Remember the old days when ‘insurance people’ would come round to your house and discuss life insurance with you? No? Perhaps ask your parents! That’s a long way in the past. These days life insurance is all handled online (what a relief!).

Anorak is mostly based online, their website is easy to use and everything is laid out nice and clearly, and you won’t find any jargon. The process is so simple it’s easy to use on your phone too. Any problems, just chat to an advisor on the phone.

Anorak searches every insurance provider out there to find the right one for you (that’s companies like Aviva, LV, Royal London, Vitality, and more), and most importantly, the right cover, and then the best deal.

And between you and us, those real ‘insurance people’ you might speak to, use Anorak too! You are effectively just bypassing the advisor (and their hefty fee), and finding insurance for yourself. Plus their service is free. Good right?

Anorak covers life insurance, income protection and critical illness – we’ll dive into each of these later.

How Anorak works

It’s a lot easier than you might be thinking. You enter a few of your details into their website, to get a quick assessment of how much cover you need – that means how much money your family will get should the worst happen, and make sure you haven’t got too much cover, which could mean you’re paying more than you really need to.

Once you’re happy with the level of cover, they’ll show you the best deals from the right providers, and you simply pick the best deal. Their advisors will double-check everything, and you’re good to go, you’re covered!

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Did we mention their service is free to use too! At Nuts About Money we love free services, who doesn't?

Life insurance

Life insurance is cover for if you pass away, it gives your family, or whoever you decide, a lump sum of cash to help financially support them.

We know it’s a morbid topic, but imagine if you did pass away, the bills would all still need to be paid without your income. The financial burden can be pretty devastating on what would be an emotional time.

That’s why life cover (life insurance) is often discussed when you take out a mortgage – so you can arrange a lump sum of money to pay off the mortgage if you did pass away, and your family doesn’t have to worry about making repayments.

But mortgages aren't the only bills, there’s also rent (which is often more than a mortgage per month), regular bills, any debts that are in joint names, and any bills to continue their current lifestyle. Plus, there’s also the funeral costs to think about too.

Common situations where life insurance can be important are:

• If you’re in a long term relationship
• A parent
• Have a mortgage
• Pay rent with someone else
• Are self-employed

Income protection

You can protect yourself so that in future if you can’t work for a medical reason, such as an injury or illness, you’ll still get an income – so you’ll always be able to cover the bills. And this is simply called income protection.

It’s normally for serious injuries or illnesses that means you’d be off work for a long period of time, often years, but not serious enough to be out of work permanently, so often it’s for an injury rather than a very serious illness (which normally form part of critical illness cover, which we explain below).

You can decide if you want protection for the whole period where you’re not working, or just for a specific period, such as 1 year, 2 year or 5 years.

It’s often a good idea to get if your income often pays all or the majority of your family's bills.

Critical illness cover

Critical illness cover is for very serious illnesses, such as cancer, a stroke, or heart attack (plus more), and you would be paid out a lump sum similar to how life insurance works.

Serious illnesses can often come with significant expenses, and often these are unexpected and unplanned for – most of us never think we’d get seriously ill.

You might need cash for the treatment itself, and then the therapy after, plus adapting your life to your new circumstances if they change – perhaps you might need to adapt your home for a wheelchair.

There’s also the loss to income to account for too. Serious illnesses can get very expensive.

Customer support

Anorak's customer service is great. You can send them a message on their website if you have any questions and they will reply via email.

Want to chat in person? No problem. You can call them between 9:30am to 6pm during the week. And they're more than just there for small issues, they’re fully fledged advisors will help you determine the best insurance and cover for you.

Anorak customer reviews

The people love it! Anorak has a great Trustpilot score (the popular reviews website), a massive 4.7 out of 5. 

The reviews are mostly around the excellent service from their advisors and finding the best insurance deals.

Our thoughts

Here at Nuts About Money we think Anorak is great – to be able to search every insurance provider out there to find you the best deal is awesome, and you could save some serious money!

It’s completely free to use and their advisors are friendly and knowledgeable. Plus it’s all handled online! What’s not to love? 

It’s the best way to find the right life insurance for you. 5 stars from us.

To get started just head to the Anorak website.