Everybody knows that smoking can damage your health, and with the increasing cost of cigarettes, everyone knows it will also damage your wealth, but the financial cost when it comes to taking out life insurance may not be truly understood.

Over 2 months ago the smoking ban came into effect for all public places in Scotland, with similar plans for the rest of the UK, and along with the ban the sales of nicotine patches and gum have rocketed.

A standard life insurance policy through one of the high street insurers such as Barclays insurance reveals that smokers are liable to be paying almost twice as much as an identical non-smoker. For example, a 20 a day male smoker, aged 35 next birthday, taking out