getting a discount at the gym

[hulagirl79]

Hi
My old gym has just reopened after a referb and i am thinking or rejoining, when i spoke to them they said the current deal is.

£35 joining fee down from £70.
£35 per month off peak. [6.30 am-4.30pm]
£47 per month anytime.
I would be looking at doing the anytime one as my job hours as all over the place. Does anyone have any advice if i could get a discount and how to go about getting one.

Thanks in advance.

[Raul]

From what I've seen gyms often offer rewards and incentives for introducing friends and family to join. It could be an idea if you know any one else that is keen.

Though there may not be a discount, either you or somebody else may get something out of it.

[Bargain Rzl]

Is it the only gym in the area?

If not, it would be worth finding out what the others are offering, and playing one off against the other ;)

Also, is it part of one of the chains (LA Fitness, Cannons, Virgin Active and some others) which is participating in the PruHealth scheme? If so, you may find that joining through PruHealth works out a lot cheaper in the long term - read Martin's article and the extensive threads on the subject on this board and the Insurance board for more details.

[hulagirl79]

hi
Thanks for your comments.
It is not the only gym in the area we have a cannons, but that is £60 per month and a little too "ooo look at me" for my liking.
I have looked at the pru health scheme and this gym is not included.
I will go and have a look tommorow and see what i think.
thanks

[little_miss_moneysaver]

For my local gym I have a sports pass. It was either £28 for me or £48 or both myself and partner for the year (we got a joint one). Then we just pay as we go, i think the gym is a couple of quid a time as is swimming. Classes cost a bit more. Apart from the initial outlay it has worked out cheaper as monthly it was costing us £35 each so we had to go a lot to get our moneys worth. Also this way saves getting involved in a contract. Hope it helps.

[spork]

Are Cannons still participating in the pruhealth thing?
I was quoted £78 by the City one today! :mad:

[Bargain Rzl]

Spork,

I'm a member of Cannons City (through PruHealth) - joined just over a year ago.

Can you clarify - do you mean you were quoted that for joining directly, or for joining through PruHealth? The PruHealth website still shows Cannons City in its pricing structure.

If you joined through PruHealth it would cost you more in the short term: the pricing structure for Cannons City (which automatically includes membership of all other Cannons clubs) is £67 (on bronze), £55 (on silver), £39 (on gold) and £25 (on platinum), plus you would be paying your monthly premium on top of that. Your pricing level goes down the month that you reach a new level, so the sooner you progress through the levels, the sooner you pay less (and if you're Platinum at the end of your policy year, you hang onto it for the following year).

It's very good value in the long term. Having got my discount for reaching Platinum before my policy renewal, I'm now in Year 2 of my plan and am paying £25 a month for the gym plus £5.26 monthly premium. While £30.26 is considerably more than it would cost to have single-club membership of a cheaper club (Covent Garden branch, for example, would now be costing me £8 + £5.26 = £13.26) it is still fantastic value for money for membership of a luxury City health club.

[spork]

Thanks Bargain Rzl.I was quoted for joining directly.

I'll be reading about the Pruhealth offer over the next few days. I would have been fine with the previous structure of it being measured by how often you go to the gym, rather than silly vitality points. I plan on going to the gym 3-5 times a week, if not everyday (but 3-5 is more realistic), so it would have been great. However, the vitality points system seems far more complicated, time consuming (lots f surveys and meal plans and things to do) and like more hassle. I read somewhere that Cannons had stopped Pruhealth deals, but apparently not.

I don't really want to pay in excess of £60 in total per month.
From Pruhealth:
Core plan - £23.55 (non-smoker, 19 years old, female, gym usage at 3+ times a week, hospitals outside of London);
Gym membership with Cannons (single club, standard membership with 25% off for first time/first year user) - £50 for Bronze and £8 for Platinum.
That works out at £23.55 + £50 = £73.55 on Bronze for at least a minimum of three months while they monitor my usage. The gym membership prices are the same for Bloomsbury, Covent Garden AND City, so City doesn't seem to be any higher. However, does that mean I can never get it for free now that they're closing the loophole? Also, I've read that prices will be likely to be rised in Feb 2009 - now, that would mean it would go beyond the £78 direct-membership I was quoted!

Questions:
Where are you getting a £5.30 premium from?!
Cannons are also doing November for free - so, if I start my policy from 1st Nov, and start my gym membership from 1st Nov, will the free price (and waived joining fee) be reflected?

