How giving up smoking could reduce your life insurance cost as well as boosting your wallet
March played host to No Smoking Day and giving up the cigarettes can have benefits beyond just your health and your wallet.
Around 16% or 7.6 million adults in the UK are smokers, smoking on average up to 12 cigarettes per day. Every year in England about 79,000 deaths are attributable to smoking, while in 2015/16, there were 474,00 hospital admissions in relation to the habit.
Avoiding the health risks is a big enough reason to quit smoking, plus you will be saving money on the cost of the cigarettes.
But being a non-smoker can also push down your life insurance premiums as an insurer will see that you are living a healthier lifestyle.
Royal London research estimates that single life cover worth ÂŁ150,000 would cost a smoker aged 30 ÂŁ29.47 per month, compared with just ÂŁ14 a month for a non-smoker. That is a saving of ÂŁ4,641 on top of whatever you save by no longer buying cigarettes.
It’s not too late if you are older. A 50-year old smoker could have a monthly premium of £55.71, compared with £23.90 for a non-smoker, a saving of £9,543 over 25 years.
You don’t just need an awareness day to give up. You can do it anytime and the NHS has a Stop Smoking Service that provides tips on kicking the habit.
There are other factors that will determine your life insurance cost, but if you have recently given up smoking, give us a call and we can rustle up a nice cup of tea and a biscuit to see if we can reduce your premiums or even get you started with life cover.
