I’m going to be brutally honest with you if you are looking to find affordable life insurance rates as a smoker.  You are not going to just pay a little more but a lot.  In fact, in this article I’m going to go in depth and show you how much more you could actually pay just because you smoke.  On top of that I’ll also give you a few tips on what you can do to cut cost and find an affordable policy.

The Cost Difference

To start, I want to show you the cost difference in being a smoker.  This way I can give you some ideas as to how much you could expect to pay for coverage.  The first quote is for a 31 year old male smoker that is getting a $100,000 term life policy.

Take not of the monthly cost of $31 which isn’t just to bad.  Now let’s see how much the policy would cost if we were not a smoker.

Notice that as a nonsmoker the cost of the policy drops by over 50%.  That’s around a $180 a year saved just because you don’t smoke.  Add that to the cost of all the cigarettes you don’t buy and your talking thousands saved every year.  However, let’s go a step further, let’s see how much a policy might cost at age 60.  So in this next scenario the coverage will be for a $100,000 death benefit male smoker.

Again take note of the monthly rate which runs around $213 for a 60 year old smoker.  Now let’s see what kind of cost we would have to pay for a 60 year old nonsmoker.

When we compare the cost difference between a smoker and a nonsmoker we can see that a nonsmoker would only pay around $104 a month for a policy, while a 60 year old smoker would pay over twice as much for the same coverage.

So what can we take away from what we’ve learned so far?

First off, as a smoker whether young or old you are are going to typically pay around 50% or better in monthly cost than if you were a nonsmoker.

Secondly, it doesn’t matter how you slice it you are just going to pay more because you are a bigger risk to the insurance companies.  On top of that you will never be able to get a lower rate because you are a smoker.  So just accept it or keep reading and I will show you a few way you may be able to go about finding cheaper life insurance quotes as a smoker.

Tips To Cut Cost

So now that we’ve established smoking just cost more and that their is no way to avoid the extra cost as a smoker let’s look at a few tips that you can do to help you cut cost.

You Could Lie.  One option that I don’t recommend is that you could lie on your life insurance application.  This would allow you to pay a lower cost but could come at a huge risk to you and your family.  In fact, if you were to lie on your application and the insurance company found out about it they could in turn deny your claim.  On top of that if the agent knowingly knew this and helped you do this the agent could also lose his licesnse or worse go to jail.  My advice is don’t put your family at risk and lie it could cost you big.

Lower Your Death Benefit And  Term.  Another option is to lower your death benefit.  If you don’t need much coverage you could go with less and save a ton.  In fact, below is a quote for a 30 year term life policy for a 60 year old male with a $25,000 death benefit.

By doing this you could lower you monthly payment to $82.  On top of that you could also lower the term of the policy as well.  In fact, with term life you can shorten it to as low as 10 years saving you even more money.  Below is quote I ran for a $25,000 policy that has a 10 year term for a 60 year old male smoker.

By doing this you could expect to see rates around $54 a month.  However, I should mention that cost may vary depending on the person applying and their medical history, which brings me to my next point.

Health Classification.  When insurance companies rate people for a policy they will typically be classified in one of four areas, Preferred Plus, Preferred, Standard Plus, and Standard.  Now their are more classifications than this but these are the most commonly used.

The goal here is to qualify in the highest rating possible to give you the best price, however as a smoker you will not be able to qualify for preferred plus.  In the example above as a 60 year old smoker with a preferred rating got a monthly rate around $213 but let’s see how much more it could cost you if you got a standard rating instead.

In the quote above the price jumps almost $50 more just because of a lower rating.  To learn more about what rate you fall into check out this handy chart below.

I should also mention every insurance company has different underwriting guidelines but you can use this as a way to give you general idea of where you’ll fit.

Quit Smoking.  The final option to consider as a way to lower cost is to quit smoking altogether.  In fact, if you can quit smoking even for just one year you could lower the cost dramatically. As a 60 year old smoker with a $100,000 policy you would be looking at a monthly payment of $213, however let’s see what you would pay if you would quit for just one year.

By doing this you could cut cost down to around the $140 range saving you around $70 a month.  Now again I must mention if you have any other medical condition they will also be taken into account.  On top of that insurance companies may also want to know how long your were a smoker as well, as this could also drive up cost.

Final Thoughts…

Well their you have it.  If you want to save the most money on your life insurance policy take my advice and quit smoking because it will save you a ton and you will more than likely find cheaper and more affordable life insurance as a result.

Are you looking for affordable term life insurance rates for smokers?  Feel free to leave your comments, questions, tips, and thoughts below.

Cheers!

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