Tisco pegs health scheme to deposits

The Fixed Deposit with Health Insurance accounts feature up to Bt5,000 for a hospital room per day  with a maximum amount of Bt1 mil¬lion for each treatment, up to Bt2,000 for medical expenses in each outpatient visit for 30 times a year, and a maximum Bt200,000 in case of death to beneficiaries. It is the country's first fixed deposit account bundled with health care and per¬sonal accident coverage.

Coverage, however, will differ depending on the deposited amount in the account. There is no need of for health checkups. Both personal accident and health insurance poli¬cies are provided by Ayudhya Alliance CP (AACP).

When depositors who deposit Bt1 million, Bt3 million and Bt5 million in the account are admitted to hos¬pitals, they are covered by Bt1,500, Bt3,000 and Bt5,000, respectively for room and meal expenses each day. They will receive medical treatment expense coverage at Bt30,000, Bt50,000 and Bt100,000 for Bt1 million, Bt3 million and Bt5 million accounts.  Separately, they will get the same coverage for operation expens¬es.

Moreover, if medical treatment expense is very high, the protection will provide depositors an extra Bt200,000, Bt600,000 and Bt1,000,000 in each package.

For outpatient cases, depositors of these three packages will get Bt500, Bt1,000 and Bt2,000 of pro¬tection per time, respectively, but not exceeding 30 times a year and not exceeding one time a day.

If depositors withdraw money before one year, they must pay Bt10,000, Bt30,000 and Bt50,000 to the bank for the premium fees which had already been paid to AACP.  

"The bank expects to mobilise Bt3 billion of deposits by the year end for these three packages. After the Deposit Protection Act is imple¬mented on August 11, some cus¬tomers who have high deposits in a bank will move their deposits to other banks," said Sakchai Peechapat, executive vice president and head of Retail Banking of TISCO Bank.

Those who can enjoy the benefits must be between 16 to 65 years old and accounts are limited to one per person

Sakchai told reporters yesterday that depositors would also receive yearly interest rates of 3 per cent, 3.25 per cent and 3.5 per cent for Bt1 million, Bt3 million and Bt3 million deposits, respectively.

Tisco Bank's regular oneyear fixed deposit rates stands at 3.50 per cent for Bt1million and Bt3million of deposits, and 3.75 per cent for Bt5million deposits.  

Health insurance policies which provide similar protections of these three packages cost about Bt16,000, Bt35,000 and Bt50,000 in premi¬ums. Therefore customers will take advantage when they make deposits in the product, instead of buying insurance themselves.

Depositors in these three pack¬ages will get Bt100,000, Bt150,000 and Bt200,000 in case of death respectively, which is the same pro¬tection of a complete disability case. In case of accident they will get Bt500,000, Bt1,000,000 and Bt2,000,000 of protection, respec¬tively.

Tisco Bank launched Fixed Deposit with Health Insurance accounts after it surveyed 1,000 cus¬tomers who had high deposits and found out that this group of cus¬tomers is health conscious and 73 per cent of them considered health insurance to be important.  In addi¬tion, 79 per cent would buy health insurance and 50 per cent needed both inpatient and outpatient pro¬tection.