Smoking And Insuring Your Life

By Author: Norris Rios
Total Articles: 572
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You should know right from the start that insurance companies usually charge with higher rates those who can be classified as regular smokers. Being a smoker automatically places you into a high risk category and your premiums will be higher compared to your non-smoking peers. That's' because insurance companies used different risk classifications and according to a person's health and bad habits he or she is placed in a respective category.

Even if you have a good physique and health, smoking or using nicotine regularly will automatically push your rates higher compared to customers from the same risk group but without a history of nicotine use.

Are you a smoker?

Insurance providers tend to get very sensitive when it comes to tobacco use among applicants. In most cases the application form will feature a question about tobacco use in the past twelve months. This includes cigarettes, cigars, chewing and sniffing tobacco. And if the answer is positive you will be required to indicate the frequency at which you're using tobacco products.

It doesn't matter if you smoke a couple cigarettes or a whole ...
... pack in a single day - you're still a smoker and it's in your own interest t answer the question honestly. But wait, it gets worse! Even if you are an occasional smoker with only one smoke with a bottle of beer once a month or two, you are still considered a smoker and your rates will be as high as for regular smokers. Most insurance tend to see such behavior as risky for health and charge respective rates. The only situation where you can get a little brake from such strict regulations is smoking a single cigarette once in 3-4 months during the year. So if you're smoking cigars on very rare occasions just in order to celebrate something then you can rest easily regarding life insurance.

Tell the truth

In most cases when signing a life insurance policy you will be required to go through a medical check. Taking the fact that nicotine takes about 72 hours to exit the body completely the exam will show how honest you were when answering the questions in the application form. Of course, you may get ready for the exam and last without even a single smoke in three days before the check. However, the insurance provider is usually expecting a completely negative result if you've indicated that you're a non smoker, and if there will be a slight trace of nicotine in your urine (and that's possible), the insurer will automatically raise your premiums or reject your application altogether.

The consequences?

If you're a smoker having indicated to not use tobacco in the application form and the insurance didn't notice the fact, the things don't stop here. In case of your death the insurance provider will run an investigation on the cause of death and if they find out that you were a smoker they can cancel the policy without paying out the death benefit to your family. And let's agree, this isn't exactly what you've purchased life insurance for, right? So it's really important to tell the truth when you're applying in order to make sure that you aren't wasting your money in vain.