Why Have Life Insurance Cover?

According to Moneywise, in 2018 less than a third of the UK population had a life insurance policy.

Life insurance cover can help both you and your loved ones to have some peace of mind around what will happen when you die.

While having a life insurance policy means you can help loved ones to cover the costs of your funeral, you can also use it to ensure there is a lump sum available to clear any remaining mortgage balance or other personal debts you owe. As a result, your life insurance policy can help you to ensure that your children and loved ones receive their inheritance without needing to repay your mortgage or other debts from the estate you leave.

Introducing Beagle Street Life Insurance

Beagle Street was launched in 2012. It is part of the BGL Group, which itself has been around since 1992, and who also own the popular comparison site Compare the Market, as well as other insurance and financial services brands.

Who underwrites Beagle Street Insurance?

Its policies are underwritten by Scottish Friendly.

Beagle Street, like so many businesses, was launched against a background of frustration. In this case, one of the directors of the company had found the experience of taking out life insurance to be difficult and stressful, and so Beagle Street was founded to offer a simpler solution to those seeking a life insurance policy.

As such, the main feature and potential benefit of Beagle Street is that customers can take out a life insurance policy online, in as little as 10 minutes according to the Beagle Street website.

Not having to spend hours on the phone is often a big enough selling point for many consumers, but what else does Beagle Street life insurance offer?

Let’s look in more detail at Beagle Street’s life insurance product and answer some of the most common questions about Beagle Street, and life insurance in general, to help you decide whether one of their policies will work for you.

Summary of Life Insurance Cover Offered by Beagle Street

Beagle Street offers a comprehensive range of life insurance coverage, enabling most people to take out cover that would pay out anything in the range of £40,000 to £750,000 when they die.

In general, Beagle Street’s life insurance is offered for terms between five and 40 years and can be taken out at any time between the ages of 18 and 64. Beagle Street specifies that your coverage term must end before you turn 80.

It is important to note than Beagle Street does not offer Whole of Life Insurance, only Fixed Term cover. Therefore, if you were to take out a Beagle Street life insurance policy and you were still alive when it ended, you would need to take out another policy with another insurer to ensure your loved ones would still receive a sum of money upon your death.

What Types of Life Insurance Cover Does Beagle Street Offer?

Beagle Street offers a wide and flexible range of life insurance options to help you take out the best cover for your circumstances.

Life insurance can be taken out from Beagle Street on both a level term and a decreasing term basis, either as a single applicant or as a joint policy with your partner. However, each policy will only pay out once, so if you or your partner dies, the surviving partner would need to take out a new life insurance policy to ensure a future pay-out for your family.

Beagle Street also provides optional critical illness cover, which is added to customers’ life insurance policies and combined into one single payment.

We have summarised the different policy types and explored some common FAQ’s from Beagle Street customers below.

• Level Term Life Insurance. This is fixed level cover for the length of your policy. You will always pay the same monthly premium and the lump sum your family will receive in the event of your death will be fixed, too.
• Decreasing Term Life Insurance. While the length of your policy will be fixed, your premiums and the potential lump sum pay-out decreases over time. This is because, in theory at least, the longer you live, the more of your mortgage and other debts you will pay, so the lower the sum your family will need to settle your affairs and secure their inheritance.
• Critical Illness Cover. You can add critical illness cover to any Beagle Street life insurance policy if you wish. This must be added at the time you apply for life insurance and will pay-out if you are diagnosed with any of the conditions listed in your cover documents. If you take out critical illness cover with Beagle Street, you can then subsequently add child critical illness cover.

Beagle Street automatically includes terminal illness cover in all its life insurance policies. This means that Beagle Street will pay-out your life insurance sum in the event of a diagnosis of a terminal illness, so long as this does not occur in the final 12-months of your fixed term.

This is an additional benefit of using Beagle Street which may allow you to settle any outstanding financial affairs yourself prior to your death.

What Critical Illnesses do Beagle Street’s Policies Cover?

Beagle Street’s critical illness cover protects you and your family against a wide range of conditions, the full list of which you can read here.

In the event of receiving a pay-out against your critical illness cover, you can subsequently spend the lump-sum on anything you wish.

Can I Make Changes to My Beagle Street Life Insurance Policy?

No. If you need a different type of cover with Beagle Street, you will need to cancel your existing policy and take out a new one. You will need to complete the quotation application again based on your current circumstances.

What Happens if My Circumstances Change?

The same process would apply as if you wanted to make changes. If, for example, you separate or marry, and wanted to add or remove a spouse from your policy, you would need to cancel your existing life insurance and take out a new policy based on your current circumstances.

Are Life Insurance Lump Sum Pay-outs Classified as Taxable Income?

Life insurance pay-outs may be subject to inheritance tax, depending on the value of your estate upon your death. They are not subject to income, capital gains, or any other taxation.

Can I Cover My Partner?

Beagle Street does offer joint life insurance policies. However, the joint policy must be taken out at the time you apply. If you wish to add a partner later, you will need to cancel your existing policy and take out a new joint policy.

Joint life insurance policies only pay-out once, so in the event of yourself or your partner’s death you would need to take out a new policy if you wanted to retain a level of life insurance cover.

What Happens if I Don’t Pay My Beagle Street Insurance Premiums?

