PruHealth Life Insurance 2013

Deru

I just got my annual anniversary letter from Pru and was thinking that the Vitality programme, besides giving you some motivation to excercise, doesn't give you much in return?

I have Life cover (£7.79) and Serious Illness Cover (£22.73) totaling £30.52 at GOLD Vitality status. (29 YO male). Looking at their table of premiums...

Bronze: £30.99
Silver: £30.68
Gold: £30.52 (mine)
Platinum: £30.06

So...spending money on Gym, health checks, Fitbug, Polar Heart rate has given me a premium discount of 47p? :rotfl: I was thinking it would be a few quid at least.



Asking and shopping around, their 50% off on Virgin Active, doesn't really save me anything as there are cheaper gyms out there. LA Fitness lie and say they're giving you a discount when you're paying roughly what everyone else is. I'm in contract with them until October.

I've searched the forums already and found some interesting info on how great benefits were withdrawn in 2010/2011 but wanted some info and opinions.

So, a few questions....

Anyone else here use Pru currently and make good use of the Vitality programme? Any real benefit?

Can I only cancel each year or can I do it any month?

For those who've switched away, where did you go?

Thanks.

weighty1_2

Whilst the Vitality programme is there to incentivize policyholders to remain active and eating healthily etc etc let's not forget, you also have an excellent protection plan in place in the form of the serious illness cover. It's completely unique in how it is structured and is difficult to compare with anything else on the market.

Also, depending on whether you have a minimum protected account on the serious illness cover you can claim multiple times, making the plan even more valuable.

Personally, I'd be inclined to see if you can cancel the Vitality element of the plan and keep the protection side of things running

richyboy

I used to work for PruProtect so know a little about Vitality. I picked your post up because I still have google alerts for PruProtect.

There are 2 levels - Vitality (which is free) and Vitality+ (which was £6.50 a month when I left, think it may have gone up a touch though).

With Vitality you din't get cheap gym membership but do get fairly good discounts off things like SweatShop (50%), Polar watches (50%), FitBugs (can't remember!), various heathscreens (50%), Champneys breaks (75%) and Allen Carr Stop Smoking (50%) plus a few others. It doesn't exactly save you money unless yo u use these firms already but maybe makes getting healthy cheaper? Amyway - it's free!

Vitality + is the one you pay for and is improving. Every named person on the policy gets a free cinema ticket once a week, we are a family of four and tend to go to the cinema twice a month so that saves us about £50 or so. Every member can also save up to £500 off a new bike through Evans (the actual amount depends if you're bronze, silver, gold etc), half price off Virgin gyms, maybe up to 50% off holidays, a third off Ticket!aster and a few more. We have health and life cover through Pru and with our "savings" it's probably free. If you don't make use of any of the benefits here it's a waste of money so worth working out.

Not sure if that helps? Hope so.

Richy

Deru

weighty1 wrote: »

Also, depending on whether you have a minimum protected account on the serious illness cover you can claim multiple times, making the plan even more valuable.

Personally, I'd be inclined to see if you can cancel the Vitality element of the plan and keep the protection side of things running

I do like the idea of the Vitality programme but was hoping it actually gave you a proper discount on the premiums. Less than £1 discount just seems pointless. The other things like health checks and Fitbugs as mentioned by richyboy are there also, which I've been using but again, as they have the Vitality programme, they should be giving better incentives for good results, which I read people used to get. i.e. much bigger discounts on premiums and (almost?) free gym access.

It's a free and just something that's included as I don't have Vitality+ so no need to cancel that part of it. Losing it wouldn't do me any favours while I'm with Pru but I was thinking I could get the same cover for less elsewhere.

Whilst the Vitality programme is there to incentivize policyholders to remain active and eating healthily etc etc let's not forget, you also have an excellent protection plan in place in the form of the serious illness cover. It's completely unique in how it is structured and is difficult to compare with anything else on the market.

The Vitality programme may be unique but I'm looking at it from a cost saving point of view. Is it unique in terms of cover compared to other providers?

weighty1_2

Deru wrote: »

The Vitality programme may be unique but I'm looking at it from a cost saving point of view. Is it unique in terms of cover compared to other providers?

I actually meant that the serious illness cover in itself is completely unique.

Most critical illness plans are arranged on an all or nothing basis. If you are diagnosed with one of the conditions listed and it's of a severity which warrants a claim you get a full payout. If it's not severe enough, or it's a condition which isn't on the list and doesn't totally and permanently disable you then you get nothing.

With PruProtect the plan is structured so that conditions which are the most serious then you will get the full payout but for less severe conditions you can still receive a payout of 75%, 50%, 25%, 15%* or even 10%* (*if you have comprehensive cover).

It is a completely unique policy (to this degree anyway) and is priced at the top end of the market. You will likely find numerous policy which are cheaper, especially if you have a minimum protected account and comprehensive cover, however, whether they are worth the saving you will make is very much dependent on whether you wish to lose the potential for a claim for a less serious condition.

There are alternatives which may be more suitable though. Considering life cover alongside a long term income protection plan may be more appropriate, however, before you cancel anything I'd strongly recommend you speak to either a protection specialist or an IFA who writes a lot of insurance plans and has a good knowledge of the market.