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Worried about the costs of smoking? Not only can your nicotine habit seriously affect your health and leave a dent in your bank balance by the sheer cost per packet, it can also affect how much premium you pay on your Direct Line Life Insurance.
Of course, many factors affect your Life Insurance premium. But while you can’t change things such as your age, you can help your case by giving up smoking. Not only does a ‘non-smoker’ status score points when you apply for a Direct Line Life Insurance quote, it also positively impacts on other factors, such as your health. Cheaper premiums are available for ex-smokers who have given up smoking for at least 13 months.
While very few people would give up smoking just to keep their Life Insurance premium down, having to tick the ‘smoker’ box and know that it adds even further to your living costs could be the catalyst to help you give up the habit for your health.
The costs of smoking
Puffing away might feel great at the time but this means many smokers are in fact in denial about the effects. To others these noticeably include wheezing and shortness of breath, lack of energy, dull skin, poor circulation and nicotine-stained fingers and teeth. On the inside – and more seriously – smoking could also be a culprit behind lung cancer, heart attack and stroke, and emphysema.
On the financial side, the results can be equally as crippling: at today's rates, a 20-a-day smoker will spend £36,500 over the next 20 years (Figure taken from www.ash.org.uk).
Then, of course, smoking doesn’t only affect you. It pollutes the air around you, places children at a higher risk of asthma and can be unpleasant for those who don’t smoke but have to share public places with you.
Help giving up
It isn’t all doom and gloom, though. Medical research shows that within 10 to 15 years of giving up smoking the risk of developing lung cancer is only slightly more than for a non-smoker.
Once you decide to give up, there is plenty of help at hand. You can visit your GP for advice or look on the NHS website www.gosmokefree.co.uk. This includes a range of fact sheets, tips and advice such as what makes you smoke in the first place, how to break the habit, aids to use such as patches and chewing gum, and what to expect as and when you do give up.
Research also shows that stopping smoking is easier with the help of others, so you can also benefit from the recently launched ‘Together’ scheme. This guides you through the process of giving up smoking from the day you decide to stop until you have successfully quit, full stop. The service is free – all you need to do is register online at givingupsmoking -together.broadsystem.com or call the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0 169 quoting 'Together Online' (lines open daily from 7am to 11pm). They can also put you in touch with a local NHS Stop Smoking Service, so you can see a specialist on a one-to-one basis or join a group of people who are giving up at the same time.
So for the benefit of your health and your bank balance, why not decide to stop now?
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