Online self-service insurance

Points to note

Protect your personal data privacy
- To keep your personal data safe, do not apply for insurance through public Wi-Fi, a public computer, unknown or suspicious websites and hyperlinks embedded in emails or on social media platforms.
- Do not share your user name or passwords for your digital insurance services with anyone or disclose your password to anyone casually.
- Passwords should be difficult to guess, they should be different from ones you use for other online services, and you should change them regularly.
- If you suspect that your personal data has been stolen, you should contact the Police immediately for assistance.
Make sure to access the official website or sales platform of the insurer
- If you apply for insurance online, you should log in to the sales platform direct through the official website or mobile application authorized by the insurer.
- You can call the insurer to check whether the website or channel of the relevant sales platform is authorized by the insurer. You can also find the official website address and contact information of the licensed insurer in the “Register of Authorized Insurers” on the Insurance Authority website. Any company carrying on insurance business in or from Hong Kong must be authorized by the Insurance Authority under the Insurance Ordinance (Cap. 41).

Before applying for insurance, you should consider your specific protection needs and your reason for taking out an insurance policy, and assess your personal financial position and ability to pay for the policy. Never take out an insurance policy simply because of a promotion or discount.
Before applying for insurance online, you can make good use of online resources and tools (such as the Protection Needs Assessment Tool on the Insurance Authority’s Thematic Sitelet and the Life Protection Coverage Calculator on the “Chin Family” website of the Investor and Financial Education Council) to help understand and assess your personal needs and calculate appropriate insurance coverage that you can afford. Before applying for insurance, you should evaluate its affordability by considering whether you can afford the premium and whether you have set aside sufficient funds to pay for it. If you are too aggressive and do not have savings for emergencies, it may be difficult for you to cope with an emergency.

Read the policy terms carefully. If you have any questions about the content, call the insurer’s hotline or contact the online customer service officer for immediate enquiries to avoid possible misunderstanding about the policy terms or the omission of certain details and make a wrong decision.
Make sure you understand what after-sales services the insurer will provide and consider whether these services are suitable for you and meet your personal expectations, including inquiries and contact channels (such as online instant chat), online claims procedures and rules, and medical consulting services.

When you purchase insurance online, you may need to answer the underwriting questions online immediately, and truthfully declare your personal health status and past medical records to the insurer to complete the online underwriting process.
“Utmost good faith” is an important principle in insurance contracts. This means that the insurer trusts the policy holder to give true and precise information, and that the policyholder should honestly disclose all relevant facts so that the insurer can reasonably assess the underwriting risk. Therefore, when disclosing your health condition, you should read the questions carefully, answer the questions faithfully, and provide complete information. To avoid affecting future claims, do not rashly disclose information or provide false information just to complete the underwriting process as soon as possible.
If there is anything unclear or uncertain about the online underwriting questions, immediately call the customer service hotline or consult the customer service officer through live chat.

When you apply for insurance online on your own, there is no intermediary to remind you of the expiry date of the policy, and the insurer may not provide you with a paper insurance policy. Therefore, pay close attention to the expiry date of the insurance contract and the cap for the renewal age. When the protection period expires, you will no longer be protected.
You should consider whether to renew your policy before the coverage period expires. And since not all policies can be renewed online, you must understand the renewal terms and reapplication procedure in advance and allow enough time to complete the procedure before your policy expires. When applying for a policy renewal, you should also note that the insurance company may adjust the premium for a policy renewal. For medical insurance, for example, age and health condition are generally considered to be adjustment factors.
You should check if auto-renewal is included in the policy terms. An electronic payment system will generally be provided for online self-services insurance. If you agreed or chose to renew your policy automatically every year, your bank account or credit card will be automatically debited to pay the premium for policy renewal before the policy expires.

If you apply for long-term insurance policies online on your own, you will still enjoy a cooling-off period, which allows policy holders a reasonable time to carefully review the policy terms. If you consider the policy unsuitable after careful consideration and you decide to cancel it during the cooling-off period, you will receive a refund of the paid premium and premium levy.
The cooling-off period is a period of 21 calendar days immediately following the date of delivery of the policy or cooling-off notice to the policy holder, whichever is earlier.
Each insurer has a different procedure for surrendering an insurance policy during the cooling-off period. Make sure you understand how to cancel a policy during the cooling-off period to allow enough time for processing.