Pruhealth gym loophole Article Discussion

cptncanary

TooNice wrote: »

How much do personal trainers charge their clients on average?
I would like to get a personal trainer, but the £40-50 per hour quote I got from Cannons is a hard pill to swallow. Not sure if it's the going rate in London to be expected in all those big chains.

I believe that the rates can be anywhere between £30 to £60. My guy was fully worth the £50 per session, as he really sorted out my mechanical weaknesses.

QQuaver

bachgammon wrote: »

Only visits to the gym where you haven’t taken part in exercise will be counted for usage at the gym.

Can't believe I missed that!:rotfl:

TooNice_2

Lol. Has anyone compared LA Gym and Cannons? Or do they vary hugely from branch to branch?

StuHolmes

TooNice wrote: »

Lol. Has anyone compared LA Gym and Cannons? Or do they vary hugely from branch to branch?

I tried Cannons in Byfleet and thought it was OK but the actual gym area was a bit small. I then tried LA Fitness in Woking and although the gym area was much bigger, I hated it. Horrible loud atmosphere, in your face staff hassling everyone to join this class and that and parking was awful.

I will be joining Cannons!

TooNice_2

Thanks. I've read quite a lot of horror stories involving LA Fitness. Which is a shame. I like the fact that you can see the profile of their trainers here: http://www.trainerregister.com/ though I am not sure if it really means anything.

punkypickle

Ok Guys and Girls,

I'm thinking about joining Pruhealth via Boots Health Insurance but I have a couple of questions for you

1) Do you get the same offers through Boots Pruhealth...in particular Eurostar, Cineworld and Mark Warner

2) If I get a fitbug, do you have to pay extra for it on renewal of your policy (on it's website it's £84 for first year then £9 a month)

3) With the Fitbug, do you have to upload it every day or can you just do it once a week (I have a mac which it doesn't work on so I'll have to upload it at work)

4) when I reach Gold status, I plan on joining Virgin Active. Does the activity count swimming or fitness classes or only gym use....also how do they tell? Do you have to swip to get into the pool/classes?


Hope someone with the Boots policy can help me out, I'm thinking of joining Sept 1st but need to know these things first....I've been a swat and worked out exactly how to reach Platinium status for someone who is realistic about how many times they will actually use the gym and fitbug! I will post up my plan soon to help other newbies.

TooNice_2

I've visited one Virgin Active before, and I only saw one place to swip at the entrance.
Your other questions have been answered on the other thread, so I'll just add that the Fitbug costs £15 in the first year (and I'd be surprised if they start charging in year 2).

TooNice_2

This might sound silly but.. do they have a landline number? Mobile phone networks all seem to charge 0800 numbers and I intend to make an in depth enquiry regarding health insurance and the deal.

nickelodeon

I've noticed that on the Pruhealth gym lophole article Martin says the new scheme probably won't be worth it for most people. This may be true for the first year, but if you are planning on keeping the health insurance for more than a year it is definitely worth it, as there are huge savings to be made.

Thought I'd let you know how I've got on as an example.

I got pru health insurance and joined cannons gym in Sept 2007.
I paid the following:
Health Insurance Premium: £26.87 x 12 = £322.44
Gym membership for first 3 months: £25 x 3 = £75
Registration fee: £25
Total: £422.44
This is £35.20 per month for gym membership that would have cost me about £60 per month, so in the first year I have saved nearly £300!

I have just had my renewal premium, which is ......£3.87 per month!!
I have reached platinum status so will also receive free gym membership for the next year. This means in the second year I will save £673.56 on gym membership and have very cheap health insurance!

This is only possible by reaching platinum status which will give you free gym membership and a big discount on next years premium. My premium for next year would have been £507.25, but I got a vitality reward of £460.80 making it only £46.44 for the whole year!

I know with the new scheme the first year will be more expensive and you may not save any money, but if you are planning on sticking with it for more than I year I think you can save so much money in the second and future years that it is worth it!

I managed to get to platinum status quite easily after about 6 months and would hope to do the same again this year. I found it quite annoying having to get the correct number of gym visits in, I do usually go twice a week, but with holidays and days off sick I would find I'd have to go 3 or 4 times a week to get enough, therefore I think getting the vitality points will be an easier way to get free gym membership.
Also as others haven't pointed out above it is possible for get to platinum status in less than 6 months!

Hope this helps someone!

cptncanary

TooNice wrote: »

This might sound silly but.. do they have a landline number? Mobile phone networks all seem to charge 0800 numbers and I intend to make an in depth enquiry regarding health insurance and the deal.

You could try 02073659503. This is from http://www.saynoto0870.com/companysearch.php :beer: