# Life assurance — do companies reduce your premium if you quit smoking?



## DrMoriarty (17 Jun 2008)

I'm rather smugly celebrating one year off the fags today, and wondered if I could console myself for the spreading midriff with the thought that my life insurance premiums might be reduced if I were to contact my insurers — or my broker? — and tell them that I can now tick that little box declaring that I have not used any tobacco product in the last 12 months (and not so much as a nicotine patch, inhaler or stick of gum, either! )

Has anyone done this? Are they likely to "reward" me with a lower premium, midway through a straightforward single life, level term policy — particularly if I suggest that I'll walk away otherwise? A couple of trial online quotes suggest I could buy new cover and save 20-30% on the premiums I'm currently paying for a policy taken out when I was a few years younger, but still smoking.


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## z103 (17 Jun 2008)

Certainly. 
I remember working for a life assurance company and the main (only?) criteria were age, gender and smoker.
(A non-smoker was someone that hasn't smoke anything in the last year, not even one cigarette.)
Oh, and well done!


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## rob30 (17 Jun 2008)

they ask usually about current smoking status, and any cigarettes smoked in the past year. It is not worth lying, as they do check sometimes for nicotine traces in a saliva sample. 
well done on quitting, and i feel it would lower your policy loading.


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## Caveat (17 Jun 2008)

I'm guessing you'll get a reduction but nothing too exciting.

For my first mortgage (about 6 years ago) I was asked the question by my broker who told me, smirking, that as I smoked I would have to pay...(complete with a dramatic pause) ... €3 pm (or something like that) more than than a non-smoker.  

Unless of course things have changed in the intervening years or the 'loading' differs significantly between companies.


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## NicolaM (17 Jun 2008)

Hi
Usually there is quite a significant loading: 50% to not far off 100%,(given the 1 out of 2 chance of dying from a smoking related cause, fair enough) so you might get a decent reduction. 
More money in your pocket anyway!
Well done Doc!
Nicola


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## DrMoriarty (17 Jun 2008)

Ah, it's all very well for young fellas like you, Caveat.

For the same amount of cover over a 10-year term, I'm looking at the difference between €41 and €75/month, according to the online quotes I'm getting from _[broken link removed]_ (no connection other than as a satisfied customer).

Sure that's the price of 100 cigarettes! 

_[Edit: Thanks, Nicola (and the others!) — posts crossed.]_


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## Lulu123 (17 Jun 2008)

You will probably need to sign a declaration saying that you have not smoked and then they will review your case. It should bring your life assurance costs down slightly and coupled with the money you are saving on cigarettes you could go on a fab holiday this year!


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## GWM80 (17 Jun 2008)

Firstly well done for staying off the fags....
Only way companies will look at your smoking status is by applying for a new policy at non smoker rates..So your existing policy would then be cancelled.. Its certainly something to look into but shop around there is a big difference between many of the companies..


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## LDFerguson (18 Jun 2008)

Cancelling the old policy and replacing it with a shiny new one with non-smoker discount will require you to complete a new application.  If you have developed any other health complication (or taken on a hazardous sport or occupation) since you started the first policy, there might be issues.  Get the new policy in place _before_ you cancel the old.  To quote Winston Churchill, you don't want to end up stalling between two fools.


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## DrMoriarty (18 Jun 2008)

Tanks for the thip, Liam.


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## efm (18 Jun 2008)

LDFerguson said:


> Cancelling the old policy and replacing it with a shiny new one with non-smoker discount will require you to complete a new application. If you have developed any other health complication (or taken on a hazardous sport or occupation) since you started the first policy, there might be issues. Get the new policy in place _before_ you cancel the old. To quote Winston Churchill, you don't want to end up stalling between two fools.


 


DrMoriarty said:


> Tanks for the thip, Liam.


 
 Oh here we go again with the _quipthip _puns!


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## PM1234 (20 Jun 2008)

There will certainly be a difference in premiums. In fact I think a previous poster was very lucky to have been quoted only €3 difference (would nearly go as far as to say this was possibly an error depending on the sum assured/minimum premium etc).  As LD advised, make sure to have a new policy in place before cancelling the existing one.  And well done! 

Edit: If you have any tips on how you quit pls post!


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## DrMoriarty (21 Jun 2008)

Cheers, PM1234. I just decided it was time; I'd been smoking for a long time and finally wanted to quit more than I wanted another fag, ever. I knew it would have to be cold turkey, so I fixed a date about three weeks hence (the last day of my daughter's Leaving Cert exams, as it happened) and used the interval to psyche myself up and ease off slightly on my intake, so as to lessen the shock to the system. First week was murder, but I found reading the Allen Carr book helpful in terms of turning my thinking around, and just hung in there, one day at a time. There's some useful advice on the (rather militant) www.whyquit.com, too — but some of their material is not for the faint-hearted! 

Also, to clarify re my original question — as GWM80 rightly suggested, the insurer confirmed they couldn't adjust the premium on the existing policy; I have to apply anew as a non-smoker. So I'm doing that now and then letting the existing one lapse — it was due for renewal next September, at an annual premium of €585. The annual premium for identical cover for the next ten years is now €478, even though I'm nearly five years older.

So that €110 p.a. saving should pay for a couple of nice rocks of crack cocaine...


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## eileen alana (22 Jun 2008)

Congrads on giving up the dreaded weed, I came across this article from the independent.


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