TCB, profit to be made from life insurance?

artyboy

Not sure if this is the best board to post this, but looking for people's views...

Right now, there seem to be quite a few offers on TCB for life insurance which would pay out substantially more than you'd have to pay in premiums to qualify. As a starting point - 6 months of £5 premiums at Beagle Street would get you £80 TCB, ie a £50 profit if you then cancelled.

And it goes on, right the way up to Confused.com who offer £1900 TCB for policies with a monthly premium of £200+ - again the T&Cs say it will pay out after 6 months, so that would be a £700 net gain.

Plus of course you'd get the benefit of the insurance in the meantime, should the worst happen...

I guess my question is, am I missing out on obvious and significant free money here, or is this all a bit iffy and/or ends up not actually paying out as expected? I'm more than game
for it, as long as the TCB payout is reliable?

And obviously I won't tell Mrs Arty about the millions she'd end up getting, in case she decides to get creative with the 'mushroom' risotto 

DullGreyGuy

As with any cashback site, there is always a risk that the cashback wont track properly and so you'd have paid £1,200 for a policy you presumably dont need and will be cancelling afterwards. 

You have to remember fundamentally this is affiliate marketing, if you click the link from MSE to Confused.com and buy the insurance its MSE rather than you that gets the "£1,900". All of those customers will continue to pay the premiums beyond the 6 months. Cashback sites are different in that they pass on most/all the commission they receive and so it can cause negative behaviours. 

Ultimately companies will track the cancellation rate (it's one of the key risks for life insurers, along with pandemics etc) and if a particular affiliate ceases to be profitable they will withdraw the offer from them. The majority on TCB will be looking to buy rather than profit.