Apply For Life Insurance Online? My Experience Doing It

My husband had multiple in person appointments to get life insurance over several weeks in order to get life insurance. After his awful experience I asked myself: can I apply for life insurance online?

The answer? Yes, you can totally apply for life insurance online.

But it is worth it?

I realize with young children and a lower net worth that I needed life insurance outside of work.

So I set about the process of applying for life insurance online without appointments or medical requirements.

In this video I share my experience applying for and purchasing a life insurance policy online.

Why I Got Life Insurance 

I put off getting life insurance outside of work for a long time because of my weight. I worried my weight and the potential issues from obesity would make a medical exam very invasive and embarrassing.

Because of this concern over my weight and applying for life insurance, I left my daughter exposed potentially.

I finally learned that you could apply for life insurance online with companies like Bestow.

Even better? They did NOT require a medical exam like the one my husband had to suffer through over multiple visits.

These were the main reasons why I decided to apply for term life insurance outside of my policy at work:

  1. If I got laid off that life insurance policy wouldn’t go with me.
  2. I have a child and if something happens to me I need to know she is taken care of financially.
  3. I have a mortgage and if something happens to me, I want my house to be paid off through my life insurance policy.
  4. I want to make sure my family has the resources they need to survive if I’m not able to be here for them. 

For those reasons I decided to get a life insurance policy at this time. 

Basically? I wanted to protect my family financially in case something happened to me.

My Considerations For Life Insurance 

As a plus size person applying for life insurance online, I did have a few concerns.

Would it cost me a lot more? Would I get denied? How would they determine the rates when they had less information than you would get with an exam?

Needless to say, I had a few personal concerns about the life insurance application process.

There were a few things I wanted when I applied for life insurance: 

  1. I wanted term life insurance for 20 years. I knew that would cover my family’s needs until my daughter graduated college. 
  2. I wanted the online application for life insurance to be easy so I could get covered without jumping through lots of hoops. 
  3. I didn’t want a medical exam. I hate medical exams and already know my health conditions of asthma and obesity.
  4. I wanted affordable rates for my monthly life insurance premiums. I knew that I’m not in perfect health but I wanted to find the best options available to me.
  5. I didn’t want to deal with a sales person trying to push whole life insurance. I already knew I did not want whole life insurance so I wanted to make sure it was not even an option presented when I applied online.

Those were the five things I wanted in my particular situation in order to get life insurance. 

My Life Insurance Policy Purchase

I did end up purchasing a policy.

In fact from start to finish the process took me 15 minutes.

My husband came home from a gas station run and I told him I’d bought life insurance while he was gone. I think he was a bit upset after his experience getting life insurance through a traditional company that made him take multiple exams and 4 months of back and forth to get covered.  

My experience getting life insurance was definitely easier but the monthly cost was similar.

I had put off getting my own policy because he had such a negative experience going through Zander and using a company they sent him to. I didn’t want to go through justifying my weight or any number of things that I’m always working to improve but don’t look great on an application. In the end no medical exam was what felt like the best fit for me right now as a plus size person.

So what did my life insurance policy cost?

My new life insurance policy is for $300,000 for $33 a month.

It might not the best rate due to many personal factors. I may be able to get a lower rate through a traditional company that underwrites policies. However, I’m very happy with this amount for my personal situation.

This life insurance policy would pay off our house and the rest could be put aside for my daughter. For $33 a month I know that my family would not end up homeless if my income stopped.

Another reason why I liked this process was because I could pay online and set up auto payment for my monthly premium. Compared to my husband’s policy which forces us to pay quarterly with a check, this was so much better. 

Applying for life insurance online and paying for life insurance online makes things much easier. As a millennial that barely does anything in person this was perfect for me.

Getting Life Insurance Quotes 

What did I learn from this experience?

It is worth getting a life insurance quote from a couple different companies. This is especially true if you can apply online and they don’t require an exam.

Applying for life insurance does not affect your credit or cost anything. You can compare your life insurance options easily when you aren’t going through a long medical underwriting process. 

In my experience getting a quote and completing my policy took about 10 minutes start to finish (15 for me because I did record the experience for YouTube). The whole online application process was so convenient that I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner.  

It’s worth applying to see if you can get rates as low as $15 a month for $250k with no health issues. I will leave an affiliate link below if you want to apply.  

Do you have a life insurance policy outside of work? Get your free term life insurance quote today.

Mary is the founder of Pennies Not Perfection where she shares her journey to build wealth through online income. She quit her day job in 2021 after she paid off her debt and doubled her 9-5 salary.

Mary's favorite free financial tool is Personal Capital. She uses their free tools to track net worth and work toward to financial freedom.

Her favorite investment platform is M1 Finance, where she built a custom portfolio for free with no fees. She shares her portfolio growth and savings progress every month on YouTube.