(ECNS) -- A new survey has found that 60 percent of Chinese citizens are unwilling to buy commercial insurance policies, and the proportion of active buyers remains extremely low.
The survey results released Wednesday by Rong360, an online finance service platform, showed that most respondents blamed honesty issues of insurance companies for their cold attitude.
The survey said complicated insurance plans, low incomes of Chinese households, and a lack of insurance knowledge had become the top three barriers to purchasing commercial insurance policies.
It found that 13.6 percent of respondents had seen their insurance policies become invalid because they didn't properly understand how their premium payments worked, and 36.73 percent had failed to receive compensation due to confusion about compensation clauses.
Meanwhile, 44.22 percent were lured into buying highly attractive wealth management products from insurers, but upon maturity they were unable to receive returns as expected, while 23.13 percent missed the opportunity to cancel a policy because the salesperson didn't inform them of the cooling-off period, during which policyholders can review the terms and conditions and opt out if they are having second thoughts.
"Insurance contracts play on words and are unreadable," said Li Qinghuang, a Shanghai resident. "It's easy to buy (an insurance policy), but it can be as hard as climbing up to the sky to claim compensation later on," he added.
Liu Yinping, an analyst at Rong360, said unprofessionalism and profiteering were commonly seen in the insurance industry and harmed consumers' rights and interests.
The survey also found that 46.36 percent of women, compared to 36.09 percent of men, had bought commercial insurance policies.
Liu attributed the gap to women usually being in charge of home finances, as well as many unemployed women seeking protection because they were not covered by the social security program. Women also had more spare time to study insurance products.
