What determines how much you pay in premiums?
Life insurance premiums are the monthly installments you have to pay for a policy. Monthly timely payments ensure that you stay signed up with a provider and are eligible for payments in the case of demise. The cost of your premiums is determined by a number of different factors and aspects.
Your insurance provider will assign a numerical value to these factors and put them into their insurance calculator. This provides the monthly premium to be charged. You can influence what rates you are charged by controlling these factors. Here are the factors which most influence your life insurance premiums.
Age
Your age is, of course, the most important factor for determining your insurance rate. This is very reasonable and makes sense. Age is correlated to the likelihood of death. People become more prone to any of the causes of death as they age. An aged person carries more risk with them.
Older people are thus charged higher premiums because the risks of their death will be higher. You can thus save money by signing up for a policy while still young. You can get much more beneficial and lower premiums in youth.
Gender
Believe it or not, women factually live longer than men. There are many reasons for this which are beyond the scope of this article. Therefore, women will see preferential treatment in premiums since the risks associated with them are lower. If a couple goes for life insurance, the husband will likely see a higher premium than his wife.
Health Condition
Apart from age, this is the factor which can most drastically impact your insurance premiums. It plays possibly the greatest role on premium calculation than any other. A young person with a serious medical condition will have higher insurance rates than a healthy aged person.
Health is directly related to likelihood of death. People with poor overall health and medical conditions will be at greater risk of death. Your insurance provider will thus charge higher premiums in such cases.
Family History
Premium calculations are very thorough and precise. They look at a lot of factors which may seem unwarranted. One such factor is your family’s medical history. Family medical history holds important signs and clues for your future health. People with a family history of cardiac arrests or heart conditions will see more expensive premiums. A bad family history can even counteract for good physical health. It makes insurance providers wary and increases the risk attached to you.
Your Occupation
Your choice of occupation can also play a significant part in life insurance premiums. Office workers will not see their jobs impacting their premiums. However, if you work in dangerous industries then your premiums will be higher. This also extends to occupations which have danger and threat associated with them. Journalism is one example of a white collar occupation which carries huge risks.
Conclusion
These are the common factors which go towards calculating your premiums. Most of these will be beyond your control like family history. However, other factors such as age can be taken advantage of and you can come out with lower premiums.
