ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE - LIES, LIES & MORE LIES

The dodgy practices of an ICICI Prulife financial services consultant.....

This is my experience, as an NRI, of being mis-sold a life insurance policy by an ICICI Prudential life while claiming it to be a fixed investment high return account.

Garima Thethi, a financial advisor working in the Ludhiana branch of ICICI was put before me eventhough all I wanted to do was open a standard savings account in the ICICI bank. I was unaware that she was a financial advisor, I believed she was working for the bank and only now have I come to realise that the other ICICI bank staff were obviously getting a commission from Ms Thethi for every sucker they put before her. She actually works for ICICI Prulife, a separate financial services company partnered between Prudential Insurance and ICICI Bank.

We came in, my parents and I, to just deposit a few lakh that we wanted to transfer from another bank in a smaller part of Punjab. We were just looking for a simple NRI savings account. The lady at the desk directed us to Garima Thethi who said they had a much better account called the Premier Life account (and 'account' was what she called it) where I could get a much higher rate of interest - at least 8% annual return.
This high return account meant having to leave the money for 3 years without access. And not only that, after 3 years the money could be repatriated to the UK (I kid you not...these were her words). Considering we were heading back to the UK and wouldn't be in India for a while it seemed a pretty good savings account. We told her we would be back once we got the money and decide then. Meanwhile she took our contact details.

Then during the week while we stayed in Punjab followed several calls from Ms Thethi who carried on trying to sell the wonders of this Premier Life account. I told her we would be visiting the bank before we left to see her.

We came, the day before departure, with 2 and a half lakh back to the ICICI bank in Ludhiana to sort out our deposits. We had decided to open one standard savings account and place 1.5 lakh in there and 1 lakh in this supposedly amazing 'Premier Life' account. Ms Thethi said this was not a good idea and that the interest rate in the standard savings account was very little - we would be much better off placing all the money in 'Premier Life'. She tried her best for over half an hour but we stuck to our guns. Then followed a load of filling in forms. All the standard questions were asked but then far more personal details were being asked of me. I glanced at the form and replied that this was some kind of insurance policy, which I obviously didn't want. Ms Thethi quickly reassured me that I didn't need to be concerned and that this was just a formality of the Premier Life Account that they provided a life insurance with it.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, only after having come back to the UK did I find I had been totally lied to and totally ripped off by Ms Garima Thethi.

First of all, all correspondence was being sent to the Indian address we gave (our relatives there) instead of my UK address as promised. We actually had to get them to forward the mail to us. At this point having read through all the documentation I realised what I'd been sold.

I found that over 20% of the lakh we had invested had already been taken out of this life insurance policy (because that is precisely what it is - NOT a high return investment account!) in administrative charges - something I was NEVER told about. Obviously a chunk of that being Ms Thethi's initial commission, the reason why she gladly lies through her teeth to dumb schmucks like me.

And to top it off I have to pay at least another lakh into this policy every year otherwise it lapses!

I've emailed ICICI Prulife several times to respond to this matter. I've even resigned myself to just getting my initial deposit back but ICICI Prudential, while claiming they would respond or directing me to their other departments, they have yet to respond with anything.

So, to summarise -

DO NOT DEAL WITH ICICI PRULIFE

DO NOT DEAL WITH A LADY CALLED GARIMA THETHI

It's such a shame that the dodgy practices of some financial consultants in the UK is now being copied in India. Admittedly, even UK financial advisors have never even lied to the extent this woman has. And I wonder how many other people she has duped.

My parents have always had faith in the Indian banking system, even with all the hassles you face in it, but if this is typical of the way India is heading, it's not a good sign. It's one thing having to deal with staff who don't care it's another being totally lied to and having your money stolen from you.

So, eventhough I give this advice to everyone, I think NRIs should especially be careful because it looks as if some in India are quite happy to grab our money, that we invest back there, but treat us like dirt and rob us at any occasion they can.