How much would I need?

To decide how much cover you need, you’ll need to think about what financial commitments your family would be left with if you died.

Many people simply want to cover their mortgage. If that’s the case, you simply need to choose the right cover for your mortgage. For a repayment mortgage, your cover would decrease as your mortgage goes down. For an interest only mortgage, your cover would remain level.

If you want to cover your family for other things you probably want to take into account any other debts you have and how much your family would need to support themselves without your salary.

If you’d rather pick your cover based on how much you’d like to pay each month, click ‘I know how much I want to pay each month’ on the quick quote page and see whether that seems enough cover.

How much would I need?

How long do I need cover for?

Most people usually take out their insurance until a key date in the future. It could be when they intend to retire, or when their mortgage is paid off, or their kids grow up and leave home.

For example, if you’ve got 10 years left to run on your mortgage, you may want to pick a term of 10 years. That way, the policy would pay out if you became terminally ill or died during this time.

Remember though, the longer you have the insurance for, the more it costs. So bear that in mind when you’re thinking how long you need to be covered.

How much would I need?

What do other people do?

Here are some common scenarios life cover can help with (examples are fictional and premiums assume good health and non-smoker status):

Just married

How much - Just married

Joanne (25) and Mike (27)

Newlyweds Joanne and Mike both work full time. As part of starting a new life together they wanted to put some protection in place so they know they’ll each be financially secure if the other dies. They arranged cover for the next 20 years which would be enough to pay off their outstanding mortgage and cover everyday living costs.

What they arranged

  • Level term life cover (joint)
  • Over 20 years
  • £170,000 cover
  • £12.34 a month

First home together

How much - First home together

Amanda (29) and Richard (29)

Amanda and Richard sold their own houses and bought a place together. Now they share that financial commitment, they decided to arrange cover so their repayment mortgage would be paid off if one of them died. They set up cover for the same term as their mortgage, 25 years, and made sure the amount of cover reduced in line with their mortgage too.

What they arranged

  • Decreasing term life cover (joint)
  • Over 25 years
  • £290,000 cover
  • £18.21 a month

Starting a family

How much - Starting a family

Michelle (34) and John (40)

With their first baby on the way and Michelle on maternity leave, the couple were well aware of the importance of a steady household income. With this in mind, they each decided to arrange single life cover policies to take care of their mortgage, bills, childcare and education costs if the worst should happen.

What they arranged

  • Level term life cover (single plans)
  • Over 18 years
  • £380,000 cover
  • £18.61 (Michelle) and £34.07 (John)

Married with children

How much - Married with children

Karen (42) and Matthew (45)

With three children aged 10, 8 and 7, full-time worker Matthew and part-time worker Karen already had life cover to pay off their mortgage should either of them die. In addition, they wanted to ensure their family would be able to manage additional living and childcare costs. So they decided to ‘top up’ their cover with a new plan which would help to protect their children financially until they became adults.

What they arranged

  • Level term life cover (joint)
  • Over 10 years
  • £300,000 cover
  • £50.75 a month

Changing jobs

How much - Changing jobs

Miranda (24)

Miranda recently left an admin job that offered a good benefits package, with generous ‘death in service’ cover that would have provided for her husband Jason and their six year old daughter Poppy if Miranda had died in employment. With no such benefits in her new job, Miranda decided to take out her own cover so that she was no longer reliant on benefits from her employers in order to provide protection for Jason and Poppy.

What she arranged

  • Level term life cover (single)
  • Over 12 years
  • £250,000 cover
  • £9.51 a month
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