Life insurance and e-cigarettes

[notquitehuman]

Just wondering whether anyone who vapes could give me a bit of advice.

I'm looking for a life insurance policy for myself and DH. Been shopping around and using comparison calculators as well as going direct. I haven't smoked in years, but DH did until 3/4 years ago. Since then he's used an e-cigarette with a low nicotine just to take the edge off his craving, and hasn't touched an actual cigarette since then. They disgust him now!

Of course, one of the main questions asked is 'are you a smoker?' and when you click for more information I've noticed that this includes the use of e-cigarettes. So when I click 'yes' for DH, the premiums are coming back extremely high, as they would for a 40-something smoker. In fact, they're about twice as much than if he was classed as a non-smoker.

I don't want to lie about his smoking status and end up invalidating our policy, so I was wondering whether any insurers are e-cigarette friendly? Will I just have to suck it up and pay a fortune each month so my DH can keep vaping? Should I just steal his e-cig in the night and throw it out?

Will I just have to suck it up and pay a fortune each month so my DH can keep vaping

well yes
seeing as how e-cigarettes are completely unproven as to their long term safety and have some of the same chemicals in them as cigarettes
life insurance companies would be daft not to include them

get him to stop

and apparently they can blow up in your mouth, too!!

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic special

sadly not - I know it sounds like an 'I heard' or a case for snopes but it's not:

www.shropshirestar.com/news/2016/01/20/telford-man-suffers-burns-to-face-after-e-cigarette-explodes-in-his-mouth/

some poor sod in America was quite badly injured by his.

E- cigs are dangerous . Google 'popcorn lung' and you'll see what I mean.

There aren't currently any vape-friendly insurance companies in the UK. Prudential used to be, but changed their policies after the (unproven) scare stories last year. Things may change when vaping gets its 'medical' class this year, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

I'd lie, but I would get seperate polices for you and your DH - I've heard of companies invalidating a partners policy based on missing info from a joint policy IYSWIM.

It ought, perhaps, to be relatively easy now for him to just stop? Not got experience of this but it would save you a whole lot of money if he stopped.

What does he think about it?

Pip, vaping costs me about £7 a month, not a huge saving to be made...

I'm not on about the cost of the vaping itself. I'm talking about the cost of life insurance if vaping is counted as smoking.

Sorry if that wasn't clear, I thought that was the whole point of the thread.

Apologies pip, I misunderstood you.

It's fine

Trust me, I'd love to get him to stop, but he's a grown man. I've nagged and nagged. I'm just lucky that this is his only vice and he's not a drinker or drug user! I know vaping is currently the subject of debate about the health risks etc.

Separate policies might be a good idea. I'll look into that. I'm not all that comfortable with lying for obvious reasons. I mean, there's not really any way the insurer will find out, but I'd be worried about not being covered.

I just meant, does he think it's worth it, given the price of insurance?

Or would he be willing to consider stopping if he realised how much cheaper he would be to insure?

You've probably already discussed it, but I was curious to know if this would make a difference to him.