Trying to kick your smoking habit for 2020? Did you know that smokers can pay twice as much for life insurance as their non-smoking counterparts?
January is a time for many to focus on personal health goals and every year the goal for thousands across the country is to give up smoking. People often speak of, and are very aware of the health benefits, but few realise that apart from the savings from buying packets of cigarettes, there is another potentially large financial benefit.
Smoking and Life Insurance
As you might expect, smokers are paying more in Life Insurance premiums than non smokers because of the many harmful health effects of tobacco, but most people are not aware how large the disparity between the premiums can actually be.
We’ve completed a cost analysis on the difference in premiums paid by smokers and non smokers. If you compare prices for a Term Life policy worth €300,000 over 25 years for a 45 year old smoker and a 45 year old non-smoker, the gap amounts to €18,600 in premiums between the two. That’s a pretty significant figure.
For Serious Illness Cover, a smoker can expect to pay €71,000 more than a non-smoker during the course of a serious illness policy for €300,000 over 25 years.
So leaving aside the obvious health benefits of giving up cigarettes, there are very obvious financial gains to be made, including a potential reduction in your life insurance costs.
The good news for people who are off cigarettes and looking to get life cover for the first time is that they can now get cover for less than they would have a year ago. For people who already have cover in place and have kicked the habit for 12 months or more it’s even better news, as they could make big savings in premium costs.
In order to be classified as a non smoker, you must not have used any tobacco products in the last 12 months, including e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement products.
So if you have a Life Insurance policy in place and you’ve been “off the smokes” for 12 months or more, cash in on your fantastic achievement. Contact the life cover broker Team in Citywide Financial and we can advise you how much you could save.
Rob O’Neill
CEO Citywide Financial
(01) 513 8710