I can't believe the difference £8 for Covent Garden (a prime central location) compared to £25 for City?! Yikes. What does the City one have that the other London one's don't?! There wasn't a price different between the two clubs, as I've said above, when I was quoted on the website.

[Bargain Rzl]

Hi spork,

First of all I suspect from your figures that you're using some values from the existing pricing structure, which expires at the end of this month. I'd double-check these if I were you.

Where are you getting a £5.30 premium from?!That because I am in the second year of my policy. Last year I was paying £33.53 a month for my premium. Because I was Platinum on renewal, I got the maximum possible discount on this year's premium, and am now paying £5.26 a month plus gym fees. I've explained this in detail further down the message.

I can't believe the difference £8 for Covent Garden (a prime central location) compared to £25 for City?! Yikes. What does the City one have that the other London one's don't?! There wasn't a price different between the two clubs, as I've said above, when I was quoted on the website.
Well, with the Covent Garden one you have the option of single club membership (which is what you would be paying £8 for). There are three levels of membership - Single, Multi Standard and Connections, and these are reflected in the levels available through PruHealth. The City club is only available on Connections membership (which also gives access to all other clubs).

For me, City was the only option - for a start, it's near my office; secondly, I can get there easily at the weekend; thirdly, I had been there on a 1-week trial in the past, and it was the only gym I liked enough to be confident that I'd enjoy going regularly in the long term. If I joined the Covent Garden one instead, it would be a lot cheaper but I know I just wouldn't stick with going there because it's so much less convenient!

Besides simply being a really really nice club (set into the railway arches under Cannon Street station, and the whole place feels really chilled out) the City one has loads more classes than the other Central London branches, so if it's classes you're after, it gives a lot more choice and flexibility. It has 4 fitness studios, for example; the CG one only has 2, so the City one can simply fit a lot more in. The City one also has 2 swimming pools (a lengths pool and an aqua/leisure pool) though in my opinion the one pool at Covent Garden is better for doing lengths than the City one (it's deeper with wider lanes). City branch also has the Retreat, with steam rooms and saunas set round a plunge pool - CG has similar facilities but they are all part of the swimming pool complex, whereas at the City one it's all separate and feels more like a luxury spa. The City club has more changing facilities and enough showers, though IMHO the smaller changing rooms at CG are actually nicer.

However, does that mean I can never get it for free now that they're closing the loophole? Also, I've read that prices will be likely to be rised in Feb 2009 - now, that would mean it would go beyond the £78 direct-membership I was quoted!You will now never get London gym membership free through PruHealth. The minimum you'll pay is £8 for single club membership, once you're on Platinum. (And I'm not sure the figure you've quoted of £50 for the first 3 months still applies under the new structure - I thought it was simply that your pricing drops as soon as you get to Silver, then Gold etc.)

You've got this bit slightly wrong too:
Core plan - £23.55 (non-smoker, 19 years old, female, gym usage at 3+ times a week, hospitals outside of London);
Gym membership with Cannons (single club, standard membership with 25% off for first time/first year user) - £50 for Bronze and £8 for Platinum.
The red bit is relevant to the premium, not the gym membership.

I'm not sure about the gym prices going up in Feb - I hadn't heard this - but if it's roughly in line with inflation I won't mind.

I think you need to read through the thread on the change in the pricing structure (see link below) to ensure you understand whether it's going to be financially worth it for you in the long run. You need to look beyond the first year for the costs really to come plummeting down. If your premium is £23.55 a month this year including your Year 1 25% discount, that means your "basic" premium (used for calculating discounts on next year's premium) is £31.40. Next year, your premium will be adjusted for age and inflation, which assuming a 10% increase would be £31.40+£3.14=£34.54. Now, if you've achieved Platinum by the end of year 1, your Year 2 premium will be discounted 100% of your basic Year 1 premium, so £34.54-£31.40 = £3.14 a month in Year 2. Plus, you retain your Platinum status for the whole of Year 2, so your gym membership is at the lowest level throughout the year. Therefore (assuming no change in the gym pricing) in Year 2 you'd be paying £11.14 a month in total for premium+Covent Garden single club membership, or £28.14 a month in total for premium+all Cannons including City.

Basically you should assume that it WILL be more expensive to begin with, but if you work hard to get to Platinum as soon as possible at the start of your plan, the cost will come down fast - and more importantly, the longer you stick with it, the more savings there are to be had.

Read this thread for discussion and calculations under the new pricing structure. (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1035325)

I hope this helps and hasn't confused you too much!

