I just saw an insurance ad on TV. It was Zurich Insurance. They give a discount on term life insurance for nonsmokers.
I believe the other example I can name is Allstate Car Insurance. They give ( or use to give ) a discount for nonsmokers on their car insurance.
What is the rational behind giving drivers that don’t smoke a discount???
And how does Zurich Insurance know what I do when I close my bathroom, bedroom or even living room door. I might just decided to light up an entire pack of Old Golds (remember those?) And how does Allstate know whether or not I light up when I get in my car?
I also wonder ( it’s my job you know) about hotels that offer smoking and nonsmoking rooms. What if you are a smoker and it’s 1:00 in the AM and you are tired and need a room. When you drag up to the desk, the clerk says, “We only have nonsmoking rooms left.” Are you gonna say, “Sorry I guess I had better look elsewhere cause I smoke.”
Well, insurance companies have the reputation of doing anything they can to avoid paying a claim. If they find out you were smoking at the time you had an accident, they may be able to avoid paying it because you broke your part of the contract.
Many health insurance policies do the same thing. Discounts for nonsmokers. You can lose your coverage if they find out you had a cigarette in tha past year.
As for the vacationing smoker, if he’s willing to forego smoking for that evening, I’m sure they’d let him stay in the hotel room - and hopefully he’d have the courtesy to not smoke in the room. There’s nothing to stop him from smoking, of course, unless the smoke detector goes off… and then I guess they could make him leave the hotel for violating a rule.
The obvious answer to both questions is that people who smoke are more likely to have accidents in the car because they are fumbling with their cigarettes, lighters, ashes, etc. which all other things being equal, non-smokers obviously do not.
With the life insurance…guess what? Smokers tend to die sooner than non-smoker and thus, force the insurance company to pay out sooner, costing them more in the long run to do business with smokers. Hence the non-smoker discount there.
Seems pretty open and shut to me. And, as previously stated, you CAN lie, but if you get caught, the insurance companies will use that as an excuse to say you breached your contract, and thus they don’t owe you a dime if you have an accident or die.
I think I got all that stuff yarster( with the exception of why nonsmokers get a driving discount thanks for that information but…re-read the post…my other question was:
How would Zurich and Allstate Insurance monitor thousands of people to see if they are smoking or not. As a matter of fact when I had insurance with Allstate some 20 years ago I remember receiving a no-smoking discount. And I just happened to smoke like a chimney at the time no one ever caught me.
Being in the hotel biz for the last 17 years I can say I know of NO hotel chain that guarantees you smoking or non smoking. Of course if all that is left is no smoking rooms they just send up some ashtrays and then treat the room when you leave.
The fact is smokers smoke in the non smoking rooms all the time. Housekeepers are trained to treat these rooms (often w/o much success).
Ironically I recall in 1983 I worked for Red Roof Inn and the chain was one of the first to have non smoking rooms (people would laugh when we said smoking or non) and they were the LAST to go.(the non smoking rooms).
The question they ask isn’t “do you smoke,” it’s “have you smoked in the past year.” I recently applied for life insurance from 2 providers.
One required me to swab my gums with this little cotton toothbrush thingy. They send it to the lab to test for things like nicotene.
The other one sent a nurse to my house to get blood for a blood test. I’m pretty sure you can tell a smoker from a non-smoker with a blood test.
The real bummer is that I chew tobacco about, oh, maybe 5-6 times a year. At State Farm, that put me in the same category as a person who continually breathes through a cigarette. I chose not to buy from them.
I suppose if you’ve gotten all the nicotene out of your system, you could get cheaper life insurance. Then you could smoke all you want and then die of lung cancer. Ha! That would show 'em!
The short answer is, they don’t know, but giving false information on a policy application invalidates the policy (it says so in the small print).
If you declare that you haven’t had a cigarette in the past year and you die of a smoking-related disease (i.e. one for which smoking is known to be a risk factor) the insurance company is going to want to see your medical records before they pay out (also in the small print). On the other hand, if you get hit by a truck, you’re might get away with it.
As well as the other reasons which have been given (risks of smoking in-car and effect on visual acuity), smokers as a group may be more prone to have car accidents than non-smokers because the highly-risk averse will be under-represented in the smoking group. Someone who is comfortable with the high level of personal risk attached to smoking is more likely to be comfortable with the level of personal risk attached to reckless driving, and vice versa.
