Villagers say insurance agent deceived them over policies

Rossukhon Jampadib, 40, a member of the Chon Noi Tambon Administrative Organisation in Pattananikhom district, said the villagers were duped into buying the deposit-type of policies along with mortgage life insurance, as a condition for obtaining loans from the BAAC.
Worse still, several of the villagers’ applications for mortgage life issuance and deposit life insurance were rejected – but they were not informed and their insurance premiums were not returned, Rossukhon said.
The irregularities about the life insurance policies came to light after Winai Nooseng, a debtor of BACC, died. He had applied for a mortgage life insurance policy from SCB Life – but when his mother, Pralam Nooseng, 68,told the BACC of his death and asked the bank to claim the remaining debt from SCB Life, she was told her son’s insurance application had never been approved.
When Winai’s case was learned by other villagers, they became frightened they might have lost their insurance premium money too, so they formed a group to seek help from Rossukon to file complaints with the police.
Rossukhon said about 50 BAAC debtors lodged complaints with the Pattananikhom police station on December 6.
SCB Life sent representatives to negotiate with the affected villagers, said Jamnong Sala, who claimed to have been duped to buy both types of insurance policies.
Jamnong said the insurance agent refused to give him receipts, but promised that they would be sent to him along with the insurance policies.
“The problem is villagers are now not certain whether their insurance applications have been rejected like Winai’s or not,” Jamnong said.
Rossukhon said the affected villagers had paid their insurance premiums in June and July but so far none had received copies of their insurance policies.
She said when the villagers applied for loans, they were told by BAAC officials that they had to buy mortgage life insurance or else their loans would not be approved.
Rossukhon said the insurance agent was stationed at the BAAC branch to sell the insurance policies and had told the villagers they were obliged to buy two types of policy. The second type would allow them to get back their premium fees plus interest after 20 years.
The villagers were charged Bt600 for each Bt100,000 loan following the mortgage life issuance, and Bt34,000 a year for deposit life insurance.
Pol Colonel Kiarttipong Thongpian has summoned Wutthisak Thaothampitak from the BAAC Pattananikhom branch and Thaninrat Lertkitti, an employee of SCB Life, for questioning following complaints by the villagers.
Thaninrat told the villagers that the second type of insurance policy had nothing to do with the mortgage, but was a normal deposit life insurance.
Thaninrat said the insurance agent in question had resigned. He declined to give his name.
Thaninrat said SCB Life would need a month to investigate the cases of the villagers.
Kiarttipong said he would take legal action against the insurance firm if the villagers had lost their money and he would make sure all the villagers got their money back.
Sunthorn Sukprasit said he had bought two types of insurance policies. Had he learned the second policy was a normal life insurance policy and had nothing to do with the mortgage, he would not have bought it.
“I have already three life insurance [policies] so why I should buy more? The sum of over Bt30,000 is not [a small amount] for us,” Sunthorn complained.
Boonthai Kaewkhandee, assistant manager of BAAC, said the co-operative had coordinated with SCB Life to check the number of BAAC debtors who had paid for the insurance premiums that were later disqualified.
Boonthai said the insurance firm had learned of the problems and promised to return the premiums to villagers.
Boonthai said BAAC officials from their head office would visit Lop Buri tomorrow to investigate the exact number of affected villagers and would do everything to help them.