All Insurance Policies issued towards domestic and overseas travel coverage shall comply with the following norms:
1. Premium shall not be received more than 90 days in advance to the date of commencement of the risk covered in case of domestic travel or along with the ticket while purchasing the travel tickets, whichever is earlier.
2. Covers towards overseas travel may be issued at any time. The aforesaid stipulation shall not be applicable to overseas travel cover.
3. Where policies are offered under Group platform or through any travel agency or portal, the following norms shall be complied:
i. Insurers are responsible to ensure an informed choice to the persons to be insured and ensure compliance to Regulation 6 of IRDAI (Protection of Policyholders’ Interests) Regulations, 2017.
ii. The Name of the Insurance Company which is offering the travel insurance cover, the amount of the premium that shall be collected towards travel insurance cover shall be specifically disclosed as the cost of travel cover, at the time of opting to buy a travel insurance cover. Rate of tax that is applicable to the premium shall be also separately specified.
iii. Insurers shall ensure that any portal or App providing the travel insurance coverage shall not pre-select the option of buying the travel cover as a default option.
iv. The prospect shall be able to specifically choose whether or not to buy the coverage.
v. Where selected to buy, an option shall be provided for opting out or de-selecting the option before concluding the transaction.
vi. There shall be a provision to let the person to be insured buying a travel cover go through the benefits, terms and conditions offered under the travel insurance cover on the screen itself and consent shall be obtained in the form of selecting a radio button by the prospect / policyholder in confirmation of having read and understood the terms and conditions.
vii. In order to ensure that every travel policy offered is in compliance with these norms, there shall be a clause in the agreement entered with the master policyholder and in the terms and conditions of the group policy along with a provision to cancel the group policy arrangement if the master policyholder is not adhering to the norms specified.
4. Insurers shall put in place procedures to verify that at least once in a period of three months the travel policies offered are complying with the above norms.
5. These norms are issued under the provisions of Section 34 (1) of the Insurance Act, 1938.
6. This Circular shall come into force with immediate effect. All the group insurance arrangements that are not in compliance to these norms shall be terminated with effect from 01st October, 2019.
7. This has the approval of the competent authority.
