Life assurance and ecigs/electronic cigarettes

johnbhoy10

Right guys-

I'll try and keep short.

Due to change in circs i need to look at updating policies in place. My current policies are with Legal & General and used Cavendish at the time.

Now i have being using ecigs since January 2013 and after some fairly lengthy conversations this morning it appears there are some providers willing to provide me with life cover as a non-smoker. After answering the medical questions from the sellers and then taking it upon myself to speak the insurers/underwriters directly it appears there are a couple out there that willing to do this although 99% of the industry still classify me as a smoker. My policies are still at smoker status and to be honest i will probably leave as that but this has intrigued me.

If anyone has looked into this at all they will probably be aware the 'grey area' appears to over nicotine.

Anyone taken out a policy under these circumstances.

ps- the question i was asked-

'do you use cigarettes?'

me-'yes but please define cigarettes?'

THEIR defintion- 'a tobacco product' (NO MENTION OF NICOTINE)

me-'well the answer is now no i don't use a tobacco product.'

InsideInsurance

As a genuine question, where do they get the nicotine for the ecigs from?

johnbhoy10

Good question-

I use totally wicked and pay a premium it appears. Most of the time i use red label which is produced in UK using UK pharmacuetical nicotine i believe. I have also used their titan range and i believe that is made in China. I have probably fallen for their marketing but hey ho! you can get it as reasonable prices using their yo-yo price system.

InsideInsurance

johnbhoy10 wrote: »

which is produced in UK using UK pharmacuetical nicotine

A quick google disputes that there is any such thing as "pharmaceutical grade nicotine", not a pharmacist but cannot think of any pharmacological use of nicotine to require a pharmaceutical standard

One of those companies that claims to make pharmaceutical grade nicotine do state they use tobacco to make it.

johnbhoy10

Fair enough!

I'm sure i remember the phrase from somewhere-whether it was their site or packaging and they've changed i'm not 100% sure. It's not there now anyway i agree.

Would patches, inhalers etc not require nicotine of a certain grade though?? Genuine question?? Like you, i'm no pharmacist or chemist.

Need to ask the missus-she's a pharmacy accuracy checking technician.

Can't believe i haven't asked her before.

InsideInsurance

Without doubt they require a good quality of nicotine but just because something is 99.9% pure doesnt automatically give it a name of "pharmaceutical". 99.9% gold is 24ct gold not pharmaceutical gold

Obviously from a marketing perspective selling something by a brand you've never heard of that you want mainstream people to inhale/inject etc that is pretty much unregulated then calling it pharmaceutical grade is going to help allay some peoples fears

starrystarry

Most of the insurers ask whether you have used any tobacco or nicotine products in the last year. So if you're using e-cigs with nicotine cartridges you'd need to answer yes to this.

kingstreet

The current Friends Life application I have in front of me reads;-

Have you used any form of tobacco or nicotine product in the last 12 months?

Y / N

If yes, please provide details - number of cigarettes/cigars a day or pipe smoker or other nicotine usage.

johnbhoy10

Agree with both the last 2 comments which is why it was me who kept mentioning nicotine to the agent. Hey it was a taped call!

I'm going to phone the insurer again and see if i can get an underwriter and then put it to bed and forget about it!

Underwriter be the right person guys??

johnbhoy10

Jammy_Dodger wrote: »

e cigs are a tobacco product.

news to me!

starrystarry

johnbhoy10 wrote: »

Agree with both the last 2 comments which is why it was me who kept mentioning nicotine to the agent. Hey it was a taped call!

I'm going to phone the insurer again and see if i can get an underwriter and then put it to bed and forget about it!

Underwriter be the right person guys??

It's not so much about what the person on the phone said, you need to find out what the wording of the question on the application is. If the question only asks about tobacco products in the last year then you can answer no. If it asks about tobacco or nicotine products then you'll have to answer yes.

The underwriters would be the best people to ask. The folk in the call centre might not be too familiar with the wording of the application questions.

Which insurer is it?