10 Ways to Lower the Cost of Your Life Insurance

Last Updated: April 9, 2019

Far too often, people put off purchasing life insurance because they think it’s too expensive. The cost of not having insurance far outweighs the monthly premiums, and if you’re smart about how and when you shop for insurance, the monthly premiums aren’t at all that much!

A recent survey found that around 60% of people with life insurance paid less than $100 per month for coverage; and of those people, almost half paid less than $50 a month!

Life insurance really doesn’t cost much at all to begin with, and at Term Life Advice, we use our experience to help you save even more money. Here are 10 ways to lower the cost of your life insurance.

Quick Article Guide:

1. Buy Your Life Insurance Now
2. Start Watching Your Diet
3. Finally Kick That Cigarette Habit
4. Get Active
5. Understand Your Family History
6. Rethink Your Hobbies
7. Let Go Of Road Rage
8. Buy the Amount of Coverage You Actually Need
9. Be Honest With Your Agent
10. Work With an Independent Agent

1. Buy Your Life Insurance Now

As you get older, your health is going to decline and life insurance will cost you more. And as your health deteriorates, you could develop medical conditions that not only increase the cost of your life insurance by putting you into a lesser rate class, but also put you at risk you of not being insured altogether.

In fact, your monthly premiums could increase 5-15% every year you put off buying life insurance. There’s no cheaper time to buy life insurance than now, so stop procrastinating and contact one of our agents today by calling: 855-902-6494.

2. Start Watching Your Diet

losing-weight-for-your-life-insurance

Eating junk food can negatively impact your weight, cholesterol, diabetes, and blood pressure. If you’re a regular alcohol drinker, you should cut that out too, since it can cause damage to your brain, heart, liver, and pancreas.

One of the best ways to lower the cost of your monthly premiums is by developing healthier diet habits and watching what you eat and drink. Harmful habits can cause your monthly premiums to go through the roof, or cause your application to get declined.

3. Finally Kick that Cigarette Habit

It’s not a secret that smoking cigarettes can wreak havoc on your health, and that can end up costing you thousands of dollars. Life insurance rates for healthy non-smokers are a fraction of the cost of an identical life insurance policy for someone who smokes.

It’s best to quit smoking immediately; most life insurance companies won’t consider you as a non-smoker until you’ve stopped smoking for at least a year. And the good news is that if you’ve already applied for life insurance as a smoker, but have since quit, you can often reapply and save money.

If you can’t give up cigarettes, try switching to e-cigarettes or nicotine gum instead. One of the A+ rated companies we work with will even offer a non-smoking rate class to e-cigarette users that do not smoke traditional cigarettes. Here’s an example that shows how much more a male who smokes will pay for a $500,000, 10-year term life insurance policy, than a non-smoker.

Sample Rates For A $500,000, 10-Year Level Term (Cigarette Smoker vs. Non-Smoker)

4. Get Active

Regular exercise can significantly improve your health, which, as a result, can put you in a better rate class and save you money. Being active and at a healthy weight is important when buying a cheap life insurance policy. Many top-rated life insurance companies offer incentives for customers to live a healthy lifestyle; while each wellness program is different, most include some sort of point system that can eventually reduce a customer’s rates.

The American Heart Association suggests getting at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise—like jogging, dancing, playing a sport, or lifting weights—every day. If you can get on a healthy regimen and lose weight and/or reduce the effects of your medical conditions, you can talk to one of our agents and ask for a policy reevaluation that could make you eligible for lower rates.

5. Understand Your Family History

You may not realize it, but your family history can affect how much you pay for life insurance. For instance, if you have a parent or close family member who died prematurely from a medical condition that could be hereditary (like heart disease or cancer), that could affect your rates. A life insurance company might see that as the possibility that you’ll die prematurely as well, and will hike up your rates because of it. It’s important to be honest with your agent about any potentially problematic family history you’re aware of so they can find you a lenient company that may still put you in a decent rate class.

