Your Life Insurance policy will have the specifics of the "Grace Period" that provides and cushion for you when you miss a payment. Life Insurance companies usually want you to keep you policy. Their Grace Period is usually 30 to 60 days depending on the policy and the company.
The type of policy will make a difference as well. A Term Life Insurance policy does not have any "Cash Value" or a side account that can grow at an interest rate like a savings account and cover the missed premium. This "Cash Value" is a feature of a Universal Life policy. The Term Life policy would be in danger of lapsing much quicker and you are probably going to cancelled quicker. A Universal Life policy with cash value is going to use the saving portion to pay the premium. The Universal Life will lapse once the cash value is depleted and the grace period expires. You can call your agent or Life Insurance company and work out options on the Universal Life policy such as lower the "Face Amount" or amount of death benefit to help you make the policy last longer.
"Whole Life Insurance" will have a grace period as well. Coverage options beyond the grace period become more complicated. This Whole Life policy also has a "Cash Value" or savings portion as well. You will be subject to the policy's "Non Forfeiture Options" within the policy. These options are different for each policy. You will have to check your policy. Usually, there are 3 options: Return of the cash value to you minus any loans you took out, you can change to a lower amount of insurance that is "Paid Up" or you do not have to pay premiums for the amount of death benefit, or you can change to a "Term Life Insurance" policy for a specific period of time then the insurance stops.
If you miss a life insurance payment, the first thing to do is call the insurance company. You can find out what happened to correct that, and they will tell you a way to get payment to them most quickly. You may want to switch to automatic withdrawal from a checking account to prevent that from happening in the future.
If it is a month or more late, see other answers on this page.
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The type of policy will make a difference as well. A Term Life Insurance policy does not have any "Cash Value" or a side account that can grow at an interest rate like a savings account and cover the missed premium. This "Cash Value" is a feature of a Universal Life policy. The Term Life policy would be in danger of lapsing much quicker and you are probably going to cancelled quicker. A Universal Life policy with cash value is going to use the saving portion to pay the premium. The Universal Life will lapse once the cash value is depleted and the grace period expires. You can call your agent or Life Insurance company and work out options on the Universal Life policy such as lower the "Face Amount" or amount of death benefit to help you make the policy last longer.
"Whole Life Insurance" will have a grace period as well. Coverage options beyond the grace period become more complicated. This Whole Life policy also has a "Cash Value" or savings portion as well. You will be subject to the policy's "Non Forfeiture Options" within the policy. These options are different for each policy. You will have to check your policy. Usually, there are 3 options: Return of the cash value to you minus any loans you took out, you can change to a lower amount of insurance that is "Paid Up" or you do not have to pay premiums for the amount of death benefit, or you can change to a "Term Life Insurance" policy for a specific period of time then the insurance stops.
If it is a month or more late, see other answers on this page.