Can you delay your insurance premium payment? (Examples)

If you have an insurance policy, the question “Can I delay my insurance premium payment?” must have crossed your mind at least once. And, if you can delay your payment, then by how many days can you delay it? We’ll let’s talk about this and attempt to get to the bottom of this matter.

We will be talking about delaying your health insurance premium, but you can extrapolate this example and use it as an example for life, motor, and even other types of insurance. Let us talk about this with the help of a couple of real world scenarios. Let’s begin:

First Scenario

Let us assume that Mr. Rishi has a health insurance policy with HDFC ERGO. He always diligently pays his premium on time, but this time around due to certain difficult situations he is unable to pay his health insurance premium on due date.

Let us assume that Mr. Rishi’s due date is on the 1st of Feb. Here, Mr. Rishi makes his insurance premium payment on the 10th of Feb. Now, as HDFC ERGO provides a grace period of 15 days post due date, Mr. Rishi will be able to renew his health insurance policy even after he paid his premium post due date.

Second Scenario

Let us assume that Mr. Sawant has a health insurance policy with Care Health Insurance. He also pays his premium on a timely basis. But this time around, due to unforeseen conditions, he missed paying his insurance premium.

Here, unlike Mr. Rishi, Mr. Sawant not only didn’t pay the insurance premium on or before due date, he didn’t even pay within the grace period. In such a situation, the insurance company will be left with no choice but to terminate his health insurance policy. All benefits and accrued premium and the corresponding coverage benefits will be terminated.

Important points to remember

No coverage in grace period: It is very important that you understand that even though you can renew your insurance policy by making a premium payment in grace period, the policyholder will not be eligible to make any claims during this period. That means if he/she gets sick and admitted to the hospital during grace period, the insurance company will not be making any claim payments during this time.

Different grace period for different companies: It is also important to understand that different insurance companies provide different grace periods. Some companies provide a grace period of 15 days, and some companies provide a grace period of 30 days. It is important to check the insurance policy bond and find out your grace period.

Always pay premium on time: Even though insurance companies provide a grace period, it is always wise to make timely premium payments on or before due date.