When thinking of getting life insurance, getting an affordable rate is usually the first thing that comes to mind. While life insurance is a must for anyone with financial responsibilities, the big monthly pile of bills can make it hard to work life insurance into the plan. The good news is that there are a couple ways to save a lot of money and get life insurance cheap. As an independent agency, we specialize in saving our customers money. So if you want to compare cheap life insurance quotes you can do so here with no personal information required or click on the product boxes on the right. Otherwise, let’s talk about a few ways to save money on your life insurance premiums, so that you can get the cheapest rate humanely possible.
Compare with Multiple Companies
The first and best way to save money is to compare rates with all the companies on the market. All life insurance companies offer different rates for the same product and coverage amount. This is usually based on your age, sex, location, health and other factors. So if you want to get the cheapest life insurance rate, you have to make sure to shop around with all the companies out there. That is why it’s always best to work with an independent agent or agency that represents at least 30 companies.
Let’s use John as an example. John is a healthy 40 year old male who doesn’t smoke and lives in Florida. John is looking into a 20 year term life product. At the time of this writing he can get $500,000 worth of coverage for $101.47 a month with one company, and $38.80 a month with another company. Keep in mind this is for the same product, just different companies. That’s $752.04 in annual savings that he doesn’t get if he doesn’t shop around.
It’s always recommended to work with an experienced independent life insurance agency(that’s us), especially if you have any health complications. If you’re considered a high risk by the life insurance companies for any reason, then the lowest rate on the quote engine won’t be the lowest rate for you. So in order to get the cheapest life insurance rate, you will have to work with an agent that will know which company will provide the most favorable result for your specific situation.
Buy Term Life
Another great way to make sure you get life insurance cheap is to buy term life insurance. Term life is the most affordable life insurance product on the market by a landslide. If you want to get the lowest rate, term life will easily beat out any permanent life insurance product in a cost comparison. The shorter the term, the lower your monthly premium due to the life insurance company taking a lower risk of you dying in that time frame.
Let’s use healthy, non-smoker, Florida John as an example again. If we shop around for the lowest rate with all the companies, these are the results for John if we do $500,000 of life insurance coverage.
10 year term – $24.21
20 year term – $38.80
30 year term – $66.41
No Lapse U/L(to age 121) – $265.45
Bare in mind this doesn’t include a quote for whole life insurance, which can be as twice as expensive as a No Lapse Universal life policy due to it’s cash value accumulation and policy fees. That makes it painfully obvious why term life insurance is the way to go if you are looking for cheap life insurance.
Another way to save money with term life is to have different policies for different needs. As time passes our financial responsibilities change. If you layer your polciies you can get one term life policy for your 10 year mortgage and then get a separate policy for your kids till they get out of college.
Stay Away from Riders
If you need life insurance as cheap as possible steer clear of add-ons known as riders. Riders can quickly add up and cause the premium to skyrocket. One rider that tends to be really expensive is the “return of premium rider.” It can double the cost of your monthly premium and lacks some value. What this rider does is return all the premiums you’ve paid out if you outlive your term period. While this may sound attractive, you are better off investing the extra money you save by not getting it and protecting it against inflation.
Let’s use the $38.80 20 year term example from above. If we add a return of premium rider that 20 year term life policy jumps to $143.12 a month. You can see why you are better investing that money. Now while not all riders are useless, if you want to get life insurance at the lowest, most affordable rate, then leave them off.
Pay Annually
If you’ve got a little savings you’re better off paying annually for life insurance. While the savings you get aren’t huge, it can help shaving off 3%-5% off of the annual premium. So to get the cheapest rate this will help optimize it even further.
Ace the Exam
Cheap life insurance equals life insurance with a medical exam. To get the most affordable rate you will have to ace the medical exam, so that you can attain the best health rating possible. So while you may love your morning donut and coffee, it may knock your lab tests out of whack. During the medical exam the nurse will take your height/weight, blood pressure, urine sample and some of your blood. Now while you may not think a few days makes a difference, it can mean some savings. If we take the 20 year term example from John, jumping down to a Standard Plus Rating due to his caffeine binge will cause him to pay $52.70 a month vs his $38 premium for the Preferred rate.
