Beagle Street release £10 beagles onto the streets

Hundreds of origami dogs made with £10 notes were let loose on the streets of London last week and in and around Bristol this week – to be rescued by lucky passers-by and office workers, pocketing the free money.

For each release, a team of experts spent over 125 hours folding 500 paper canines, which were then randomly distributed across the capital by online life insurance provider Beagle Street. The company aims to put money back into people’s pockets with cheaper life insurance policies.

The stunt follows research that reveals the average person overpays on their life insurance premium by £109 a year – totaling £3,270 over a 30-year term. 87 per cent of people are put off getting life insurance because they perceive it to be too expensive and 76 per cent believe providers are not transparent with their offerings.

Premiums for life insurance can vary according to the provider with customers paying up to 67 per cent more than others, but receiving very similar cover. A 30-year-old, non-smoker with 30-year level term life insurance worth £100,000 can pay between £9.23 and £5.35 per month depending on the provider.

Matthew Gledhill, managing director of Beagle Street, comments:

“Hopefully our £10 note Beagles will put a smile on people’s faces and pounds back into their pockets. The life insurance industry has been slow to adapt to the online revolution, but just as companies have used the Internet to slash the cost of services from air travel to accommodation, Beagle Street is using technology to remove unnecessary costs from life insurance. We’ve eliminated middlemen, medicals and meetings for example, which has meant passing on savings to customers who pay 30 per cent cheaper premiums on average.”