How to Buy the Best Term Insurance Plan Online in 5 Steps?

Written by : Knowledge Centre Team

2026-02-19

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Term insurance plans are no longer simply paying for life cover plans. They have features which can make yours and your dependents’ lives more manageable. Do you have a term insurance cover? Have you explored all the benefits and the new way in which you can avail of a term life insurance plan?

If not, here’s a step-by-step process to help you buy the best term plan online.

Key Takeaways

Modern term plans offer more than just life cover with added living benefits.
Cover includes critical illness, disability, and premium waivers for safety.
You can grow your life cover as your family and income grow.
Term plans offer payout options that help your family manage expenses better.
Step-by-step online buying helps you make smart insurance decisions easily.

How to Buy the Best Term Insurance?

Nowadays, everything is available online, not just for learning, but you can also buy almost anything from the comfort of your own home. Here are five easy steps that will guide you to the term insurance plan that suits your needs the best:

Step 1: Understand What Risks Your Plan Covers: It’s no rocket science that the purpose of buying term life cover is to ensure the financial stability of your family in times of need. However, that’s not all that can put your family on its back foot financially.

Here are four different risks that modern term insurance plans may provide financial assistance to your family:
1. Risk of Early Death: The primary benefit of any life insurance plan, including term insurance, is to offer death benefits to the nominees or beneficiaries.
2. Disabilities: The best term insurance plans will provide two kinds of benefits for disabilities:
  - A lump-sum payment in case of permanent total disability.
  - Premium waiver allows you to continue your life cover without having to pay any premiums in case of a high level of permanent physical disability.
    
    You can opt for either or both benefits with your usual term life cover.
3. Critical Diseases: Critical diseases are those illnesses which may spread rapidly, are deadly, and may not have a definitive cure. For example, cancer, heart attack, renal failure, etc.
  
  Few plans like iSelect Smart360 Term Plan by Canara HSBC Life Insurance offer an inbuilt critical illness cover with the life cover. However, if your term insurance plan doesn’t, you should have the option to add this cover as an added rider benefit.

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Step 2: Choose a Plan That Grows With You: Your income, wealth, financial status and family grow with time, and so should your term life cover. Consider the following example for this case:

Sandeep bought a term life cover of ₹1 crore at the age of 30. His annual take-home income was ₹12 lakhs at the time, and he had just become a father. Considering the goals of a single child and his family’s need for ₹30,000 per month as regular income, ₹1 crore term cover was good enough.

At the age of 35, he has another 1-year-old child, and his annual income has grown to ₹18 lakhs after tax and deductions. He has also bought a house worth ₹40 lakhs using 70% funding with a home loan. His family’s regular income needs (household and necessary lifestyle expenses) have grown to ₹50,000.

Should ₹1 crore term insurance cover suffice? Not really, he needs to increase his term life cover to ensure that his loved ones can maintain their new lifestyle and financial goals.

The best term life insurance plans will give you two options, one of which is automatically available if nothing is selected:
1. Life Stage Increments: Life stages refer to important life events that increase your financial responsibility or significantly improve your lifestyle. For example, in the case of Sandeep, he had a child, his income grew by about 50% and he took a home loan.
  
  All of these events are important life-stage events that should alert you to increase your life insurance coverage.
  
  This benefit should be automatically available to you if your term policy has this feature. For example, under the iSelect Smart360 Term Plan, you can claim the increment benefit within a year of the event taking place.
2. Automatic Increment Option: The automatic increment option is a life cover that grows at a fixed rate each year. The only catch is that you need to select this option while buying the term cover.
  
  If you already have a term insurance plan but do not have these features in it, you may need to buy a new term cover. However, this time, be smart and buy an increasing term cover, or at least one which gives you the option to increase the cover later.
Step 3: Will Your Plan Also Cover Your Homemaker Spouse?: You may have worried a few times about anything happening to your full-time home manager and the effect on your household. Usual term life policies would not cover a spouse, regardless of their contribution to the family.

However, when you get a term cover from an insurer, the same insurer may allow you to cover your spouse under the same plan as well.

The cover would be smaller, yet it is important, especially when the term plan is something like iSelect Smart360 Term Plan by Canara HSBC Life Insurance, where life and critical health both are covered. With this plan, you can add your spouse to your plan within one year of your marriage, if you bought the policy with individual cover.

Step 4: Decide How the Claim Should Be Paid: Claim settlement is the ultimate point of experience in a term plan for your family. If you have selected the correct mode of benefit payments, it will save your family from a lot of headaches.

The best term insurance plans available now, including iSelect Smart360 Term Plan by Canara HSBC Life Insurance, offer the following two modes of benefit payment for death claims:
1. Lump-Sum Only: The traditional mode, however, is only advised if your family is either financially savvy or has a source of regular income.
2. Lump-Sum with Regular Income: You can choose to receive both lump sum and regular income or only regular income.
  
  Regular income option is an important factor here. It can eliminate a ton of stress for family members during emotionally and financially unfortunate times.
  You understand that running a household requires a regular income. This income is what defines the lifestyle of the family. If your term plan only gives the family a huge sum of money, they will need to invest it and create a source of income.

This is easier said than done. Thus, a better option is to let the benefit payout happen in a regular mode. With iSelect Smart360 Term Plan by Canara HSBC Life Insurance, you can choose a growing income option for your family.

For example, in the case of Sandeep, he could divide his sum assured of ₹1 crore into a lump sum and regular income mode in a ratio of 50:50. This will ensure:

A lump sum of ₹50 lakh, which the spouse can invest to meet the child’s future goals and pay off any liabilities
A regular income of about ₹35,000 (slightly more than current expenses), which will also grow each year by ₹3500 (10% simple interest) to account for inflation

Step 5: Choose the Right Premium Payment Term and Mode: Premium Payment Term or PPT is an important factor to consider when selecting your term insurance plan. Most term insurance plans will offer three or four modes of premium payments for the policy (given below). Each payment term has its trade-offs that you should consider. Some options would put you in a better situation than others. Hence, the following are the premium payment options to explore:
Single-Premium Option: Most add-on features which help you modify your term cover size may not be available. However, your overall premium payment is lower than in other modes.
Limited Pay: You can choose any payment term which is lower than the policy term. Many of the cover size amendment options will not be available, but again, you get a discounted premium rate.
Pay till Retirement: The option allows you to pay all your premiums only till the age of 60. This is a great choice if you need to extend your life cover beyond retirement, and you should.
Regular Pay Option: All the benefits and added features will be available. However, not advised if you want to continue your life cover beyond retirement or opt for whole life cover.

Check your existing life insurance plan and see how many of these benefits are available to you, and determine which one to buy.

Conclusion

Choosing a term insurance plan is about customising the cover to match your family’s present and future needs. It gives your loved ones financial support even when life takes unexpected turns. The good news is that most of these options are now available online, making the entire process easier, faster, and more transparent. Whether you are buying it for the first time or planning to upgrade your current plan, take the time to compare and understand what suits your life stage best.

We not only offer a secure online platform to purchase term plans like iSelect Smart360 Term Plan by Canara HSBC Life Insurance, but also peace of mind regarding your loved ones' security. Our 99.43% claim settlement ratio is a testament to our reliability.

Make a smart choice today to protect your family’s dreams tomorrow.

Disclaimer - This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company Limited or any affiliated entity. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the blog or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the blog for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. You should consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific circumstances before taking any action based on the content provided herein.