The 6 Secrets Life Insurance Companies Want To
Know About YOU
So you eat healthy, never smoke and only see the doctor
for your yearly check up. Life insurers should be cutting
you their best deals, right?
Not exactly.
Most people don’t realize that life insurers take
a hard look at your lifestyle choices before they make you
an offer…or reject you. And if what they find makes
you seem like a risky bet, it could cause you to pay double in
premiums during the length of your policy.
Before you apply for life insurance, check out 6 little-known
secrets life insurers are trying to uncover about YOU.
1. How you drive
Someone besides the car insurance company cares about your
driving record?
It’s true: to life insurers, even a few speeding tickets
marks you as a risky driver. If you’ve had more than
one speeding ticket in the last two to five years, it’s
almost certain you’ll pay more for life insurance.
2. How you handle your credit
From a few black marks to bankruptcy, the shape your credit
report’s in matters to life insurers. Here’s
their logic: if you had a hard time paying off your car
loan, how reliable will you be at making your life insurance
payments?
Past money troubles send a red flag to insurers that you
might not be the best bet for returning their investment – and
they’ll penalize you for it with higher premiums.
3. Your family
If anyone in your immediate family
has suffered from heart disease or cancer before they reached
60, you’ll wind
up paying more for your life insurance.
It doesn’t matter if your health is perfect: insurers
take one look at your family’s poor medical history
and take their best plans off the table.
4. Your mental health
Life insurers have to pay out if
someone who’s had
a policy for more than two years commits suicide. So they
don’t look favorably on people with a history of
depression.
Each company is different, but you can expect higher rates
if you have been taking anti-depressants for a significant
amount of time, or have been seeing a therapist.
5. Your favorite pastimes
If you’re an extreme sports enthusiast, it’s
going to cost you when you try to buy life insurance. Insurers
automatically put you in a “high risk” category – complete
with higher premiums – for participating in any activity
they consider extreme. That includes hobbies like scuba
diving, mountain climbing and even bike racing.
6. Your next vacation
Insurers aren’t interested in your next trip to
Idaho. But they are extremely wary about covering people
whose travels take them to “risky” areas,
like Israel or Africa. If your next trip makes the insurer’s
list of dangerous destinations, you’ll find it difficult
to get their preferred rates.
If you believe you’ve
been judged unfairly, work with your insurance agent to
make an appeal or find another company. Sometimes insurers
can be given extra details that cause them to lift their
earlier penalties. And what one insurer views as a risk,
another may consider trivial, so make sure you explore
all your options.
Want to see what you could pay for life insurance? Get
up to 4 quotes from competing companies in moments with
our simple life insurance quote form.
|
