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Last week, The Straits Times (ST) reported on a 60-year-old couple who had S $ 25,000 deducted from their joint bank account for passengers that should have been canceled along with major policies that ended seven years ago.
The ST report highlighted that the husband is a 68-year-old retiree, who had been a partner in a renovation company, while his wife is a 66-year-old part-time trainer for early childhood education teachers.
The couple were said to have decided to cancel their Great Eastern (GE) Integrated Shield Plans (ISP) in 2013 as they wanted to support a relative who worked there.
Their GE agent has canceled their ISPs, but the couple were unaware that the riders on the parent policies weren’t canceled at the time.
The passengers, who cost S $ 250 per month, continued to be deducted from their joint account through Giro, even though they already purchased the same coverage from their new insurer.
The couple assumed the monthly deductions were due to the new policies, until the husband mentioned these deductions to their children at a meeting last November and discovered that they had been paying thousands for the past seven years for unwanted passengers.
His 30-year-old daughter, who is a teacher, decided to call an agent who was assigned to administer GE’s customer service hotline and policies, but to no avail.
Then, he wrote an email to GE requesting a refund of all the premiums his parents had paid, since the riders should not exist when the main policies were already canceled.
ST reported that the daughter received a response from a GE customer service executive in January stating that while the two passengers would be canceled, no refund will be given to her parents.
In addition, she filed an appeal with GE and explained in her email that both of her parents are over 60 years old and not fluent in English.
“They are not aware of all these problems until we verify their bank statements and the insurance policies they currently have. To the layman, insurance policy jargon is difficult to understand and confusing and it is your hard-earned money that we are talking about.
“We are therefore writing to request that Great Eastern reimburse premiums paid and interest incurred to date,” the daughter wrote.
Fortunately, he was able to get GE to reimburse his parents the full amount just days before Chinese New Year.
Meanwhile, a GE spokesperson told ST that the couple’s passengers were not canceled because the older stand-alone hospital plans existed that would have provided 100 percent coverage of the insured’s hospital bills.
He stressed that such a policy can exist on its own and would pay any additional amounts not covered by the patient’s policy, even when the policy is from another insurance company. This is because all new ISPs do not cover hospital bills in full and patients have to pay a part.
As such, those who still have the riders can still own them as separate policies until the old 100 percent riders are phased out.
“We encourage customers to consult with their financial representatives to fully understand the policies and processes before they consider changing or canceling their plans,” the spokesperson said, adding that the termination of new ISPs will also eliminate passengers.
“This is to ensure that they are making the right decision so that they continue to benefit from the necessary coverage and do not have any duplication of coverage,” the spokesperson said.
Netizens are still curious how a cyclist can exist without the main plan
On social media, netizens wrote their thoughts in the comment section of ST’s Facebook post saying that the passenger should be automatically canceled after the protection plan ends, given that the passenger is considered as an “escort plan ”.
The couple’s incident also raised the question of whether customers can purchase the passenger separately from the main plan.
Others pointed out that the GE agent should have informed the couple earlier.
