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Life Assurance / Pension 
 
 
 
 

Life Assurance

 

If nobody is financially worse off in the event of your death then life cover is not normally required, so if you are single then consider ditching life insurance from your expenses. 

 

Otherwise many companies offer their employees free life assurance, typically worth around three or four times your annual salary.

 

Alternatively get a year's life assurance for free - from Legal & General through Quidco's link here.

 

Here's the deal. Quidco pay £80 cashback for taking out a policy. The lowest monthly premium that Legal & General allow is £6. 12 months at £6 is £72. If you are new to Quidco they take an annual fee out of your first earnings of £5. You are still paying less out than you are getting back in cashback.

 

So what do you get for £6 a month? Click through from Quidco to Legal & General without being logged in to Quidco. Click on Get A Quote then Start Online Quote. For term put 5 years and then try a cover level of £80,000. Click Get A Quote and the monthly premium is presented. Now go fiddle with the cover level and keep recalcuating until you get as close to £6 monthly premium as possible. £80,000's worth of cover is quite possible, which means if you die at any point during the policy term they pay out £80,000.

 

NB: The policy 'term' is irrelevant because at no point do life assurance policies have a cash-in value. When the policy matures or expires you get nothing. And there is no penalty for stopping the policy early. You are simply covered for a fixed lump sum for as long as you keep the policy going and you can stop or cancel whenever you want.

 

When you are happy with your quote close down, clear cookies and log into Quidco. Click through again and complete the quote then the on-line application. Put the start date for 1-2 weeks ahead, so that you can ensure tracking on Quidco. If you have any medical conditions they may contact you for further info, otherwise you will get a pack in the post which you need to sign and return. Once the cashback is received at Quidco (normally 2 months) you are then free to close the policy at any point. Close after 12 months for a year's cover for free. Close earlier for a cash profit. Or keep the policy running for the term to get it at discount.

 

Or - Get a year's life assurance for free - from Sainsbury's Bank through Quidco's link here. Sainsbury's Bank has just signed up to Quidco, and their life assurance is underwritten by Legal & General.

 

Here's the deal. Quidco pay £70 cashback for taking out a policy. The lowest monthly premium that Legal & General allow is £5. 12 months at £5 is £60. If you are new to Quidco they take an annual fee out of your first earnings of £5. You are still paying less out than you are getting back in cashback.

 

So what do you get for £5 a month? Click through from Quidco to Sainsbury's without being logged in to Quidco. Click to Life Assurance and then Online Quote. For term put 5 years and then try a cover level of £40,000. Click Get A Quote and the monthly premium is presented. Now go fiddle with the cover level and keep recalcuating until you get as close to £5 monthly premium as possible. £50,000's worth of cover is quite possible, which means if you die at any point during the policy term they pay out £50,000.

 

NB: The policy 'term' is irrelevant because at no point do life assurance policies have a cash-in value. When the policy matures or expires you get nothing. And there is no penalty for stopping the policy early. You are simply covered for a fixed lump sum for as long as you keep the policy going and you can stop or cancel whenever you want.

 

When you are happy with your quote close down, clear cookies and log into Quidco. Click through again and complete the quote then the on-line application. Put the start date for 1-2 weeks ahead, so that you can ensure tracking on Quidco. If you have any medical conditions they may contact you for further info, otherwise you will get a pack in the post which you need to sign and return. Once the cashback is received at Quidco (normally 2 months) you are then free to close the policy at any point. Close after 12 months for a year's cover for free. Close earlier for a cash profit. Or keep the policy running for the term to get it at discount.

 

If you are unfamiliar with Quidco and cashback sites, see our Cashback page for more details.

 

 

Pensions

 

Most companies offer some form of pension, usually a 'defined contribution' scheme. Employers offering the latter scheme will contribute money to your pension on your behalf. For example your company could offer a defined contribution scheme to which it will match employees' contributions up to 5% of their salaries. If you earn £25k and pay 5% into your pension, this company will contribute the same, which, when you take into account basic rate tax relief means that your pension pot will be boosted by £2,500. So by failing to pay into your pension you would effectively be turning down up to £1,250 of free money from your boss. What's more, higher rate taxpayers can gain even more, as they can claim another 18% tax relief back through their tax return.

 

UK life expectancy is currently around 80 for men and 84 for women, but increasing by 2.5 years on average every decade. You could be in for a very long retirement, so your financial position is going to be critical. Consider making additional contributions to your pension. The Government offers tax relief of 22p for every 78p invested (up to a personal maximum of £215,000 per year). A high rate tax payer can claim a further 18p back. Furthermore, as your pension fund will grow exponentially, the benefits of such a tax-efficient action multiply.