Top 5 Financial Reasons to Quit Smoking in 2010
15 Dec 2009 Tell a Friend
Since the smoking ban started, smokers may be feeling a little put-upon. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop with the icy-cold outside smoking area in pubs, as many products and services come at a premium when you smoke.
Here is a guide to some of the ways you could save thousands each year, which will hopefully kick-start your resolutions if you are planning to quit in the New Year!
Cheaper Private Health Insurance
You might have heard the odd rumour that that smoking isn't so good for your health. Since smoking kills around 114,000 people a year, the obvious place you're going to notice the financial burden of smoking is on your health insurance premiums.
Tempting as it is to not tell your insurer that you smoke, you would lose out if you ever had to claim for a smoking-related illness because of course your claim would be invalidated. Even if you have recently quit, in insurance terms you're not considered to be a non-smoker until you have been smoke-free for 12 months or longer, so if you are asked when you last smoked, you'd need to be 100% honest.
When you've passed the year benchmark however, shop around for private health insurance and you'll notice the price difference immediately. Make sure to ask your current provider for a new quote, and if you find a more competitive deal elsewhere as a non-smoker, ask them to match it. They are likely to agree in order to keep you as a customer.
Get a free, no-obligation Private Health Insurance quote here >>
Cheaper Term Life Insurance
Term Life insurance gives your family financial protection if you should die within a certain period (say, 20 years). Statistically, smokers have a lower life expectancy than non-smokers. Therefore, any term life insurance policy you take out will be more expensive if you smoke.
Insurers don't want to lose money by paying out a large lump sum to your family when you have only been paying your premiums for a few years, so they make your premiums much more expensive. The insurance company is then covered if you should die earlier than you expect through a smoking related illness.
We're not talking a couple of pounds of difference, but thousands and thousands over the life of your policy so you could be paying off your mortgage early or living much more comfortably if you didn't smoke.