MSE News: Final nail in PruHealth's free gym offer

paul.jacobs

QQuaver wrote: »

£4.50 a month for my pru? When is your renewal? Sounds like you got 100% discount from last years premium. I thought they a discontinuing that

Is your gym Nuffield?

Renewel is in 2 months for me, yet to find out the premium - yes 100% discount and it is nuffield. The new nufffield premium has a 25% discount and works out at £37ish.

Here is a breakdown of my costs for the past 3 years
Year 1 - 12 months premium at £22, 6 months free gym membership followed by 6 months at £20 a month - total cost - £384
Year 2 - pru premium £3.50/m - free gym - total £42
Year 3 - pru premium £4.50/m - free gym - total £54

Maintained platinum throughout, average monthy cost over the 3 years - £13

pendulum666

The first year I was with Pru Health through my work as health insurance I took up the gym offer and went with LA Fitness. I had to go on average at least twice a week over a month to get it for a highly discounted price. I think around £10 per month.

Next year they changed it all by basing it on vitality status, which annoyed a lot of people as they had to gain enough points to maintain the discounts. Luckily for me I managed to, and then consequently got the whole year at £14 per month (could have been £8 if I got to platinum). I just phoned them up yesterday to check if I could do this for another year in April when I renew, and the cost will rise to a whopping £35+ per month. Over a 100% increase for me. (25% flat rate off a standard costing membership) This is a nice way to treat their customers isn't it? They underestimated the amount of take up this offer would have the first year, and the second year, and have paid for this financially so give us some BS excuse to basically write the unprofitable offer off and give a new "flat rate" cost.

It reeks of an unprofessional company that - as said above - goes against it's whole ethos of staying healthy with the changes. It sucked a load of customers in for the first year or two and then thinks changing to a flat rate will still keep it's customer base. No. I can see more major losses for the company this year. I have written to my company to ask them to move to a different health care provider.

healthcare_guru

pendulum666 wrote: »

I have written to my company to ask them to move to a different health care provider.

Which insurer would you suggest your company moves to to provide you with a better deal?

rozeepozee

rozeepozee wrote: »

Hi, I'm a platinum member and although I don't get free gym membership at Virgin, I do get it for £7/mth with my Pru subs being £8/mth. I'm on the most basic of policies as I subscribe to help motivate me to keep healthy/exercise. I've never made a claim. I go to the gym regularly and also used Fitbug a lot in the past (though hardly at all atm as I'm pregnant with twins so have replaced my regular walking with swimming at the gym).

My question is can I/should I claim for my pregnancy (I wasn't going to before the changes because i didn't want to lose my no claims status). I think I get a payout on pregnancy (?£100). Now the benefits of platinum membership aren't so great is it worth me claiming for this which would offset the increase in my fees next year? My membership is up for renewal end of August and the twins are due early May.

TIA

Can anyone help with this please?

Well_Really

[FONT=&quot]I think this is essentially an exercise in bad faith from PruHealth and depending how they exactly they implement the changes ther could be a case for appealing to the ombudsman. For its not just the gym membership but the whole way in which you can build up vitality points and the reductions in premium that you are entitled to which is only available on their web site.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]My gym membership will now increase from £8 per month to the 'discounted' £55.50 - but my gym tells me that if I join directly it will only cost me £45 - but then I can't earn Vitality points!

[/FONT]I also see from their web site that they are changing everything this year - you will need to get more vitality points now for platinum status. And I think they may also be changing the renewal discounts to a maximum of 50% but my renewal is due in 2 months and I have had no notification of any change.

It seems monkeyphil has come to the same conclusion.

When I joined Pru their insurance was much more pricy than my then current health policy - but because of the gym offer it worked out cheaper overall for me - now I need to look elsewhere.
Frankly I think Pru wished they had never introduced this scheme and they are relying on the usual inertia of customers.

