Sometimes it's better to be too early than too late...

Better too early than too late – that is the motto when it comes to occupational disability insurance!

...because, in addition to the insured benefit, the greatest influence on your contribution is the age at which you join, your occupation and your state of health . The younger you are, the lower your contribution will be, permanently. Between a 20-year-old and a 25-year-old, the contribution amount differs by around 10%; for a 30-year-old person even by around 20%.

However, since even the relatively low premium - due to the low entry age - often goes beyond student budgets, some insurers have now decided to offer special entry-level tariffs . For example, with a graduated contribution model, a student pays less than half of the usual contribution during the first 5 years of the contract, and during the next 5 years it is still around 75% of the normal contribution. After a total of 10 years, the full contribution must be paid, which also includes the previously reduced contribution shares. This makes insurance affordable.

Health status is another important aspect. If you are still completely healthy, you pay the premium initially offered; if you already have a pre-existing condition, the insurer will check the conditions under which they can insure you. When asking about your state of health, some insurers limit themselves to fixed periods of time, for example 5 or 10 years for inpatient stays, so you don't need to look through your entire life so far, but only the 5 or 10 years before your age of entry for previous illnesses. If necessary, the insurer will then charge a surcharge or make exclusions from the insurance cover. Not mentioning things when stating your state of health, for example so that the contribution doesn't increase, is definitely not worth it. In the event of a claim, medical records, among other things, are viewed and it quickly becomes clear who has not provided everything. In many cases, the insurer does not have to pay and you have paid premiums for years without getting anything out of it.

Occupational disability insurance also calculates the premium based on the current occupation, as there are occupations with higher or lower risk . The “student” profession is generally classified in the favorable range here. It is advantageous to choose an offer that does not require you to pay higher contributions if you later pursue a job with greater risk. You definitely don’t want to remain a student forever…

In summary, here are three tips on what you should pay attention to when choosing an insurer:

• Is there a cheap entry option, e.g. through step-by-step contributions?
• The insurer should limit the health declaration to an observation period of 5 years or 10 years in the case of pre-existing illnesses that require hospitalization
• Does the insurer waive a premium increase if you later take on a riskier job?

You can find further information on the topic of “entry age” and other topics at studentenberufsunbarkeit.de .

You can also have your contribution calculated directly, for example here at CosmosDirekt .