[spork]

No, you're not confusing! Very helpful in fact! It's just the information that's confusing me.

I spent the best part of the evening reading through the whole thread. I'm very willing to go into Pru, sine the benefits are reaped the long term. I wouldn't want to pay more than £60 for direct membership (and that would only be for Cannons City since it's more like a health club than other gyms where they try and pack as much equipment into a room). I'm also very willing to work as hard as possible to reach platinum - the website says it's still 2000 pts, which seems reasonable. I would have preferred it to have been measured by gym use rather than all of the other business, because I'd like to go around 5 times (cardio, weights and pool), but understand it's better for people who aren't gym bunnies like myself. Some have said that the deal is worse for new members, do you think so?

QUESTIONS:
Should I join after Nov 01 or now (if it doesn't really matter)?
Should I start using the gym straight away, or boost up my points to silver/Gold status and use it from then on?


Also, some have said that they've managed to outset the cost of the first three months of gym + premium costs via Quidco or whatever that site is called. However, it seems to offer only £85 back. Would it still be possible to outset the firt three months via Quidco?

Yes, sorry I wrote the 25% first year off accidentally for the gym membership instead of the premium. Thanks for all of the information. I'm pretty certain my head would have hurt by now if I was trying to work out costs alone!

[Bargain Rzl]

Some have said that the deal is worse for new members, do you think so? Yes, it's generally worse for new members, but only when they are new, if you see what I mean? If you're looking at reaping the rewards in the long term (which you clearly are) then the main thing to remember is that once you're on Platinum you'll be at no disadvantage compared with somebody who's been a member longer.

QUESTIONS:
Should I join after Nov 01 or now (if it doesn't really matter)?
Should I start using the gym straight away, or boost up my points to silver/Gold status and use it from then on?I think somebody's already answered that question for you on the main discussion thread (or if not, they've answered it for somebody else, and the same should apply for you.) I confess I haven't paid much attention to this angle of things, because as I am on Platinum and in my second year, I haven't needed to work it out for my own purposes.

Also, some have said that they've managed to outset the cost of the first three months of gym + premium costs via Quidco or whatever that site is called. However, it seems to offer only £85 back. Would it still be possible to outset the firt three months via Quidco?No, because to do that on £85 your costs for the first 3 months would need to be averaging just over £28 a month, and that's just not possible under the new pricing structure.

Yes, sorry I wrote the 25% first year off accidentally for the gym membership instead of the premium. Thanks for all of the information. I'm pretty certain my head would have hurt by now if I was trying to work out costs alone!

And to return to a point you made earlier:

I can't believe the difference £8 for Covent Garden (a prime central location) compared to £25 for City?! Yikes. What does the City one have that the other London one's don't?! There wasn't a price different between the two clubs, as I've said above, when I was quoted on the website.
I was quite interested in this, as a user of the City club. On the old PruHealth website, before they changed the design and the pricing structure, it made it very clear that City was only available on Cannons Connections membership which gives access to all Cannons clubs (that is, if you selected Cannons City as your preferred gym when going through the quote process, it simply wouldn't then allow you the option of selecting standard single club membership - the only available option was Cannons Connections membership). I agree it doesn't seem to be as clear on the new site, and after what you said, I decided to phone them to ask whether it was still the case that Cannons City membership was not available as a standard single club membership (because if it was, I'd switch to it!) Anyway, in a nutshell, nothing's changed. You still need to be a Cannons Connections member if you're going to use the City club, and you'll therefore incur a minimum (on Platinum) monthly fee of £25.

I know it's a lot more expensive than some of the other gyms available through PruHealth, but it's the only one I've been to that I actually like, and what's more, now I'm on such low premiums due to being Platinum in my second year, it works out cheaper than full membership of my local cruddy council leisure centre ;)

[spork]

Yeah, I phoned too about the City club.

Ah, I meant trying to work out the costs of year 1, year 2 etc - not the cost between the different clubs, if I did and didn't join the gym from the start of health insurance. Ha, a basic calculation could have saved the effort of asking about Quidco. I checked around for other moneyback sies, and they all seem to offer only £85. I also meant that I wasn't prepared to pay in excess of sixty pounds, except for the City club. I should read through what I write.

I had a good chat with a Pruhealth man, albeit the first one I spoke to was actually quite difficult to understand (too quiet, too strong a Scottish accent, too quick!). I've worked out how long it'll take me to get to silver, gold and premium level, without initially using the gym (fitbug), so I'm officially on board. :)