Are You Keeping Track Of Your Freebie Policies?

Your debit/credit card, mobile plan or SIP may get you free insurance cover; it is essential for you to pay attention to what’s on offer

- Vivek Ananth

India is often called an under-insured country, be it health or life cover. Many people continue to buy insurance products as an investment, and not purely as an insurance instrument.

However, insurance packages are now increasingly being bundled with a variety of financial products such as bank accounts, debit cards, and credit cards. Some mutual fund and telecom companies have also joined the bandwagon, throwing in free insurance covers with their products and services.

These insurance covers are free for you and me. The service provider takes out a group insurance cover for its customers and pays for it.

Typically, people who get insurance products for free along with another product either don’t use them or don’t know how to get the best out of them. While these products are just add-ons and shouldn’t be your main source of insurance, it doesn’t hurt to extract the maximum benefit from a product that you have anyway been enrolled in.

Types of insurance

Two types of insurance are usually sold as a package with other products — personal accident cover and travel insurance. Many credit card issuers, such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India, offer personal accident cover to those who opt for some of its cards. Based on the type of credit card, the personal accident cover can range from ₹50,000 to nearly ₹3 crore.