6. Rethink Your Hobbies

While your adrenaline-inducing hobbies might make good fodder at a dinner party, insurance companies aren’t as excited to hear about them. Activities like skydiving, scuba diving, flying recreationally, and rock climbing can all increase your life insurance costs—anywhere from $500-2,000 every year! You don’t have to become a hermit, though, just find a happy medium of safe hobbies that still excite you.

7. Let Go of Road Rage

how to lower the cost of your life insurance policy If you’ve been known to have a lead foot or can get a little reckless on the road, now is a good time to ease up. Tickets and accidents can have a large effect on your rates—both life insurance and auto insurance.

Because of all the deaths that occur due to speeding, DUIs, and reckless driving, life insurance companies have started looking at driving records as a part of the application process. As an added bonus, relaxing a little bit more while you’re behind the wheel can improve your health!

8. Buy the Amount of Coverage You Actually Need

When you’re buying life insurance, you want to make sure your loved ones are taken care of and financially stable after you pass. It may be tempting to over-buy and get more coverage than you actually need. And the more coverage you have, the more you’ll have to pay in your monthly premium.

If you want to save money while still providing for your family, start by tallying your annual expenses and any debts (mortgage, student loans, credit cards, etc.) you have. After you’ve evaluated all those things, you can begin to decide how large of a life insurance policy you need. You can also use our free life insurance needs calculator to help you determine the right amount of coverage for your needs.

Many financial experts suggest reevaluating your life insurance needs once every couple years. Life changes pretty frequently, and you may find that your life insurance needs do too. Having children, paying off large debts, being diagnosed with a medical condition, or switching jobs can impact the amount of life insurance you need – and reevaluating frequently can save you money. In addition, some companies will allow you to decrease your coverage and monthly payments during the life of your policy, if needed.

As an example: Last month, Tom from Ohio called us to purchase a new life insurance policy. Tom said he still had 11 years left on his 30-year policy, but he no longer needed $500,000 of coverage because he had paid off his mortgage.

After speaking with Tom, we learned that his health had significantly declined over the last two decades, and qualifying for a new policy might present some challenges.

Rather than helping Tom with a new policy, we determined that he would be better off decreasing the policy he already had. By reducing Tom’s policy to $250,000, we we’re able cut his monthly payments almost in half, and he’ll still have coverage for 11 more years.

9. Be Honest With Your Agent

how to save on life insurance

When applying for life insurance, you have to be transparent with your insurance agent. At Term Life Advice, our agents are on your side; we don’t have sales quotas to meet so our only goal is to find you the best and most affordable rates.

Hiding your medical history or conditions doesn’t help you one bit; that information will come out during the underwriting process when insurance companies look at your medical records. If you’re honest with your insurance agent and disclose everything, they’ll be able to match you with the insurance company that’s most lenient with those issues, saving you money and ensuring you’re not denied coverage.

10. Work With an Independent Agent

In the life insurance industry their are two types of agents, independent agents and captive agents. When you work with an independent agent, you have the luxury of shopping around. On the other hand, captive agents represent a single company and can only offer policies from that company.

As independent agents at Term Life Advice, we represent dozens of top-rated life insurance companies. By having access to so many companies and their guidelines, we’re able to match our clients with the company that is the best fit for their needs, and most most lenient with their health and lifestyle issues.

By applying with the best company available, we’re able to save our clients up to 73% on the cost of their life insurance!

How We Can Help You Save You Money on Life Insurance

Our agency works with more than 60 top-rated life insurance companies and we’re licensed to sell life insurance in every state. Having access to dozens of life insurance companies and their guidelines allow our agents to match our clients with the best life insurance options available to them, saving them money.

On top of that, our services are free and there is no cost to apply for coverage. Our ultimate goal is to make sure our clients get the best deal available on their life insurance policy. Give us a call today, toll-free at: 855-902-6494, or request a free quote online to compare rates from dozens of highly rated life insurance companies in less than a minute.

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