The year 2017 is now well under way, and it is around this time of year when many peoples New Year’s resolutions go out of the window. My goals of eating well and exercising came to a halt on January 6th, so if you are still going I take my hat off to you. As time goes on it gets harder to stay motivational, but for some people there may be something that can give you a boost.
If you have certain types of protection policies which you have been subject to increased premiums due to your BMI, then you may be able to get these premiums down. Providers will often increase your premiums at outset by 50% or more if you are over their guidelines for a healthy BMI, and sometimes it is if you are only over by a pound.
You would need to check your terms and conditions with your provider, and have had no other changes to your health since you took out the policy, but you can ask them to review your plan once you have got within their healthy BMI range. Even if they are not willing to review your plan, you could then look for cover elsewhere. If they are willing to review it, they can often tell you, based on your height, what weight you need to be in order to qualify for a reduction in premium.
This could give you the motivation to save money, which in the short term you can maybe use to spend on the holiday that you were trying to lose weight for in the first place.
Over the long term, the savings could be very significant. Imagine a policy which you have had a £20 per month increase added, and has 25 years left to run, you could be saving yourself £6,000 over the term of the plan.
One thing to point out, although you can ask for the premium to be reduced if you lose weight, if you then go and put that weight back on you would have no obligation to tell them that in the future, meaning those savings are set once you reach your target.
It isn’t just your BMI that you can change to save money, for example if you stop smoking for at least 12 months, stop taking part in any hazardous activities or a pre-existing medical condition improves, you may be able to make savings this way too.
Jason Hinde FPFS, Cert SMP – Chartered Financial Planner
30th January 2017