7 Ways To Decrease Your Insurance Premium

While buying insurance is a must, sometimes the premium occupies a massive chunk of your income, especially if you have just started earning. Due to high premiums of some insurance policies, people end up opting for policies that have low premiums even if it doesn’t meet all their needs and requirements. However, what if we told you that there a few ways which can help you reduce your insurance premium? Who wouldn’t like paying less money?
Here are 7 ways which can help you reduce your insurance premium:

1. Step away from the drinks and nicotine:
Smoking and drinking excessively reduce your mortality. When done in large amounts, both of these have a negative impact on your health. This is why insurance companies charge you a higher premium if you smoke and drink frequently as compared to an individual of the same age as you who doesn’t have a history with alcohol or nicotine. The insurance premium is higher for people who smoke and drink frequently because they are more susceptible to a wide variety of life-threatening diseases like bronchitis, lung cancer, and liver cirrhosis and have a higher chance of an early demise. It is important to keep in mind that lying to the insurance company is a bad idea because this may result in cancellation of the insurance policy.

2. Occupational risks and dangerous hobbies:
Individuals who lead a sedentary lifestyle have a higher chance of becoming obese and thus attracting a variety of health problems like diabetes and heart attack as compared to someone who has an active lifestyle. Insurance companies charge higher premiums as such individuals have a higher mortality. Similarly, individuals who have a preference for dangerous hobbies like skydiving and boxing can also be charged a high premium if the hobbies are deemed ‘highly dangerous’.

3. Current health state and pre-existing conditions:
Individuals who are in perfect health are charged a lower premium compared to individuals who have poor health or have a pre-existing medical condition. Individuals having diabetes or a heart condition will be faced with a high premium. An insurer will check your family history in order to ascertain your chances of acquiring a genetic disorder. Similarly, a healthy 45 year old pays a higher premium as compared to a healthy 25 year old since the former has a higher susceptibility to diseases.

4. Longer policy tenure and high sum assured:
Insurance companies will charge you with a high premium if you opt for a policy that has a long tenure and a high sum assured. For instance, a policyholder who opts for a policy with 30 year tenure will have to pay a higher premium than a policyholder who opts for a policy with 20 year tenure, since the risk cover is for 10 extra years. A high sum assured (claim amount) also increases the premium burden. Before deciding on an insurance policy, understand how much you need taking various factors into account, including inflation.

5. Get into shape:
Majority of job profiles are of sedentary nature. Technology further reduces physical strain. All of this ultimately leads to obesity, increasing chances of diabetes and heart ailments, even in young adults. Insurance companies charge a higher premium to those individuals who have a history of obesity in the family or are obese as such individuals have a greater risk of dying at an early age.

6. An Addition of riders:
Riders are add-ons to your base insurance policy and help you get the maximum benefit out of your insurance policy. Riders increase your life cover but adding a rider is cheaper than buying another stand-alone insurance policy. You can add more value to your base insurance policy by adding riders such as critical illness rider and accidental death benefit rider.

7. Online vs Offline:
Purchasing insurance policies online is cheaper than purchasing them offline because the purchase of insurance policies online helps the insurance companies to save on administrative and distributive costs which results in lower premiums for the policyholders.

Also Read:

Money Matters: Why Life Insurance Policy Is A Necessity

Understanding Your Life Insurance Needs

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