Pruhealth gym loophole Article Discussion

QQuaver

brown615 wrote: »

She said that they are having problems with the website to it's best to call them up every few months to see how you're doing in terms of gym visits.

So, if the website says something like this, target visits required is NOT 26 but 31;) (107 divided by 3.5)

brown615

Basically just ignore the website and give them a call if in any doubt. This is what it says in the letter they've sent out to me.

As discussed, we are experiencing technical difficulties with our gym usage calculator on our website and the information about your usage is not correct.

I'm quite chuffed as I should reach platinum before renewal which means my insurance premium should be around £4 a month from renewal. Add that to the £15 a month Virgin Active tier 2 regular user premium and that's still only £19 a month to use a really nice gym! :beer:

camaj

burnoutbabe wrote: »

it says you can get 150 points for not smoking, but max for this is 200 points, so whats the missing 50 for?

There should be a PDF detailing all the things you can earn points for, and it's in your welcome pack too. Off the top of my head it looks like 200 points is the max for the smoking category so you may be able to reach 200 points by filling in the non-smoker declaration or attending an allan Carr session. Just look at the points you can earn in the smoking category and you should get the hang of it

Iom-rf

No Gym's near me, annoying!

burnoutbabe

camaj wrote: »

There should be a PDF detailing all the things you can earn points for, and it's in your welcome pack too. Off the top of my head it looks like 200 points is the max for the smoking category so you may be able to reach 200 points by filling in the non-smoker declaration or attending an allan Carr session. Just look at the points you can earn in the smoking category and you should get the hang of it

it was the pdf i was using. definatly if you are healthy, you can only get 150 for not smoking or giving up, and the max is 200. weird.

Anyway, up to 420 now and not even got the gym joining and fitness assessments in there as well. sure i will get to 2000 no issues in the year

camaj

Are you looking at the right PDF? There's a few of them. I'm pretty sure it makes sense because I was confused at first but I eventually worked it out.

CraigZ

burnoutbabe wrote: »

it was the pdf i was using. definatly if you are healthy, you can only get 150 for not smoking or giving up, and the max is 200. weird.

Anyway, up to 420 now and not even got the gym joining and fitness assessments in there as well. sure i will get to 2000 no issues in the year

You get the extra 50 if you've got a chronic condition and are getting VitalityMed points for treating it. See post 340.

Smarty_pants

First of all apologies if I've submitted this in the incorrect posts, and if the answer is somewhere else in this thread. I have two queries:

I signed up (and included my daughter) with Pru Health and Virgin Active at the end of July but due to her being busy with Uni and my not getting down there often, I'm shelling out all this cash for the health policy and the gym. Can I cancel my Pruhealth and/or virgin active membership without incurring costs?

Also, my niece joined virgin active (not through any promotion) and within the month of joining her circumstances changed and she moved away from the gym and could not longer afford the membership. She called them to cancel and they told her that she would have to pay £200 cancellation fee. She is living in student accomm and doesn't have the money. Does she have any way around this?

I realise that Virgin never provided us with any terms and conditions when we joined, as we had to sign the paperwork there and then so am unable to check the small print.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Kat2

Hello,

Please can someone help with the above query...

I joined Pru Health in February 2007 & got 6 months' free membership of the local Cannons (I was alreday a member so converted).

The free membership expired in July 2007. Unfortunately I didn't track it very well because my Mum had just been diagnosed with Cancer & with Dad being in a care home I was somewhat preoccupied.

Pru Health say they wrote to me before my gym membership was due to expire telling me I had 30 days to renew or it would be cancelled. I did not receive this letter.

I continued to get letters from Pru Health re: Vitality and the new gym chargin structure, but because I was too busy looking after Mum I didn't even have time to go to the gym anyway. I probably should have checked my direct debits & noticed that Pru Health were not charging me £25 a month for the gym but I didn't......

I went back to the gym in October & after a few successful visits, it flagged up on the Cannons screen that my membership was cancelled. Annoyed, I called Pru Health, who were most discourteous, quoting the book at me & told me they'd get back to me in 5 days with a reply.

I was then away with work so another week & missed their call so another week went by before i could speak to Pru Health again. They told me I'd have to pay them £25 to reactivate the membership as too much time had passed & I should have told them earlier I wanted to reactivate. I was all set to reactivate when they quoted I'd be tied to a 12-month contract with Cannons. Apparently their terms & conditions changed on 1st July. I don't want to do this because I'm currently trying to move house & don't know where we'll be moving to, or whether there'll be a Cannons anywhere near.
So I complained to Pru-Health, cancelled the reactivation & they told me it would be 5 days for someone to call me back (again).

Cannons were really nice about it, told me I could use the gym until it was sorted out with Pru Health & that they were quite happy for Pru-Health not to tie me in for 12 months. They also gave me a copy of the Terms & Conditions.

So Pru Health just phoned me back & despite escalation, said it was too late to treat this as a reactivation. I had a long argument with the guy on the phone who was just quoting the book at me.

Anyhow, I think I might have discovered a loophole in the terms & conditions & wanted some advice from others on this board. T&C state the following definitions:

Existing Gym Member: any member under a PruHealth policy that holds a Gym Membership at 30 June 2007 (I did - so this is me - it says nothing about holding a gym membership now).

New Gym Member: any member under a PruHealth Policy, other than an Existing Gym Member, who after 30 June 2007 applies for, and subsequently holds, a Gym Membership (so this can't be me, as I'm an 'Existing Gym Member').

The T&Cs then state: Upon the expiry of the Initial Term of you Gym Membership (so this would refer to the original T&Cs when I took the membership out in February 2007 - I don't believe there was an Initial Term but I do not have a copy of these Terms & Conditions unforunately - does anyone here?), your Gym Membership shall automatically continue in force for subsequent and consecutive one month periods until you motify PruHealth that you wish to cancel your Gym Membership.

Therefore, I have concluded that they cannot enforce the 12-month contract period, as technically under the T&C's I am still classed as an 'Exsiting Gym Member'.

I am thinking about reactivating the gym membership on this basis - but before I do so, I'd be interested to know others' comments as to whether I am legally in the right. If I do move & need to cancel, I plan on simply cancelling my Pru-Health policy - but will throw the book at Pru Health if they question it. It is obviously not how the T&Cs are meant to be read, however I'm pretty sure that legally I could prove I should not be tied in for 12 months.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

sandy49

Dear all,

i'm trying to join virgin active via pruhealth and quico. could any one give me some advice how to get it free (loophole) or best deal please

thanks in advance