Hints ‘n’ Tips for saving money on Life Insurance
Are you looking for life insurance? Maybe you’re in the process of applying for a mortgage, have a new arrival in the family or are just being safe – whatever your reasons, you’ve likely discovered just how expensive insuring your life can be.
So, what can you do to save yourself money on your term assurance? Well, there are a few things you can do – and some of them you should probably think about even if you’re not looking for life cover!
Bin the smokes
Are you a smoker? Cut the habit. This is handy for a whole number of different reasons in terms of life insurance: Your application is likely to take less time, you’re less likely to actually make a claim on the cover during this time, and the longer it’s been since you stopped smoking the cheaper a life insurance policy is. If you don’t think you can stop then at least cut down, although some insurers will not consider a forty a day chainsmoker much different from somebody who has a cigar or two on special occasions – and the difference in premiums between a smoker and a non-smoker can be tremendous.
Shed a few pounds
The nation as a whole is getting fatter – that’s a sad fact. However, that’s absolutely no excuse for you to be lax when it comes to what you eat. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a life insurance provider that won’t load your life insurance premiums based on your BMI to some extent, and the higher you let your BMI creep the more protecting yourself will cost. If your BMI is above 30 you can likely expect a 50% increase in the cost of your policy, whilst a BMI of 37 or above would probably stop you from getting life insurance altogether.
Single or joint?
Joint policies have obvious benefits – yourself and your partner/spouse are both covered under one policy, for example, and it means only one payment needs to be made each month. However, you might be surprised at quotes for two single life policies, depending on your circumstances: If one provider loads heavily against people with certain conditions it may be easier to split the policies, and you end up with two separate lots of cover should they be needed.
Work out your sum assured carefully
We’d all love to be the person who leaves their family a huge amount of cash after they’re gone, absolving them of monetary worries in a heartbeat – but unfortunately unless you have a tremendous amount of free cash every month that isn’t really what life insurance is for. Be realistic in your needs; if the only real priority you have is the mortgage on your home, only cover that. The more money you assure yourself against, the more expensive doing so will be every month.
Price up the market
This might seem obvious to some, but many people will simply wander into their local bank and take out insurance with them as they know them – but by shopping carefully you can really save yourself some money – especially if you have medical conditions which you need to declare. Certain providers are more lenient towards certain conditions – using a comparison site or broker can often help you do this both quickly and easily.
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"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." —Sherlock Holmes
