Is life insurance really expensive?

[Musings225]

I've just been quoted over 50 quid a month for life insurance! I've got a couple of health problems but nothing serious at all. It's way higher than I thought it would be??!

Depends on your age.

We got life insurance aged 33 with no health problems, £750k payout, and it costs us about £25pcm over 25 years.

How old are you, OP?

My Life insurance is £35 month for me and dh and pays out about 400k. I took out the policy when I was around 30 and never had any health issues.

All insurance seems more expensive than it used to be.

I'm 30

It depends on your risk profile, the insurers and how much cover you want. Your risk profile will consider a variety of factors including lifestyle, known/previous medical conditions, occupation to name a few. So nobody can really tell you if your quote is expensive based on the information in your OP. Best to get at least two or three quotes and ensure you understand how the cover for each might vary. I'd also be inclined to avoid companies that offer shiny free gifts as they tend to target people who are suckers for marketing gimmicks over those who know how to assess if they're getting value for money.

How much cover are you buying?

It's not like most insurance where you can buy double the cover for, say, 20% more premium, the premium for life insurance is normally directly proportional to the cover for obvious reasons.

No, life insurance is cheap. Critical illness cover is what's expensive.

Ah okay. I want critical illness cover.

Depends on your age, any risk profile, the amount of cover and term.

Also the supplier, some are simply more expensive than others, and how you're buying it - there could be a very significant commission built into the premium.

I'd also expect that there's a certain minimum premium so the company's admin costs are covered. When we started out with life insurance it was about a fiver a month, but we were in early 20s and our mortgage was only £30k. But it's probably not worth the company's while to charge such a small amount of money now.

For the best price and most suitable cover, Lifesearch is recommended by Moneysaving Expert and the Meaningful Money podcast.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/cheap-life-insurance/

I think £50 is about right for critical illness cover. I have Critical Illness and Income Protection which costs £85 / month. I'm in my 30s with no health conditions but I have gone for a very high payout option. I don't have life insurance at the moment...