Pruhealth gym loophole Article Discussion

clairet707

The_silver_surfer wrote: »

Pruhealth update:

Apparently it has been decided very recently by Pruhealth that they accept some people have been unintentionally 'misdirected'.

Those people who joined between 1/1/2009 and 17/7/2009 and then took out gym membership are to be offered the pre 1/1/10 changes gym and insurance premium rates for another year. So until their 2011 renewal dates.

Why just these people i am not yet sure and i am waiting on pruhealth to inform me, i'm guessing that its because thats when they ran the 'Why pay for the gym' advertising campaign. But this is just a guess.

I am still waiting for all of this in writting as its just been confirmed verbally to me thus far.

Has anyone had this confirmed yet?

Ive just had my renewal gumpf through today (renewal date 12/05/10) for my first years renewal and it doesnt mention the continued reduced benefits, but it does mention the flat rate 25% discount.. Im currently paying £8 a month for Virgin and my insurance premium has just gone up from £38 to £55 as I had to make a claim, cant really afford for the gym to go up as well if the above is not the case...

clairet707

clairet707 wrote: »

Has anyone had this confirmed yet?

Ive just had my renewal gumpf through today (renewal date 12/05/10) for my first years renewal and it doesnt mention the continued reduced benefits, but it does mention the flat rate 25% discount.. Im currently paying £8 a month for Virgin and my insurance premium has just gone up from £38 to £55 as I had to make a claim, cant really afford for the gym to go up as well if the above is not the case...

Please can Silver surfer or someone else similar confirm or deny this?

Im speaking to pruhealth at the moment who seem to think my virgin membership will be £60 something - 25% = £45 as of the 12/5/10 not the £8 I am paying now

clairet707

Well apparently I am a misdirected customer (what ever that means) and I will be getting my gym membership at the current rate of £8 until renewal 2011..

Though I wont be getting written confirmation of this - all I have is a reference number!

QQuaver

clairet707 wrote: »

Well apparently I am a misdirected customer (what ever that means) and I will be getting my gym membership at the current rate of £8 until renewal 2011..

Though I wont be getting written confirmation of this - all I have is a reference number!

How did you do this? Or was it just luck?

clairet707

Phoned them up and said 'my friend' (ie caroline1973lefty) had got confirmation that she was going to get pre Jan 10 changes to her gym membership but I hadnt - how come?

And they came back with the misdirected customer bit

The_silver_surfer

clairet707 wrote: »

Phoned them up and said 'my friend' (ie caroline1973lefty) had got confirmation that she was going to get pre Jan 10 changes to her gym membership but I hadnt - how come?

And they came back with the misdirected customer bit

Seems like this is worth a try for anyone renewing. Most of my clients who are currently renewing are getting the extended deal due to being 'misdirected'.

Happychappy

Hi

Any advice on how quickly to get from Bronze or lead status to something higher, I was with Pru last year after 12 years no claims with Norwich Union and didnt claim last year but subs went up nearly 20%, I am now on bronze again and this time really mean to do something to get up the ladder but know I will have to make a claim sometime this year? so need to start on how to reduce. Thanks

QQuaver

1.Get a Fitbug (on Vitality section on their website), and do more than 12500 steps a day for 15days/month
2.Do Fitness assessments twice a year
3.Read 3 articles a month on Vitality section
4.Do stress test twice a year on Vitality section
5.Declare non-smoker if you are;)

Instead of Fitbug, you could go to the affiliated gym instead, but it is costly.

HTH

Q

davecon1

I've just the delight of seeing the new PruHealth terms and I'm not happy to say the least.

After having a nightmare over a claim with AXA a couple of years ago I decided to join PruHealth to take advantage of their gym membership discounts and vitality partner schemes.

Originally my premium was £64 per month for the premium cover which was comparable to AXA except the benefits appeared much better. I soon reached platinum status, joined Canons for free and took advantage of 40% a couple of Mar Warner holidays. Life was good and it got even better when my new policy came in at £12 per month last June!