So now that i got your attention, let’s talk about how to actually do good on the medical exam. First, you may want to eat clean a couple days prior to the exam. To break it down in Tarzan terms:
Candy = Bad
Salad = Good
Chicken = Totally Fine
Another thing you want to do is schedule the exam in the morning before your cup of coffee and meal that way your levels are ideal after the overnight fast. Not to mention please don’t party the night before. It can mean $20 a month in savings that can be used to party later.
Buy Now
You actually do save money on life insurance if you buy now, at this very moment. It is highly likely that you will never be as young as you are now, so getting coverage right now will mean lower rates. Bad health also tends to come with age, so get coverage now while you’re still insurable at a good rate. Because once the happy and married weight start adding up it may be hard to get a cheap life insurance premium. Also given that life insurance is risk protection, you definitely don’t want to wait till tomorrow, because you may not make it that long.
Get What You Need
A lot of time customers over pay for coverage because they get coverage that outdoes what they actually need. Some agents tend to push tax shelters and cash value accumulation products that sky rocket the premiums so high that you can only afford $25,000 worth of coverage. So If you have 2 kids in their teens and a 10 year mortgage, you really don’t need anything outside of a 10 year convertible term life policy. The convertible option will allow you to change it to a permanent policy at expiration, so that you can adjust to your new needs now that the kids are out of college and the mortgage is paid off. The best part is you wont need to prove insurability.
Now while it may be great to make your family millionaires overnight, you don’t need to get $3,000,000 worth of coverage if you make $35,000 a year. Make sure you get the amount of coverage to ensure you can afford it comfortably. Also why lump sum it? According to an article on Modest Money, an annuity death benefit option can save you 10% to 20%.
Save Age
Life Insurance companies actually allow you to go back in time to save you a little money. Some life insurance companies determine your life insurance rate at the age you are nearest too. So if your 40 and your birthday is in January but it’s October, your 41 in their eyes. So to get some savings here what’s required is that you pay for all the months that bring you closer to 40 and you will qualify for a younger persons rate for the next 20 years. That can result in a decent savings over time. If you fee like this is too much to take in you’re right, but hey, you’re the one that wants to know how to get cheap life insurance. We’re not quite finished yet.
Save Money by Being Healthy in the Long Run
Life insurance companies will allow you to re evaluate your application. For example, smokers can often pay twice as much for life insurance coverage due to their habit. If you can quit smoking for more than two years after getting coverage, you can qualify for non smoker rates, which would lower your premiums drastically. How drastically? Let’s bring John back up here and assume he smokes this time around. If John smokes his 20 year term life policy for 500k will cost him $109.86 a month. If he manages to go smoke free for 24 months his rate would drop to $38.80 rate of a non smoker.
Another big factor is your build, or height to weight ratio. If you are slightly on the hefty side you will be unable to get the preferred health rating. Rather than waiting until you knock the weight off, it’s better to get coverage in place and start leading a healthier lifestyle. If you manage to lose weight and keep it off for 12 months, you can qualify for better rates. Now imagine how much money you can save if you do both and improve over time. If you need an excuse to be healthy, let getting cheap life insurance rates be the reason, and not having to have your beneficiaries use the policy be another.
Don’t Go Too Cheap
There is a “life insurance” product out there that is cheaper than term life and it’s called a Accidental Death and Dismemberment policy. These policies may be attractive because they are so affordable but they are not life insurance policies. The only way your family will get a pay out is if the death is a result of an accident. If the death is a result of anything else then your family will simply be left with nothing. So while getting cheap life insurance is great, make sure you don’t let someone sell you this policy because it simply does not provide real life insurance protection. Seeking cheap is great but only when it’s cheap in comparison to the great value it provides.
Cheap Life Insurance Quotes
If you’ve read this far you’re either a life insurance agent or really dedicated to getting life insurance cheap. Either way I commend you for making the effort. As you can see it takes a lot of steps to get life insurance cheap, so let InsureChance do the work for you. This knowledge took years of experience to accumulate and we get it right every time. InsureChance is the first online life insurance marketplace and independent agency that represents over 60 “A” rated life insurance companies. We use our expertise and ability to shop around to get you the cheapest, most affordable life insurance rates on the market. To compare term life insurance quotes simply click here, we require no personal information so feel free to browse in peace. If you are look into other products simply scroll up and click on the product boxes to your right. Otherwise give us a call at 888-492-1967 or hit the chat button below if it isn’t too late.
