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Quit Excessive Drinking and Smoking
Excessive drinking or smoking can increase your risk of contracting lung or liver cancer or cause some other health issues in the long run. Therefore, insurers may increase your life insurance premiums in case you are a frequent smoker or alcohol consumer.
However, in case you want to lower your life insurance premiums, you can consider giving up on smoking and drinking for at least 12 months before buying life or term insurance in India.
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Keep Occupational Risks and Hobbies in Mind
A person’s occupation or hobbies can also impact the life insurance premium rate of an individual. For example, a person who works a desk job might have a lower premium than a person who works at construction sites. This is because being surrounded by high risk places can increase your risk to life, which consequently increases the life insurance premiums.
Similarly, a person who frequently participates in adventure activities like scuba diving, paragliding, bungee jumping, and more will have a higher life insurance premium because of their increased risks. It is important to note that insurance companies in India may increase your premiums, decrease offered life cover, or may not offer insurance at all, as per their T&Cs. Therefore, if you want to reduce life insurance premiums, you may want to opt for low risk jobs and avoid adventure activities.
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Inform the Insurer About the Pre-Existing Illnesses
You should be asked to go through a medical examination at the time of buying a life insurance plan. You are required to be honest about your health issues. In case of any pre-existing illnesses, you need to mention them in the documents. Various insurers charge a high amount of premium for individuals who have a pre-existing disease because it increases the company’s risk.
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Longer Policy Tenure and High Sum Assured
Insurers charge a high premium if you opt for a longer policy tenure and higher sum assured. Likewise, high coverage could mean that the insurance company will have to pay a large amount in case of your demise during the policy term. In case the premium quoted by the insurer is high, you can reduce your life insurance premiums by either decreasing your policy term or by lowering your sum assured.
However, you should make sure that you opt for the right policy term and sum assured, as this amount will help your family maintain their financial stability in your absence.
Apart from policy tenure and sum assured, the premium payment term also impacts your life insurance premiums. The lower the premium payment term, the higher the life insurance premiums will be. Therefore, if you want to reduce your life insurance premiums, you can pay the premiums for the regular policy term.
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Select the Right Type of Life Insurance
The type of life insurance you opt for can also impact your life insurance premiums. This is because the premium rates increase with the benefits offered. For example, you can secure a large life cover of 1 crore at just Rs. 525 per month with term plans since they are pure risk cover policies. But, with investment plans, you may need to invest over Rs. 10,000 per month to get returns of 1 Crore. Therefore, you should always take a look at the right type of insurance best suited for your needs.
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Comparison of Quotes from Multiple Insurance Companies
There are various life insurance plans available in the market from the top life insurance companies in India. These insurers offer life insurance plans at different rates depending on the insurer and their benefits. You should always compare life insurance plans from different insurers based on their premiums, sum assured, benefits, riders offered, and more. With Policybazaar, you can compare up to 3 plans side-by-side online on the same platform and choose the most suitable plan as per your needs.
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Additional Riders
Riders are the additional benefits that you can add to the base policy to enhance its coverage. With these riders, you can get comprehensive cover at affordable premiums. You can add riders like accidental death, accidental total permanent disability, critical illness, terminal illness, and hospicare benefits in your base plan. These term insurance riders may increase your premiums but offer comprehensive coverage against the eventualities of life.
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Buying Online or Offline
Policies that you buy online are often cheaper than when purchased via offline channels. The reason is that online sales help insurers save on the distribution and administration costs, and they eventually pass a fair percentage of these savings to the policyholders by the way of low premiums. Not only that, online purchase of life insurance also reduces the commission that agents may charge in offline mode.