Life insurance for smokers explained

Can you get life insurance if you smoke?

Smokers can still buy life insurance. All life insurance companies will quote a price even for heavy smokers. 

Smoking will increase the risk of you dying early, but doesn't make it a certainty, so underwriters can calculate, and cost in, the risk of half their smoking customers dying from their habit and still make a profit. 

This means that even if you smoke, you can still buy life insurance such as level term, decreasing term, increasing term or whole-of-life cover. 

You can get cover that pays out a lump sum or provides a family income. You can also get critical illness cover. 

The issue is price. To help you weight up whether life insurance is worth it, we explain just how much more smokers pay.

• Find out more: Best life insurance quotes compared

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Find out what does life insurance cover?

Do you need to tell insurance companies if you’re a smoker?

You must tell your life insurer if you smoke. You will be asked to detail how much and how often you smoke. This will be verified when requesting medical information from your GP. 

If you lie about your smoking and get a cheaper premium as a result, you will have committed fraud. If your family later needs to claim, your policy may be declared void and any payout refused. 

Even if you recently gave up smoking, life insurers will consider you still to be a smoker and charge higher premiums. 

There’s no rule on how long you must have given up smoking to no longer be considered a higher risk. For some insurers, it's a year, but many want two, five or even 10 years nicotine-free. 

• Find out more:Are you allowed two life insurance policies?

Gum, patches and nicotine vaping

Using gum, patches, e-cigarettes or vaping with nicotine products would still count as smoking, because it would show a dependency or addiction that could lead you to smoke again. 

The health impact of vaping has not yet been fully assessed, so insurers are cautious.

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Do occasional smokers need to tell life insurance companies?

Even occasional smokers must detail their smoking habit when applying for life insurance. Insurers know that many hardened smokers started off as occasional smokers and build up to three packs a day.

Even small amounts of smoking can double your premium. These days, some underwriters will take on board the different risks associated with different smoking products, plus the frequency and quantity smoked, more heavily penalising the heaviest smokers. 

But even occasional smoking will make your premiums more expensive than if you didn’t smoke at all. 

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Is life insurance more expensive if you smoke?

Life insurance is always more expensive if you smoke.

If all other health and lifestyle conditions were the same, smoking alone could double or even triple your premium. 

According to Legal & General:

• At 30 a smoker will pay more than 50% extra
• At 50 smoking adds 160%

Life insurance specialist LifeSearch says that, on average, premiums would be double for smokers.

Do you need to tell your life insurance provider if you use a vape or e-cigarette?

Life insurers currently weight premiums for people who use e-cigarettes or vapes the same as for smokers, therefore they will ask if you use either (or nicotine patches and gums).

While there is some evidence that cigarette replacements are less harmful than smoking, or help people to quit cigarettes, the long-term health risks of vaping remain unclear. 

Products containing nicotine also indicate an ongoing addiction and dependency on the drug, which may lead to you starting smoking again. Not everyone who switches to vaping gives up cigarettes completely.

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How long do you have to give up smoking to be classed as a non-smoker?

Giving up smoking can reduce your life insurance premiums, but different insurers have different rules. Some will offer a discount if you quit smoking. The NHS provides an app to help you quit smoking.

The minimum time you must have stopped smoking to be considered a non-smoker is 12 months. 

However, not every insurer accepts one year. Some will want to see two years, or even five, while a few won't offer a discount until you have not smoked for 10 years.

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Check your GP report

Make sure your doctor knows when you gave up smoking and reports this accurately when the life insurer seeks a medical report from your GP. 

Always ask to see your GP report before it goes to the life insurer, as mistakes can be costly. The person in your practice completing these medical reports may not be the GP who actually knows you.

For example, GPs or nurses often ask in regular medical check-ups to confirm that you gave up smoking more than two years ago. They may then, inaccurately, put in a medical report that you stopped smoking just two years ago, when actually it was a decade ago. That would reduce the number of insurers who would quote and increase your premium. 

Getting mistakes corrected once the report has gone to insurers is difficult and may even require you to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Meanwhile, you will have paid higher premiums for many months or even years.

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How do insurance companies know if you’re a smoker?

In the event of your death, your life insurer will see your medical records.

 Those records will make it abundantly clear if you have smoked. If you have told your insurer you were a non-smoker but the evidence proved you had smoked, your life insurer would not have to pay out and your family could be left with nothing.

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If you quit smoking, will your life insurance policy become cheaper?

It is possible to get cheaper life insurance if you quit smoking, either by applying for a new policy or amending your existing insurance. 

Some insurers only require you to have quit for a year (others for two, five or even 10 years). 

A few insurers enable you to sign a declaration that you have given up smoking after this period and will reduce your premiums. However, most insurers won’t discount an existing policy. 

Instead, you can get quotes again as a non-smoker and see if the premiums are cheaper for the same policies. 

However, if you gave up smoking 10 years into a 25-year life insurance term, by the time you applied for new life insurance you will be 10 years older, and age is a significant factor in raising premiums. 

You may also have developed other medical conditions, such high blood pressure, weight problems or heart disease. These added factors may make a new non-smoking policy more expensive than sticking with your existing cover

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