POSSIBLE ACTIONS
1. Look elsewhere

2. If everyone complains, then they will be snowed under - They then won't then be able to meet their 48 hrs service standard for replies. So then you can jformally complain further mal-administration and use the formal complaints procedure which means a lot of work for them especially as it eventually leads up to the the Ombudsman. If enough people do it well just imagine..... they might even get the message!

Additional Info

Phoned Retentions (South African call centre) - Told the renewal premium for 2010 will be on the old basis but UNABLE to tell me what the maximum discount I could get at the 2011 renewal - however reading their public web pages it looks like 35% for no claims and 3 months(25%) for vitality platinum status which I reckon is a total 55% max discount.

Well Standard Life will give me a 65% no claims discount and no strings attached. And if the gymn membership is costing me more why bother with vitality points?


[FONT=&quot]Pru Email service down 27 Jan 1300 - May be just a clitch. I went in to cancel my gym membership to find Pru email service unavailable - Too many complaints?
[/FONT]

samkn22

I was stunned to receive the letter changing the policy so significantly. Like others, I was a Platinum member so my policy was really cheap and the gym was only £8 per month. It's now over £63 per month and because I didn't hit the gym so much in the last 4 months due to being pregnant, I've not managed to reach a decent level for my renewal this year.
I called Nuffield to see what their normal fee would be per month to see the difference and they're offering a cheaper deal for ex-Pru gym members of £45 per month. I know it's not as good as £8 but as that's not going to be an option for the future, it's not too bad in my book.
I did call Pru about the changes (as did a colleague who was equally disgruntled) and they seemed to care very little that I was going to leave as a result.
My decision is that I'm going to go with someone else now even though it doesn't have the same sort of incentive scheme as it really doesn't feel like Pru is the same company/policy provider that it was. Disappointing really.

healthcare_guru

Phoned Retentions (South African call centre) - Told the renewal premium for 2010 will be on the old basis but UNABLE to tell me what the maximum discount I could get at the 2011 renewal - however reading their public web pages it looks like 35% for no claims and 3 months(25%) for vitality platinum status which I reckon is a total 55% max discount.

Well Standard Life will give me a 65% no claims discount and no strings attached.


It's likely they were unable to tell you the maximum discount you can get for your 2011 premium as it depends on your claims and Vitality status. They don't have a crystal ball you know!!

As far as I understand, you will get up to 30% NCD next year and 25% for Vitality engagement, so 55% is correct. Standard Life may give you 65%, I know of an insurer who will give you up to 78% NCD, but percentages mean nothing unless you know your base rate. 99% NCD sounds great, but if your rate to start with is astronomical, it's no better than 55% off a cheaper rate.

Remember, the larger the No Claims Discount is, the larger your increase will be the following year should you claim (when you lose that NCD), so the size of the NCD is somewhat immaterial.

simondup

I received my renewal info this morning. The new Vitality and rewards are a bit disappointing. I work quite hard to get my platinum membership every year and they have made that harder to achieve for me and reduced the rewards.

I use a heart rate monitor and for me to get 10 points I have to work out for over an hour now with a lowish heart rate (60%). In the past it was 30min at 70% average heart rate for 10points or 30min at 60% heart rate for 5 points.

People go to the gym and just for swiping in get 10 points, I can't lie with a heart rate monitor.

I don't think I will be renewing for 2011 as the vitality rewards and just not worth it any more.

Thanks
Simon

brownbabygirl

When I cancelled my direct debit they called me a few weeks later to get me to change my mind and i told them no because i could not trust them not to change the terms again and that the new terms were ridiculous. they have now gone ahead and taken a new DD of over £20 from my bank account! i immediately called them and they say they will refund. i also spoke to my bank and told them not to issue any more money to pru as i have cancelled with them and also the original direct debit. THIEVES!

fartington

so can anyone clarify, Im on platinum status, if I stay with pru for healthcare but quit the gym and go for fitbug, what other ways can one get points, apart from fitbug, what about the health screens are they available for non-gym members?