Insurance companies and customers are doomed to everlasting strife ― as the former are bound to shun payments as much as possible and the latter are determined to get them at all costs.

Although financial consumers have increasingly been voicing their rights over the past years, it seems that the insurers still have an upper hand.

According to recent data compiled by the Korea Finance Consumer Federation, a leading civic group, 24 out of 37 life or indemnity insurance companies offered limited access to their customers.

Those who wish to file an official complaint with a company currently have to use a certificate authorization system.

In many cases like the Hong Kong-based AIA Life Insurance, there is no electronic civil service at all on the website.

Nine out of the 24 life insurance companies put up customer appeal guidelines on the main page of their website, but the messages are usually written in small-sized fonts or located at the bottom of the page.

Even if the customer can locate the call center number, he or she has to go through a complicated process.

“Financial consumers, when faced with disputes with their insurers, can approach the Financial Supervisory Service or the Korea Consumer Agency,” said an official of the KFCF.

“But the problem is that only nine insurance firms inform their customers about this.”

The worst scenario for insurance companies is when a customer files a complaint with the FSS, since the regulator examines the records in the corresponding company’s customer service index.

“Sometimes, insurers go one step ahead and file a lawsuit in order to skip the FSS process,” said the official.

“With the backing of big law firms, these companies find it more convenient to face lawsuits rather than customer complaints or FSS supervision.”

The KFCF data showed that the number of lawsuits filed by indemnity insurers in the third quarter last year was 637 cases, up 27 percent from the same period in the previous year.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)