All smokers know it but ignore it: smoking can damage your health. The problem for smokers is that whilst they can ignore the risks, life insurance companies do not!

It is a proven fact that the likelihood of an early death is increased if you smoke. It will come as no surprise therefore, that life insurance companies charge much higher premiums for smokers. But what might come as a surprise is that on average the premium for a smoker will be 60 per cent higher for a non smoker. Sometimes, depending on which insurance company you are dealing with, the precise surcharge you pay will be influenced by the amount you smoke; after all, someone who has been smoking 4 a day for just 4 years might be a low lower risk than someone who has been smoking 40 a day for 14 years.

Smoker rates do vary between insurance companies, but wherever you search there will be a whopping surcharge added to the equivalent non smokers' premium. An if you get an online quote it is easy to find out how much extra you'll be charged - just get two quotes, one for you as a smoker and one for you as a non smoker. You'll be astounded at the difference. And please, if you decide to get the insurance, make sure you accept the quote which includes you as a smoker. If you buy the insurance as a non smoker when in fact you do smoke, any claim is likely to be invalidated.

Please do not think that the insurance company will not find out the truth about your smoking. When any claim is made, the insurer will contact your Doctor for a report on your medical history - it is normal procedure. Within those records, your Doctor will have noted whether or not you smoked and this information will be passed on to your insurer.

If you have provided inaccurate information the insurer will refuse to payout. It would not matter if you were killed in a road accident and your death had nothing to do with your smoking. Wrong information invalidates your policy.

This might sound tough but look at it two ways. If you died from lung cancer it could be reasonably argued that your smoking was related to your death. And that risk would not have been priced into the policy when the insurance company agreed to insure you (as a non smoker). If you died from something which was clearly apart from smoking, say a road accident, you would still have cheated the insurance company as the premium you should have been paying would have been some 60 per cent greater then you actually paid. So on the surface of it you would have defrauded the insurer out of the difference between the smoker and non smokers premiums and as you now know that can be quite a lot of money.

What happens if you stop smoking? Well to start with you will probably be a lot fitter and that in itself is a good start! As far as the insurer is concerned, they want to be sure that you have stopped smoking permanently. Some insurers will accept that non smoking for 12 months is adequate evidence of having given it up, others will want a five year break. They will then reduce your premium but usually not down fully to the non smokers level as they still factor in some residual smoking mortality risk.

And do not think that if you give up smoking and subsequently restart, you don't need to tell your insurer - you do! And your premium will go up again! And if you do not tell them that you have resumed smoking, your policy can be invalidated. Best to pay up and get on with it!