Last week I was sent details of my new policy and it has risen to £37 per month. £11 of this is due to a claim i made last year of £130 and the balance is down to 'age inflation' and annual medical inflation. By my calculation the administration charges have more than doubled with no real explanation.

I could have just about swallowed this increase until i saw the new terms and conditions whereby you just get a 25% discount on your gym membership, you have to earn 2400 points for platinum status (but only can carry forward 10% of your points from the previous year), you only get 50% off health screens and the worst part is that they are scrapping the 25,50,75 and 100% discount on the policy for a rubbish 3 month cashback. Apparently you can still get a no claims discount of up to 30% but this is not clear. The only saving grace I can see is that you will still get the excellent vitality reward scheme partnerships with Mark Warner an Eurostar.

Instead of looking forward to my premium being lower next year it's going to cost me at least £60 per month again and the gym would cost around the same. Either way I now have to consider whether it's worth staying on given these huge increases.

Judging from what I've read on the forum there are hundreds of people in my position who will be worse off as a result of this change. The worst part is that i persuaded friends and family to join up this year with the goal of reaching platinum but now they will not benefit at all.

In my mind Pru Health have reneged on their original offer of free gym membership and it looks as if it will be time to leave next year. Meanwhile I intend to set up a facebook protest page- watch this space and feel free to join.

healthcare_guru

davecon1 wrote: »

I've just the delight of seeing the new PruHealth terms and I'm not happy to say the least.

After having a nightmare over a claim with AXA a couple of years ago I decided to join PruHealth to take advantage of their gym membership discounts and vitality partner schemes.

Originally my premium was £64 per month for the premium cover which was comparable to AXA except the benefits appeared much better. I soon reached platinum status, joined Canons for free and took advantage of 40% a couple of Mar Warner holidays. Life was good and it got even better when my new policy came in at £12 per month last June!

Last week I was sent details of my new policy and it has risen to £37 per month. £11 of this is due to a claim i made last year of £130 and the balance is down to 'age inflation' and annual medical inflation. By my calculation the administration charges have more than doubled with no real explanation.

I could have just about swallowed this increase until i saw the new terms and conditions whereby you just get a 25% discount on your gym membership, you have to earn 2400 points for platinum status (but only can carry forward 10% of your points from the previous year), you only get 50% off health screens and the worst part is that they are scrapping the 25,50,75 and 100% discount on the policy for a rubbish 3 month cashback. Apparently you can still get a no claims discount of up to 30% but this is not clear. The only saving grace I can see is that you will still get the excellent vitality reward scheme partnerships with Mark Warner an Eurostar.

Instead of looking forward to my premium being lower next year it's going to cost me at least £60 per month again and the gym would cost around the same. Either way I now have to consider whether it's worth staying on given these huge increases.

Judging from what I've read on the forum there are hundreds of people in my position who will be worse off as a result of this change. The worst part is that i persuaded friends and family to join up this year with the goal of reaching platinum but now they will not benefit at all.

In my mind Pru Health have reneged on their original offer of free gym membership and it looks as if it will be time to leave next year. Meanwhile I intend to set up a facebook protest page- watch this space and feel free to join.

I can understand your frustration but PruHealth have not reneged on their original offer as they are rightly allowed to change the terms & conditions of their offer with the correct amount of notice and at your renewal etc.

It looks to me like you do value your health insurance (you've claimed afterall, from AXA, and you've used the 40% off Mark Warner, gym and other benefits with Pru), so health insurance is probably worth keeping. What you have to consider is which provider, and while I understand where you're coming from, I believe PruHealth still offers the best cover in the market for what is now an appropriate price. It was probably too cheap before, but as you say your new premium of £60/month is still a little less than your old AXA premium (and that was some years ago remember), you also then get 3 months free, and you get to benefit from the Mark Warner, Eurostar and 25% off the gym.

I agree the benefits have changed and maybe they are not as good as they were, but I would argue that they still offer the best value for money out of all the insurers.