Summary
This article looks at how switching to a different insurer could save you money on life insurance. It also covers the importance of reviewing your life insurance when circumstances change.
Switch For A Better Life Insurance Deal
In the last five years life insurance has halved in price. In the first half of last year we saw more rate cuts than all of the previous year and that year was a record year for cuts.
Life cover may be cheaper than you thought it was. If you took out your current policy a number of years ago, it may be a good time to look at today's best buy rates.
- Life Insurance and Life Assurance are not the same!
- Life Insurance and Life Assurance are different. Most people assume they are one and the same product and their online searches reflect this. What are the differences and what are they used for? This article provides an explanation for the layman.
- Critical Illness Insurance and Life Insurance Cover for Better and for Worse
- What does critical illness insurance do? This article explains.
- Critical Illness Insurance. Big changes on the horizon
- Critical illness insurance is beginning to price itself out of the market. But moves are afoot to bring in Menu Pricing. This will enable you to select which illnesses you want to insure against and you simply pay for that level of cover. This article explains.
- Life and Critical Illness Insurance Tell the insurers everything when you apply.
- Non-disclosure of relevant information is the single largest reason for the rejection of a life or critical illness insurance claim. This true story points up the complications.
- Now Is The Time To Take Out Life Insurance
- The benefits derived from life insurance, and in particular term assurance, are assessed. The impact of your health, cancelling and re-insuring, and increasing your cover are also reviewed.
For as little as 10 pounds a month, or 20 pounds a month if he smokes, a 35 year old man could get 100,000 pounds worth of cover over 25 years.
It is very easy to stop your old term insurance. You quite simply stop paying the premiums. However, do not rush into switching. Ultimately the cost of your new policy will depend on many different personal factors. These would be things such as your age, occupation, lifestyle, whether you smoke or not and your general state of health.
Insurers will always underwrite your application, when you apply for life cover, to assess your state of health and the likelihood that you will make a claim. Questions about your health will be asked and your medical notes will be checked too. You will pay more for cover if you have had previous health problems.
You are only likely to benefit from switching if you are in good health. If you have suffered a major illness, you should stay with your existing insurer. Other insurers are likely to charge you much higher premiums because they consider you a high risk.
Even high blood pressure, a bad back or depression could count against you. One Adviser adds: "You must hold on to your existing policy until the new one is completed in case the underwriting throws up any surprises. Once you've cancelled your old policy, you can't start it up again."
If insurers are offering very low rates, then be cautious. "Many of them are cherry picking, which means they only offer cut-price premiums to people in good health and whose family are also healthy," says the adviser.
Searching for cheaper premiums is not the only reason to review your life policy. You should review your policy when there are any major changes in your circumstances, to check that you still have adequate cover.
Emma Walker, a Financial Adviser, says: "If your mortgage has increased, you've had more children or you are now earning more, you might want to buy extra cover to match your new circumstances."
It is advised that people buy cover worth at least four times their salary. Walker says: "That's a reasonable benchmark but, if you're the sole breadwinner with a big mortgage and several children, that payout won't last long. You may need to buy more."
Do not forget to take into account any life cover you may already have, when calculating how much you need, such as death-in-service benefits from your employer.
Readers please note : You should undertake your own background checks before taking any action on any aspect mentioned in this article. Some examples or quotes may have been taken from information available in the public domain where all the background details may not be available.Insurers do change policy conditions and underwriting approach. They will view each situation on its own merits.
You should be aware that details of the topics written about within the articles can change.Therefore, always check out the current position before taking any action.
This article represents the author's personal views and is not necessarily endorsed by this web site. These articles should not be construed as this web site recommending any product or service.