the eIA platform.
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