How to Get Cheap Life Insurance
Updated on Tuesday 22 October 2024
In this guide:
How much does life insurance cost?
How to get cheaper life insurance
Can you cut your existing life insurance cost?
**6 tips to save money on premiums**
Getting the best life insurance quotes in the UK
How much is life insurance?
Life insurance can be difficult for many people to understand, mainly due to all the jargon involved and different types of policies available.
Taking the step towards taking out life insurance can be filled with uncertainties, especially when it comes to the best ways to save money on life cover. Many people don’t know what to expect – is life insurance going to cost a few pounds per month or hundreds? Is it worthwhile? Am I just throwing my money away? How do I buy life insurance? It can all seem a bit much.
The truth is that life insurance is a very affordable product. The price scales depend on a few things, such as your age, health and the amount of cover you need, but many life insurance policies can be obtained for as little as £5 per month.
Read our guide to the average cost of life insurance for more information, or get a life insurance quote now with comparison site Confused.com by tapping the button below:
How can I keep the cost of life insurance down?
Like all types of cover, the cost of life insurance is down to risk. The insurance provider is offering to make a substantial payout in the event of your death, and they hope – as do you! – that when that time comes, it is very far away. If there is a risk that you will pass away sooner then the premiums will be higher, but if it looks like you will outlive the terms of the insurance then the premiums will be lower.
This is why smokers can pay as much as 50% more than the equivalent non-smoker for their life cover, due to the vast amount of health complications that it can cause. The same goes for those who are obese, as the healthier you are, the less risk you pose and the less you will pay for your insurance.
The other risk factor is the level of insurance you opt for. For obvious reasons, higher payouts come with an increased premium.
In essence, there are two ways to keep the cost of your life insurance premiums down:
- Prove you are going to live longer
- Get a lower level of cover
As we’ll explain later in this article, there are many ways of proving your efforts to live a healthier lifestyle, from linking your policy to an activity tracker to quitting smoking.
Can you negotiate life insurance? - Choosing the right level of cover
By far, the best way to get life insurance is through a trusted insurance broker. At Compare UK Quotes, we recommend Quick Quote Life Ltd, a life insurance broker and advice service that covers a wide range of products and provides top quality customer care.
Getting life insurance directly through the insurer is rare due to the complexities and time-consuming process that can be involved. Insurers prefer to work with the brokers, and it is easier for you if you do so too.
Note: You can also get life insurance with a free gift, including gift cards worth hundreds of pounds and prize draws to win free holidays.
When speaking to the broker, you will be given many life insurance options. Life insurance is not just a single product – there is a huge range of policies to choose from, including the following types of life cover:
- Whole of life insurance
- Decreasing term life insurance
- Level term life insurance
- Over 50s life cover
- Critical illness cover
Your broker will also want to know the amount of cover you need – that is, the amount the insurance company will be required to pay out in the event of your death or a specified critical illness, depending on the type of insurance you opt for.
How much life insurance do I need?
In discussions with Quick Quote Life, we learned that the best baseline for cover is ten times your annual salary – so if you are currently earning £35,000 p.a., you might be looking for £350,000 in life insurance cover.
Here are some more examples of how much life insurance you should take out, according to QQL, in relation to your salary:
|
Annual Wage |
How Much Life Insurance You Need |
|
£18,000 |
£180,000 |
|
£25,000 |
£250,000 |
|
£35,000 |
£350,000 |
|
£45,000 |
£450,000 |
|
£50,000 |
£500,000 |
|
£60,000 |
£600,000 |
That is just one way of working out how much cover you potentially need; however, it isn’t always that simple and it depends on the type of policy you have.
If you are getting a decreasing term policy to cover the cost of your mortgage, for example, you need to get cover with a payout to reflect that amount.
To determine how much cover you need, it is always best to speak to a life insurance broker or advisor.
One of the most common life insurance policies is level term life insurance. If someone earning £35,000 a year took out £350,000 worth of level term cover, their beneficiaries would be paid that £350,000 if the policyholder died at any point during the defined term (or length) of the insurance policy.
This might run for 20 years, be set to end when your children are all 21 or older, or timed to finish upon your retirement –the length of the term is up to you.
Discussing these variables and negotiating on price is a key part to obtaining life insurance, despite the fact that it may not come naturally to us Brits. Remember, your broker will have access to many different life insurance providers and their competing packages – ask what else is on offer and see if you can find a provider which better matches your needs. Be sure to ask for life insurance with a free gift as well, as you never know what type of new-customer benefits might be on offer.
If your life insurance quotes seem unaffordable, contact a broker like Quick Quote Life today to have your current policy reviewed; there might be a better suited (and more affordable) policy available to you.
Can you reduce the cost of your current life insurance?
The only true way to adjust or change your premiums is to cancel your existing policy and replace it with a new one. While some insurance brokers will try to tempt you into doing this, you should be careful and make sure you know exactly what you are doing before going ahead.
Life insurance premiums are set at the time of application. Usually, this is a huge benefit to you as a customer, because you are able to take advantage of your likely-better health of an earlier you. Replacing a life insurance policy with a new one years later means having a quote for an older person, which could see you getting less value for money.
For example, suppose you took your life insurance out aged 30, at a healthy weight, as a non-smoker. Your £200,000 cover that you chose at the time might come in at £20 per month.
Then ten years, a few hundred takeaways and a new passion for drinking later, you try again. You occasionally smoke and you are somewhat overweight, and the same level of cover is coming in at almost £50 per month!
It’s easy to see how trying to make a change at a later date is likely to be detrimental.
