Pruhealth scrapping its free/discounted gym loophole in November. Discussion

rozeepozee

I had my letter this month and was hoping I'd find out a way round the change from reading here but, sadly, no.... My current costs are £5 per month health insurance and £8/month gym. I don't use the health insurance at all and don't know (but assume) my gym membership (Virgin) would cost me in excess of £50 per month. I gain most of my points from fitbug and some from going to the gym topped up by reading articles, fitness assessments etc. I've saved way in excess of £1000 over 3 years.

I'm a little surprised at how outraged people are by the change however. I always wondered how Pru were making this profitable, they are a business after all, not a health charity. Even with the reduced discount, I think this will still make this the cheapest gym option for me and I've a toddler and Virgin membership for him is £12 which gives me up to 2 hours free childcare a day for him - that seems like a fantastic deal really.

I'd like to know what else is changing. I wanted to do a Nuffield Health assessment (£75 reduced from £400 with my platinum status). Have they gone? And I was also hoping to sneak in a cheap stay at a spa (£35/night reduced from £200) before my twins arrive next year.

Does anyone have the lowdown on what other incentives will be lost?

TIA

Musicman

I am waiting to see what the final details of the changes are, which I assume we will not know until next week, when the renewal letters go out for people that have to renew in early January.

Until then, there can only be speculation.

sacherlover

Musicman wrote: »

I am waiting to see what the final details of the changes are, which I assume we will not know until next week, when the renewal letters go out for people that have to renew in early January.

Until then, there can only be speculation.

Go to the Pruhealth gym loophole Article Discussion thread and search for post #1470. All the details have been there for some weeks.

It's not good.

west12_2

In response to MoneyDummy83, the new price for the Classic Club membership is now £102 (this includes the 25% discount!), bascially it's hardly a generous discount on a 'normal' VA diamond membership.

On the other changes, as the poster above cites, the Eurostar, Champneys, Cineworld etc are all still there and with the same rates (as far as is known) but health screen prices are increasing massively to a flat 50% off retail - eg a few hundred pounds now rather than £40-50.

Renewal discounts are also worsening, no longer 100% off etc. Basically there's very little poisitve to it

fartington

^^ someone was asking how to get round the changes, well you cant if you want to use the gym, but another option would be to keep your gold or platinum status and low health insurance premiums by doing all the things that dont require the gym to get points, eg. fit bug (which you pay for somewhat), a free health check or fitness test at the gym (without being a member) , all the other things like dental 100 points, flu jab, carry over points from last year (for platinum its 20% I think), all the online ntition and meal plan stuff, it should tally up to the points needed.......

sacherlover

fartington wrote: »

^^ someone was asking how to get round the changes, well you cant if you want to use the gym, but another option would be to keep your gold or platinum status and low health insurance premiums by doing all the things that dont require the gym to get points, eg. fit bug (which you pay for somewhat), a free health check or fitness test at the gym (without being a member) , all the other things like dental 100 points, flu jab, carry over points from last year (for platinum its 20% I think), all the online ntition and meal plan stuff, it should tally up to the points needed.......

Sorry to disappoint you. I have gone through the document about the changes in details.

Firstly, Platinum status will be 2,400 - not 2,000 at present

You will only be able to carry over 10% points maximum

Many of the things that currently attract points are being withdrawn - a big loss is that you will no longer get 300 points for going for a Fitness Assessment - you will only get points for maintaining or improving blood pressure, fitness levels etc.

If, despite all these changes, you still manage to get 2,400 points you will get 25% off last year's premium as No Claims Discount and 35% as Cashback. Therefore Platinum status members will see a significant increase in their premiums as well as paying a lot more for both Gym membership and Health Screens.

It will have a big impact on many Pru members.

QQuaver

sacherlover wrote: »

If, despite all these changes, you still manage to get 2,400 points you will get 25% off last year's premium as No Claims Discount and 35% as Cashback.

Does that effectively mean 60% off?

healthcare_guru

sacherlover wrote: »

Sorry to disappoint you. I have gone through the document about the changes in details.

Many of the things that currently attract points are being withdrawn - a big loss is that you will no longer get 300 points for going for a Fitness Assessment - you will only get points for maintaining or improving blood pressure, fitness levels etc.

Not quite. You clearly didn't look closely at the detail. When you go for a Free Fitness Assessment you have certain things measured: blood pressure, Body Mass Index, fitness levels. You can earn up to 120 points for getting each one of these measured and being healthy, so no 300 points are not available, 360 are. You'll also get up to 120 points for having your glucose and/or cholesterol measured etc, you now get 200 points for being a non-smoker (used to be 150), you'll get 100 points for a dental check up which never used to happen and they've done away with the 1,500 category limit for excercise - meaning you'll get many more points!

healthcare_guru

QQuaver wrote: »

Does that effectively mean 60% off?

No. Again sacherlover didn't really read the detail that well. You'll get up to 35% no claims discount and on top you'll get a number of months worth of free cover depending on your Vitality status. If you finish the year on Silver you get one month of last years premium back, Gold is 2 and Platinum is 3 months worth of last year's premiums back. This is on top of the NCD.

Hope this helps

west12_2

healthcare_guru wrote: »

they've done away with the 1,500 category limit for excercise - meaning you'll get many more points!

Is this spin? As I understand it (for PruProtect at least) there is now a limit on exercise to four sessions a week that gain points. If that's correct this would effectively maintain a category limit, although a slightly higher one of 2080 (but more restrictive upon timings).