smoking and life insurance

pologirl

hi there
i wonder if you could help me out,
my husband smokes 2 cigs when he goes for a drink, thats about once a month, so for insurance purposes should he declare himself as a smoker, and do they take inot account how little he smokes.
he is happy to go non smoker but me been a worrier am afraid that if anything happens then our policy could be voided

maybe im mad and he does only smoke if he has a good few drinks, i dont want him to be loaded with a big premium (same as an actual 20 fags a day smoker) when he smoked very very little. how wud an inusrnce company test a person if they were dead? (v morbid sorry) or what actaully happens when a person dies and they have an insurance policy to pay out what kind of investigations do they do.
my husbands last smoke was paddys day and he had 2. am i mad to be worrying over this! we have a little girl which of course makes me worse! thinking that she mite not be provded for if anything happened

any help is appreciated
thanks!

PK2008

Insurance fraud is a crime

Your husband should be as honest as possible, in the end he wont be the one cashing in the claim.

LegacyUser

maybe im mad and he does only smoke if he has a good few drinks, i dont want him to be loaded with a big premium (same as an actual 20 fags a day smoker) when he smoked very very little

A smoker is a smoker. End of. If your insurance company doesn't differenciate between a light smoker and a heavy smoker, then they do so for a reason. And i'm sure if they ever found out your policy would be voided.
A person who 'only' takes cocaine twice a month, is still a cocaine user.

we have a little girl which of course makes me worse! thinking that she mite not be provded for if anything happened

Surely he'd be willing to give up a lousy 2 fags a month for the sake of his daughter and his health (If he can't well then he's definitely more addicted than he thinks) That would solve your problem.

DubGuyxx

Previous posters are right, I'm afeared.

As far as the insurance companies are concerned, a single cigarette classifies you as a smoker, and will attract a smokers premium. Most companies will require that you be completely cigarette free for a year before they will classify you as a non-smoker and reduce the premium. No point in trying to con them - if anything ever happened (god forbid), and it came out that you/he had been smoking (which it would), they'd simply refuse to pay....

The smokers premium is pretty heavy too - When I moved house a couple of years ago, I was required to have life assurance - Difference in premiums was 1K per annum non smoker, vs almost 4K p.a. smoker. When I heard that, I quit, and havent smoked since - at the end of the day, it's the only way.

(btw - If you do quit, you're still liable for the smokers premium for the first year - however, if you go with a broker, they usually are given the first years premium by the insurance company as their fee, and in many cases will waive a considerable portion of this in order to get the business - there's nothing illegal or unethical about this, and it is a way to get close to a non-smokers rate in year one... then, provided you can stay quit for the year, you can revert to the non-smoker premium in year two....worked for me!!)

DubGuyxx

ps

As regards testing - nicotine leaves the system after about three days so if anything happened, a blood test would not pick this up - however, cotinine, which is a byproduct of nicotine, stays in the system for weeks and can be detected even up to 21 days after smoking. Nicotine byproducts can also be detected in hair sampes, but to be honest I've no idea whether insurance companies would go to the trouble....

I'd guess if you snuffed it from lung cancer, heart attack, stroke or any other smoking related conditions, it might trigger a query or post mortem test.....

muinteoir09

fraudalert wrote: »

Surely he'd be willing to give up a lousy 2 fags a month for the sake of his daughter and his health (If he can't well then he's definitely more addicted than he thinks) That would solve your problem.

The issue is about insurance, not smoking. No need for you to be preaching.

OP, always tell the truth with insurance - you'll regret it afterwards if something goes wrong and they don't pay out.

LegacyUser

the issue is about insurance, not smoking. No need for you to be preaching.

eh what? It's not about smoking it's about priorities, He only smokes 2 fags a month, my point was if that really is all he smokes then giving up could save him a hell of a lot of money on his insurance and is something he could easily do as it's not like he's smoking 20+ a day.

i couldn't give a crap about people smoking, it's their life, it has no impact on mine! I was offering a solution to the op as she doesn't

want him to be loaded with a big premium

....it's 2 cigarettes a month, giving them up will save everyone a whole lot of hassle and is the easiest solution.

LegacyUser

I gave up smoking over 4 years ago now I think but my policy is down for me smoking 15 - 20 a day. I never removed it in case I do go back smoking and also to make sure I am covered. Insurance companies will check everything to see if they can get away without paying out. My advice is make sure you are covered, declare everything no matter how insignificant you think it is. My premium is that big either but its only for mortgage cover.

Delancey

Forgive me if I appear dense but what on earth is this thread doing in the Relationships forum

Ickle Magoo

Delancy if you see an issue with a post or poster could you report it rather than posting off-topic on-thread, please.