How much life cover can you get for R300 per month?
Life insurance is one of those purchases most of us will end up making at some point in our adult life. You certainly aren’t thinking about the implications of passing away, without enough money to support your family, in your early twenties, are you? But, as we get older, what normally steers us from the “I’m thinking about it” to the “I need to get myself covered” phase is usually a major life event like getting married, buying a house or getting the news that a baby is on the way.
So how much does life cover cost?
Well, that depends on two things:
- The individual applying for the cover
- The insurance company issuing the life insurance policy (although the rates offered don’t differentiate much)
Let’s start with the idea of individual underwriting for a second. What does that even mean?
Life insurance is nothing more than a legal contract between the insurer and the life insured. In exchange for a premium (normally paid monthly), the insurance company is prepared to pay out a pre-determined amount of money, should the life insured pass away.
Death is inevitable so the insurer will pay out at some stage down the line.
The reason why life insurance companies can stay open is because it’s a numbers game. If they can get thousands of policyholders on books, paying their premiums every month, their risk is spread.
The most important thing for the life insurance company is understanding who they are insuring, and that comes down to asking the right questions upfront.
Life insurance companies use a few underwriting questions to determine the rate at which they can offer the cover. If you picked up the phone right now and called any life insurer to get a quote, these are a few of the questions they are going to ask you before they will commit to a premium:
- Your gender
- Your age
- Your income
- Your highest qualification
- Your marital status
- Your smoker status
The answers to these questions allow the life insurer to determine a risk profile so they can offer life cover at the right premium.
Here is a quick example:
A 30-year old male who doesn’t smoke and earns R20 000 per month might pay as little as R239 per month for R1 000 000 life cover.
A 50 -year old make who smokes and earns the same income might pay closer to R900 per month for the same R1 000 000 life cover.
It’s clear that the 50-year old who smokes is a bigger risk to the life insurer than the 20-year old who doesn’t smoke and as a result the premium is almost 4 times as much.
Interested in finding out how much you could be paying for R1 000 000 life cover?
We’ve used a quoting engine provided by one of our life insurance partners Stangen to draw up comparative quotes based on the same underwriting information (income, smoker status and education)
While it’s important to note that these rates aren’t guaranteed (purely illustrative), it does provide you with an idea of what it might cost you to qualify for R1 000 000 life cover each month, based on your age and gender.
Males
Age 26 R1 000 000 R228 pm
Age 27 R1 000 000 R229 pm
Age 28 R1 000 000 R232 pm
Age 29 R1 000 000 R235 pm
Age 30 R1 000 000 R239 pm
Age 31 R1 000 000 R244 pm
Age 32 R1 000 000 R248 pm
Age 33 R1 000 000 R253 pm
Age 34 R1 000 000 R259 pm
Age 35 R1 000 000 R266 pm
Age 36 R1 000 000 R273 pm
Age 37 R1 000 000 R281 pm
Age 38 R1 000 000 R290 pm
Age 39 R1 000 000 R300 pm
Age 40 R1 000 000 R311 pm
Age 41 R1 000 000 R323 pm
Age 42 R1 000 000 R336 pm
Age 43 R1 000 000 R351 pm
Age 44 R1 000 000 R367 pm
Age 45 R1 000 000 R385 pm
Age 46 R1 000 000 R405 pm
Age 47 R1 000 000 R426 pm
Age 48 R1 000 000 R450 pm
Age 49 R1 000 000 R477 pm
Age 50 R1 000 000 R506 pm
Age 51 R1 000 000 R538 pm
Age 52 R1 000 000 R573 pm
Age 53 R1 000 000 R612 pm
Age 54 R1 000 000 R655 pm
Age 55 R1 000 000 R702 pm
Females
Age 25 R1 000 000 R169 pm
Age 26 R1 000 000 R169 pm
Age 27 R1 000 000 R169 pm
Age 28 R1 000 000 R170 pm
Age 29 R1 000 000 R172 pm
Age 30 R1 000 000 R174 pm
Age 31 R1 000 000 R176 pm
Age 32 R1 000 000 R178 pm
Age 33 R1 000 000 R181 pm
Age 34 R1 000 000 R183 pm
Age 35 R1 000 000 R186 pm
Age 36 R1 000 000 R190 pm
Age 37 R1 000 000 R194 pm
Age 38 R1 000 000 R198 pm
Age 39 R1 000 000 R202 pm
Age 40 R1 000 000 R207 pm
Age 41 R1 000 000 R203 pm
Age 42 R1 000 000 R219 pm
Age 43 R1 000 000 R226 pm
Age 44 R1 000 000 R234 pm
Age 45 R1 000 000 R242 pm
Age 46 R1 000 000 R251 pm
Age 47 R1 000 000 R261 pm
Age 48 R1 000 000 R272 pm
Age 49 R1 000 000 R284 pm
Age 50 R1 000 000 R297 pm
Age 51 R1 000 000 R311 pm
Age 52 R1 000 000 R326 pm
Age 53 R1 000 000 R341 pm
Age 54 R1 000 000 R359 pm
Age 55 R1 000 000 R377 pm
Interested in getting a life cover quote? Chat to our bot, Monty to get a quote today!
Until next time.
The Moneyshop Team