French insurer retracts on promise enraging customers

On November 1, 2015, Prevoir Vietnam stopped selling its “An Tam Toan Dien” policy, which provides payments to women after giving birth. Since then, the company has not allowed previous owners to renew the policy package. When customers cannot renew the policy, they are ineligible for payment after the insured incident.

“We get it. Prevoir stopped providing the policy because it is making losses for them or is not making as much profit as expected. But when we bought the policy from Prevoir Vietnam, the company promised that renewal would be possible,” a representative of a group of customers told VIR.

The representative said the company stopped selling the policy but only notified agents of the change, not customers. It only issued a public notice to customers after receiving the complaints.

The customers said they requested Prevoir Vietnam to allow for a one year renewal, in accordance with the company’s promises, so they can switch to another company, but Prevoir Vietnam refused on the grounds of company policy.

A representative of Prevoir said the company was negotiating with customers to resolve the problem. On January 19, in a meeting with a representative of 30 customers from all over the country, Prevoir was given the choice of either letting customers renew the policies or paying back the premium plus a penalty of VND50,000 ($2.3) per each day of the waiting period of the policy. Nguyen Huong Thu, deputy general director of Prevoir Vietnam, refused both.

French life insurer Prevoir has received multiple complaints from customers in France too. The company’s website is not functional as of January 21.

Prevoir Vietnam was established in 2005.According to its website, Prevoir Vietnam currently has two policies, namely Phuc Gia Dang Khoa, which helps families pay for their children’s education, and Phuc Gia Binh An, which pays the family in case of the breadwinner passing away. The company sells bancassurance at ACB, Sacombank, ABBank, GPBank, Eximbank, Tien Phong Bank, VIB, and SH Bank.