Quit Smoking and Lower Your Life Insurance Premiums

We’ve all heard it before. Smoking is bad for your health. If you smoke cigarettes, you’ve probably considered quitting before. Another reason to quit smoking has to do with lowering your insurance premiums. Insurance companies will lower, maybe even half, your premiums.

When it comes to an insurance company assessing the risk you pose to them, your smoking habit can hit you hard. In the pocket that is. A smoker will automatically pay a substantial amount more than a non smoker, due to all of the risks that are associated with smoking.

We’ll have a look at two insurance companies and see what you would pay as a smoker, compared to a non smoker.

We have compared a male, aged 40, living in Victoria.

For $500,000 life insurance with AIA:

• Non Smoker: $36.16*
• Smoker: $77.19*

For $500,000 life insurance with Tower Australia:

• Non Smoker: $36.12*
• Smoker: $75.04*

The insurance companies have strict guidelines when it comes to smokers.  If you have smoked a cigarette within the last year, you are considered a smoker. You need to have gone a full year without smoking before your smoker’s rates can be removed.

The differences in the life insurance premiums speak for themselves. Make sure you take note of the date that you quit smoking. If you do stop smoking you need to let either your insurer or your insurance adviser know.

*All rates are correct as of February 12th, 2011

For more information to help you quit smoking, visit these sites:

• Quit Smoking Now
• You can quit smoking