The following is a guest article by Michael Challiner. Michael is a journalist specialising in Personal Finance topics.
If you're overweight the life insurance companies can load your premium by up to 400%. But how do they decide who is overweight? This article explains.
People with excess weight are in the firing line again. Life insurance companies are increasing premiums up to four fold for fat people. They've always charged more for those of us who overeat, but during the last year the penalties have got worse.
In moves to tighten the belts further, the life insurers are lowering the weight limits they use to classify people. This tougher move means that those who are merely overweight and would have previously qualified for a standard premium, are now penalised with higher premiums – and the premium rapidly rises the more overweight they believe you are.
How To The Life Insurance Companies Determine Who’s Overweight
- Height and weight are just two of the questions you have to answer when you apply for life insurance
- From them, the life company calculates your Body Mass Index and if that exceeds the limits they define as acceptable, they might ask for a doctor's report
- In bigger cases they might ask you to have a medical examination
- If this confirms that your weight is of concern, then you can expect your premium to be loaded by at least 50% and as much as 400% if you're obese
- Recent research shows that around 25% of applicants will experience problems getting life cover because of their weight. In extreme cases the insurer will even refuse the application
Leeway Given To Age - But Young & Overweight Are Hit The Hardest
In an acknowledgement of normal middle age spread, the insurance companies do take your age into account when deciding your premium. They accept that people naturally put weight on as they age. If you're young and overweight, however, they'll hit you hard. So overweight and 38 will be hit much harder than overweight and 58.
For example -
- A non smoking healthy man aged 35 asking for £150,000 level cover over 25 years will currently be quoted £18.77 by Scottish Provident but this could easily jump to £35 if he is overweight and up to £47 if he's obese
- And obesity is a growing problem. Over the last 20 years obesity in adults has rocketed with more than 60% of men and 50% of women being judged as overweight or obese. And signs are the problem won't improve. In children aged between 2 and 15, 28% of girls and 22% of boys are overweight.
How To Calculate your own BMI
- Note your weight in pounds and multiply it by 703
- Divide the result by your height measured in inches
- Again divide the resulting number by your height in inches
- The result is your BMI
The typical insurance company considers a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 to as normal. Above 25 classifies you as overweight. Over 30 and you're obese. To give you more of a fix on what this means for you, here are the BMI's for twelve famous people:
