Beagle Street life insurance is a supplier of life and critical illness insurance with a simple online application process that promises to make arranging these insurances quick and easy. In this article, we look at the products, service and aftercare provided by Beagle Street as well as how it compares against alternative life insurance providers.
We'll also show you how to buy Beagle Street life insurance and get up to £100 cashback when you do.
Who is Beagle Street?
Beagle Street is an online life insurance company underwritten by Scottish Friendly Assurance Society. It is a part of the BGL Group which also includes Compare the Market. Family Assurance Friendly Society Limited trades as Beagle Street and is a Friendly Society incorporated under the Friendly Societies Act 1992.
It first started providing life insurance in 1992 as a way of solving the frustrations associated with long application turnaround times and laborious form filling. It continues to market its speedy online quote and application process amongst its key advantages.
Beagle Street is authorised and regulated by the financial services authority and all customers are protected by the financial services compensation scheme.
Defaqto rates Beagle Street life and critical illness insurance products with 4 stars indicating that it provides standard term life insurance products that cover you for a specified period of time with a good level of features and benefits.
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Beagle Street Overview
Beagle Street provides a simple spread of options for life cover and critical illness insurance. The products are good at the basic end of the market but include additional options such as early payment if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and provide accidental death benefit whilst your application is being processed. Policies can be arranged on a single or a joint life insurance cover basis.
There are some worthwhile perks too in the form of a free simple will writing service, trusts arranged with your policy and a promise to search registers to ensure that payouts are matched with possible beneficiaries.
For customers with pre-existing health conditions, Beagle Street is less likely to accept your application. Beagle Street reduces its processing times by eliminating the need to request medical reports from your doctor or ask you to attend a medical. Wherever these would be needed as part of an application, Beagle Street tends not to offer cover even though most other life insurance companies would. Simple and low-risk health conditions can be underwritten by Beagle Street via Scottish Friendly Assurance Society and may be acceptable.
Beagle Street policy options summary
| Level Term Assurance | Decreasing Term Life Insurance | Critical Illness Insurance | |
| Min age at entry | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| Max age at entry | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| Max age at expiry | 79 | 79 | 79 |
| Min number of years | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Max number of years | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| Type of premium | Guaranteed premiums that are fixed for the duration of the policy | Guaranteed premiums that are fixed for the duration of the policy |
Guaranteed premiums that are fixed for the duration of the policy
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| Ownership | Joint & Single | Joint & Single | Joint & Single |
| Terminal Illness Benefit | Included | Included | n/a |
| Accidental Death Benefit | Included | Included | n/a |
| Additional Features |
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What is covered by Beagle Street Critical illness insurance and how does it compare?
Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum of money if you are diagnosed with one of the illnesses listed within your policy and you meet the definition of that illness. Critical illness insurance varies from one insurance company to another so it is extremely important to check what you're covered for.
Beagle Street critical illness insurance provides very basic cover. Importantly, it does provide protection against diagnosis of Cancer, Heart Attack and Stroke. These are the 3 main reasons for claims against critical illness insurance policies so that makes the policy a reasonable purchase. It meets the Association of British Insurer's minimum standards for critical illness insurance.
However, the cost analysis further on in this article shows that the monthly premiums for Beagle Street critical illness insurance do not necessarily reflect the fact that it covers fewer illnesses than many other leading life insurance companies.
The children's critical illness is available at an increased monthly premium which can be seen as a positive and a negative when compared with policies that include this benefit as standard. It can mean that you are not paying for this benefit if you do not need it but equally, some may overlook it accidentally. Children's critical illness claims are amongst the top 5 reasons why anybody claims against their critical illness insurance which makes it an important consideration.
The age range covered by Beagle Street is at the basic end of the market. Beagle Street children's critical illness insurance covers your children from 30 days to 18 years old when some of the best policies will cover your children from gestation until age 23.
Conditions covered by Beagle Street critical illness insurance (full payout)
| Critical illness name | The definition that must be met to make a valid claim |
| Alzheimer’s disease | - before age 65, resulting in permanent symptoms |
| Aorta graft surgery | - for disease or trauma |
| Benign brain tumour | - resulting in permanent symptoms |
| Blindness | - permanent and irreversible |
| Cancer | - excluding less advanced cases |
| Coma | - resulting in permanent symptoms |
| Coronary artery bypass grafts | - with surgery |
| Deafness | - permanent and irreversible |
| Heart attack | - of specified severity |
| Heart valve replacement or repair | - with surgery |
| Kidney failure | - requiring regular dialysis |
| Loss of hands or feet | - permanent physical severance |
| Loss of speech | - permanent and irreversible |
| Major organ transplant | |
| Motor neurone disease | - resulting in permanent symptoms |
| Multiple sclerosis | - with current symptoms |
| Paralysis of limbs | - total and irreversible |
| Parkinson’s disease | - resulting in permanent symptoms |
| Stroke | - of specified severity |
| Third degree burns | - covering either 20% of the surface area of the face or body |
| Traumatic head injury | - resulting in permanent symptoms |
Beagle Street children's critical illness insurance summary
- Cover for children aged 30 days to 18 years old
- You must have been your child's legal guardian before diagnosis
- Conditions present at birth are excluded
- 25% of full critical illness insurance value up to a max of £25,000 will be paid
- Only one claim per child
- If a claim is paid for children's critical illness the adult critical illness cover is unaffected
- Additional cost for this option
- Child is covered for all full and additional conditions covered under the adult insurance
- No additional child-specific illnesses covered
Is Beagle Street life insurance any good?
The life and critical illness insurance provided by Beagle Street is good but is basic compared with what is available across the rest of the market. If the monthly premium was lower to reflect the basic cover and few additional features offered, it may appeal to a cost-selective customer. However, this must be checked as the analysis at this time has shown that there are cheaper and better products available in the market.
It is always good to speak to an independent life insurance expert* as you will be able to compare products across the whole market as well as prices. They will do this for you so it takes all the work out of understanding where to save and spend your money to suit your personal concerns. Beagle Street products are included in this search.
Beagle Street customer reviews
Beagle Street is rated 4.6 out of 5.0 stars based on over 4,000 reviews on the independent review site, Trustpilot with many reviews pointing out the ease of application and good customer service. It is ranked 116 out of 203 ranked companies in the Insurance Agency category and ranked 43 out of 47 ranked companies in the Life Insurance Agency category.
Beagle Street life insurance pros and cons
Pros
- 10-minute application process
- Free will service
- Trust service
- Bereavement counselling
- 99.4% of claims paid (2022)
Cons
- Customers with pre-existing health conditions may not be accepted except where these are minor
- Cost does not reflect quality of the products at time of writing
- Does not offer access to a virtual GP or other ancillary health benefits
Beagle street life insurance with gift card
For new customers who start a policy after the 4th of January 2022, Beagle Street offers an introductory gift card worth up to £100. The value of the gift card will depend on the monthly premium that you pay for your Beagle Street life insurance policy and you will need to pay 6 months worth of premiums. The value of your gift card will vary as follows:
| Monthly Premium | e-Gift Card Value |
| Under £10 | £25 |
| £10-£19.99 | £50 |
| £20-£29.99 | £75 |
| £30+ | £100 |
New Beagle Street customers can choose an e-Gift Card for each policy that they buy but only one per joint policy. The e-Gift Card can be for Amazon.co.uk, Tesco, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Morrisons, Love2Shop and pre-paid Mastercard.
Beagle Street free will service
Beagle Street's free will service is only for UK residents who have purchased a life insurance policy with Beagle Street and it is free for simple and joint mirror wills. Costs for any complexity beyond the offer would be charged to the customer.
How much does Beagle Street life insurance cost?
In order to understand the real value provided by Beagle Street we looked at the cost of £250,000 of life insurance over 25 years as well as £250,000 of life insurance including £50,000 of critical illness insurance. We compared the prices for non-smokers and smokers with the best price available through an independent specialist broker* and have shared our findings below.
It is worth pointing out that the cheapest broker price that included critical illness insurance provided a better quality of critical illness insurance than the Beagle Street product in every example. This means that the cheapest equivalent policy covered a larger number of illnesses as well as those illnesses that would be considered less serious. We did not include children's critical illness cover in the quotes that include critical illness cover for the adult but some of the cheapest prices that we quote do include children's critical illness insurance as standard.
Cost of Beagle Street life insurance
£250,000 of level term assurance over 20 years for a non-smoker
| Age | Beagle Street Monthly Premium | Cheapest equivalent monthly premium | Monthly saving using a broker | Total saving using a broker over 20 years |
| 25 year old | £7.20 | £6.00 | £1.20 | £288.00 |
| 35 year old | £11.68 | £10.50 | £1.18 | £283.20 |
| 45 year old | £27.49 | £22.58 | £4.91 | £1,178.40 |
The costs indicated above are based on a person with no medical conditions and no family history of any serious medical conditions. If you do a risky job or partake in dangerous sports or hobbies, this may also affect the cost of your life and critical illness insurance.
£250,000 of level term assurance life insurance over 20 years for a smoker
| Age | Beagle Street Monthly Premium | Cheapest equivalent monthly premium | Monthly saving using a broker | Total saving using a broker over 20 years |
| 25 year old | £10.71 | £9.80 | £0.91 | £218.40 |
| 35 year old | £22.43 | £20.06 | £2.37 | £568.80 |
| 45 year old | £64.89 | £54.76 | £10.13 | £2,431.20 |
The costs indicated above are based on a person with no medical conditions and no family history of any serious medical conditions. If you do a risky job or partake in dangerous sports or hobbies, this may also affect the cost of your life and critical illness insurance.
Cost of Beagle Street life insurance with critical illness cover
£250,000 of level term assurance with £50,000 of critical illness cover over 20 years for a non-smoker
| Age | Beagle Street Monthly Premium | Cheapest equivalent monthly premium | Monthly saving using a broker | Total saving using a broker over 20 years |
| 25 year old | £15.65 | £13.35 | £2.30 | £552.00 |
| 35 year old | £28.51 | £24.61 | £3.90 | £936.00 |
| 45 year old | £62.75 | £62.67 | £0.08 | £19.20 |
The costs indicated above are based on a person with no medical conditions and no family history of any serious medical conditions. If you do a risky job or partake in dangerous sports or hobbies, this may also affect the cost of your life and critical illness insurance
£250,000 of level term assurance with £50,000 of critical illness cover over 20 years for a smoker
| Age | Beagle Street Monthly Premium | Cheapest equivalent monthly premium | Monthly saving using a broker | Total saving using a broker over 20 years |
| 25 year old | £21.48 | £17.74 | £3.74 | £897.60 |
| 35 year old | £47.20 | £39.85 | £7.35 | £1,764.00 |
| 45 year old | £124.59 | £116.38 | £8.21 | £1970.40 |
The costs indicated above are based on a person with no medical conditions and no family history of any serious medical conditions. If you do a risky job or partake in dangerous sports or hobbies, this may also affect the cost of your life and critical illness insurance.
Best way to buy Beagle Street life insurance
If you wish to purchase life insurance or critical illness insurance for peace of mind with Beagle Street you can do this by visiting comparison sites, the Beagle Street website or through a specialist life insurance broker that includes Beagle Street within their searches.
Those who know exactly what they need and want to buy and do not wish to speak to someone to go through an advised process may prefer to visit the Beagle Street website. The website is clear and simple to use allowing you to choose the different parameters for your life insurance before you complete an application form online. If you have pre-existing health conditions or you or your immediate family have suffered ill health historically, this process is less likely to be the most suitable for you.
On the other hand, you can speak with a life insurance specialist* who can search the whole market including Beagle Street to offer you the best rates for your life insurance as well as show you where more comprehensive cover is available at a similar or cheaper monthly premium. Additionally, if you arrange your life insurance by speaking to a specialist, you will receive up to £100 cashback.
If a link has an * beside it this means that it is an affiliated link. If you go via the link, Money to the Masses may receive a small fee which helps keep Money to the Masses free to use. The following link can be used if you do not wish to help Money to the Masses and do not wish to qualify for the cashback referred to in the article - LifeSearch
