With National No Smoking Day having been and gone, for those who have still resisted giving up the habit some startling life insurance statistics may provide an added incentive.

Because smoking is so bad for your health and results in such serious illnesses as lung and throat cancer and also heart attacks the insurance companies will obviously consider smokers a higher risk to insure.

When evaluating the cost of each policy the insurer will calculate the risk of each applicant requiring the policy to be paid out in the near future. Because of the higher rate of claims by smokers, the insurance companies will often charge up to a third more for policies to those who continue with their tobacco habit.

According to figures a 35 year old non-smoking male will pay on average £106 a year in life insurance but this rises dramatically for a smoker, up to £180 a year in some cases.

To begin to make these dramatic savings insurers will generally want you to be smoke-free for 12 months.