Of course, it works both ways, and there’s every chance that the 30-year-old you was a frequent smoker who cared little for his health, and the now 40-year-old you is a vegan yoga-enthusiast – in which case, it’s more than a little worthwhile to renegotiate your life insurance!
It’s only worth getting new life insurance if you are now in a far better place – in terms of your health and lifestyle – than you were when you originally took out a policy. If you have not made drastic health improvements and lifestyle changes, it’s likely that you’ll be worse-off if you try to take out a new policy, so stick to your existing one.
Be careful – the tricks that might be played to offer you cheaper life insurance premiums.
There are many unscrupulous life insurance salespeople out there – that’s why we recommend a trusted broker like Quick Quote Life.
If you do go to renegotiate your life insurance some years in, you may find that you are being told they can save you hundreds by adjusting your policy. In truth, they are cancelling your old policy and replacing it with a new one of their choosing and in doing so, it may take away some of the benefits that you had with your old policy. Your new policy might also have more exclusions which could lead to it being invalid or void when the time comes to claim.
Some examples:
- You explain to the broker that you have £250,000 of cover at £35 per month. They offer you £250,000 at only £20 per month. What they don’t tell you is that your original insurance policy included critical illness cover of £100,000 which provides you with a lump sum if you find yourself too ill to work. Their offer doesn’t have the critical illness insurance so it seems like a great saving, but years later if you find yourself suffering from a sickness, the cover you thought was in place is simply worthless.
- The broker offers you £250,000 life cover plus the £100,000 critical illness insurance that you were keen to point out, but they do so with a different provider who has more limited criteria for critical illness cover, meaning fewer medical conditions are accounted for and you find yourself without cover once more.
- Your previous cover was £100,000 under a whole of life term, and the broker replaces it with a level term arrangement that ends when you are 70. You don’t realise and find at 71 you are no longer covered and getting a new policy at that time is many times more expensive.
There are many more tricks available to the dishonest agent, which is why it’s incredibly important that you shop around and purchase through a reliable broker like Quick Quote Life. Be sure to check reviews and recommendations before using any broker and don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions, and think very carefully before cancelling an old policy and replacing it with a new one.
6 quick tips to get cheaper life insurance
There are a few things you can do to get a cheaper life insurance quote:
1 – Take out life insurance while you're young and healthy
You should always aim to take out your life insurance sooner rather than later, because young people are typically offered cheaper cover as they pose less risks to insurers.
Every month that passes makes you that little bit more of a risk for the insurer. If you are young, don’t put it off – the savings that are possible through being a young and healthy person are probably the greatest that can be made. You will always get the best life insurance deals when you are young and healthy!
Anyone over the age of 18 years old can take out a policy, but many people choose to do so when they have their first child, get married, or buy their first house.
2 – Quit smoking!
Smoking is the largest factor in increased life insurance costs. Insurers count you as a smoker even if you have had a cigarette, cigar, vaped, used a patch or anything else smoking-related in the past twelve months.
It’s such an important factor to providers that the only lifestyle question you’ll be asked when taking out over 50s life insurance is “Do you smoke?”.
Smokers can pay as much as 50% more than non-smokers for the equivalent level of cover, purely because of the health risks associated with smoking. So, quit today and, in an exception to advice number 1 above, wait twelve months and then get your new insurance policy!
3 – Be willing to accept life insurance exceptions
An exception is where the insurance company says, ‘we won’t pay if this happens’. Most frequently, it occurs if you are involved in a dangerous hobby or sport.
The policy will come back saying that you are covered - except when you are undertaking that specific activity. Accept it!
Trying to cover yourself for a dangerous activity is entirely possible BUT incredibly expensive and it is far better to take out specialised insurance for that part of your life than force your general life insurance to cover it.
4 – Don’t be greedy
It’s easy to see the numbers and think, ‘ooh, half a million pounds is far better than three hundred thousand!’ Don’t. Get the policy that fits you and don’t push beyond your means.
Try not to over-insure yourself and only get the level of cover that you and your family really need.
5 – Understand the life insurance packages you are being offered
There’s a lot of difference between whole of life policies and decreasing term ones. There are also a lot of additional products, such as critical illness cover, or income protection. Take the time to do a little research and go in understanding the terms to a certain extent. It will stop you buying things you do not need or being pushed down a path you do not like.
Here at Compare UK Quotes, we have an extensive library of articles on life insurance and associated products to help.
6 – Shop around and use life insurance brokers
Like all insurance, it pays to shop around. If you have a good life insurance broker then they should be doing this for you, but talk to them and ask them what insurers they don’t work with and then find another broker who covers that too.
It won’t hurt to get quotes from as many providers as possible, and you could find yourself the perfect deal.
Don’t jump in straight away with the first offer you are given. Take time to think about it and come back to the quote you liked the best.
You could also find a provider offering life insurance with a free gift, including gift cards of up to £250 and even a free prize draw to win a family trip to Florida!
Finding the best life insurance in the UK
At Compare UK Quotes, we spend a lot of time behind the scenes doing just what our name suggests – comparing quotes across the country and giving you the best insurance advice.
Finding the best life insurance policy at the best price is just part of that job, which is what led us to Quick Quote Life, a trusted UK-based life insurance broker.
QQL are legally allowed to give you sound advice and provide understanding rather than just trying to tell you the product that provides them with the best commission.
This makes them stand out from a crowd of brokers that are quick to take your money but cannot help you through the process at all.
You can also use a life insurance comparison site – such as Confused.com – to get quick quotes from a wide selection of the UK’s best providers.
For more advice on all your personal finance and life insurance needs, take a browse at our related articles here at Compare UK Quotes!
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