If a payment is not made, you have 29 days after the due date to make a payment to bring your premiums up to date. If a payment is not subsequently made, your policy will be cancelled, and you will need to take out a new life insurance policy to retain a level of cover.

When Does Beagle Street Insurance Cover Start?

Your Beagle Street life insurance starts from the moment you accept your policy quotation and the terms and conditions by completing the application on the Beagle Street website.

What Affects the Cost of a Beagle Street Life Insurance Policy?

Beagle Street will calculate the cost of your life insurance premiums based on several factors around your health and lifestyle. As Beagle Street’s life insurance application process takes place wholly online, it is important that you give full and honest answers for the information requested.

Working Out How Much Life Insurance Cover You Need

The higher the pay-out you want for your family, the more expensive your life insurance premiums will be.

Most people decide the pay-out they would like to ensure for their family by taking the following into consideration:

• Outstanding mortgage balance.
• Other debts that will need to be repaid.
• A lump sum for dependents if you die before they reach a certain age.
• A lump sum to act as a substitute for your income in the immediate months after your death.
• Funeral expenses.

Beagle Street offers a comprehensive guide and provides a life insurance calculator to work out how much cover you need, which you can access here.

How Long Do You Want Life Insurance For?

In general, the longer your policy, the higher the premiums. This is because the longer you live, the more likely you are to die.

When deciding how long you want your life insurance policy to be, think back to what you want to cover. If you have a young family and were looking to ensure your children’s education and early adulthood expenses were covered, you might only need a policy that runs for 15 – 20 years, rather than paying for a policy that you don’t need over a longer term.

How Healthy Are You?

Beagle Street does not ask to see your medical records, conduct a medical, or consult with your GP.

Healthier individuals will generally pay less for life insurance, but you will also need to give information about your family medical history and your job.

How Old are You?

Your age when you take out your life insurance policy will influence what you pay, but it isn’t simply a case of paying more as you get older.

A younger person with a longer-term policy may pay the same as an older-person with short-term cover, for example, but Beagle Street will consider that you’re more likely to acquire a critical illness as you get older, which may mean higher premiums.

Are You a Smoker?

It is common knowledge that smoking increases the risk of acquiring several cancers as well as conditions such as heart disease. If you smoke, your life insurance premiums will be higher.

If you have not smoked for a period of at least 12-months prior to applying for Beagle Street life insurance, for the purposes of your cover you will be classified as a non-smoker.

E-cigarettes and vaping devices are classed as smoking products, and you should disclose these as applicable when applying for life insurance cover.

Do I Have to Provide Medical Records to Beagle Street for a Life Insurance Quote?

No. Beagle Street does not ask to see medical records or consult with your GP, nor do you need to undergo a medical.

However, it is important to be honest when completing your application to ensure you get the correct level of cover and do not invalidate your policy.

How Much Does Beagle Street Life Insurance Cover Cost?

The specific cost of your life insurance from Beagle Street will depend on your circumstances, based on the questions we looked at above.

Prices start from as little as £5 per month for life insurance, and from as little as £10 per month for life insurance with critical illness cover.

Beagle Street Life Insurance Policies Comparison

You can compare Beagle Street’s life insurance offers below.

Beagle Street are currently offering an Amazon Gift Card up to the value of £150 on new policies

Key Features of Beagle Street Life Insurance

Beagle Street has several key features which make them an attractive option for taking out a life insurance policy.

• Online Application. Do everything online, no need for a medical, meetings, or spending a long time discussing your needs on the telephone.
• Terminal illness cover included as standard. Receive your lump sum pay-out while you’re still alive if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness.
• Beagle Street ensures your policy is paid out. When you die, if your policy is not claimed, Beagle Street will track down your surviving loved ones to ensure your policy sum is paid out.
• Secure Online Document Storage. As well as your application, everything you need to do to manage your life insurance policy can be done online, too. You don’t call until you need to make a claim!

Benefits of Beagle Street Life Insurance

What are the main benefits of Beagle Street life insurance?

• Flexibility of life insurance policies and add-ons available.
• Terminal illness cover as standard.
• Convenience of doing everything online.

Downsides of Beagle Street Life Insurance

What are the downsides of Beagle Street life insurance?

• Term life insurance policies only. If live until the day before your 80^th birthday, you’ll need to find another life insurance policy, which may be difficult depending on your health and circumstances in later life.
• Maximum level of cover is £750,000, which may not be enough to cover your mortgage and other outstanding debts and obligations depending on your circumstances.

Are There any Exclusions?

Exclusions are situations where your life insurance policy will not be paid out in the event of your death, or in specified other circumstances.

Beagle Street will usually cancel, or not pay out your policy, if:

• You did not provide accurate, factual, and full information on your life insurance application.
• You do not pay your premium and bring your account up to date within 29 days of payment being due.
• You commit suicide within 12-months of your cover starting.

Beagle Street Customer Service

At the time of writing, Beagle Street had a rating on TrustPilot of 4.7 out of 5, from 2,883 customer reviews. You can review Beagle Street’s current TrustPilot score and reviews here

Is Beagle Street Life Insurance Worth It?

Overall, Beagle Street offers an extremely attractive range of life insurance packages, with the convenience of doing everything online as well as the flexibility on offer within their packages being definite benefits of their offer.

Before taking out a Beagle Street life insurance policy, ensure you consider whether it fully meets yours and your family’s needs based on your specific circumstances.