Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Saving Money when Buying Life Insurance

Everyone likes to save money but it's important to keep in mind lower premiums may not be the best way to save money in the long term when buying life insurance. The first consideration is there are two quite different types of life insurance - term life insurance and permanent life insurance -- and multiple ways a policy can be purchased. This complexity basically demands the buyer to do some background research, and carefully compare life insurance quotes. Life insurance is not one-size-fits-all and when comparing your options make certain you are comparing apples-to-apples to get the best low cost life insurance.

Before you buy a life insurance policy you should decide what type of policy is best for you and focus your efforts on financially sound life insurance companies. Check each company out with independent insurance company rating agencies and eliminate any that don't get high ratings. The obvious step in terms of saving money is to take your time and compare life insurance quotes from a number of companies to get an idea of the range in costs. These numbers can vary by hundreds of dollars.

You should find out if you qualify for group life insurance through an employer or other organization because group rates are often much less expensive than individual life insurance. Group life insurance also comes with the benefit of possibly not requiring a health check to qualify for the plan. Another benefit is your premiums may be deducted from your paycheck so you're less likely to miss a payment.

Once you are ready to buy life insurance go ahead and check around one more time to compare life insurance quotes from a number of insurance providers your previous research determined are financially sound. Once again the same policy can cost hundreds of dollars more or less from different companies. Here is where the initial low premium can catch you. Some policies have low premiums that rapidly increase over time, and other life insurance policies have higher upfront premiums, but don't rise as dramatically. Look into the big picture to see which policy actually costs more after five year or longer. You might find the more expensive policy initially is significantly cheaper over time.

Two more places to save money with life insurance is in discounts. Look for premium discounts that kick in at certain coverage levels, such as a discount that makes $250,000 in coverage actually less expensive than $200,000 in coverage due to a premium discount. The second place is how you pay your premium. Paying yearly is often less expensive than paying more frequently, such as paying a monthly life insurance premium.


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