Pruhealth gym loophole Article Discussion

MrsX_2

Hi all, I'm finding all this very confusing. I just got a quote from pruhealth which was £49.00, and reading the comments here and the article it seems that I would have to pay anything upto £25 for the gym (virgin active). So I can't really see where the savings are?

Can anyone help me work it all out? I'm a 35 year old non smoker, how can I do this cheaper?

punkypickle

If you read through the previous posts you will find that Pruhealth recently changed their scheme. You need to aim to reach Platinum status as quickly as possible to achieve free gym membership. If you look a few pages back you will see I posted my plan of action to do this. But really you have to work out if it's for you or not. The first year is quite expensive but depending that you reach platinum before your renewal date in a years time and Pruhealth don't change their scheme, the next year could mean that you pay a few quid each month for your insurance, and get free gym (depending on which gym you use-£15 quid for Virgin Active in my area which is usually £65 a month)

MrsX_2

Thanks punkypickle, so it is the premium for the insurance that decreases, rather than the charge for the gym membership.

So I need to add on my membership fee, to the insurance premium.

How do I work out what the membership fee will be for sheffield virgin active? Also, how would it work if I wanted to add membership for my five year old?

punkypickle

Well the premium decreases after a year, but your gym memberships changes to reflect what Vitality Status you are...

0 points=bronze
1000= silver
1500= gold
2000= platinum

(this is all for a single premium not a joint one)

Points are collected by completing questionaires on the Pruhealth Member Zone once you sign up...and by doing health checks, using a fitbug, shopping at Sainsburys etc (all this info can be found on the Pruhealth website)

If you go to the link where it says find your gym, you should see the pricing levels for the different points.

But I'm not sure about adding your child, you would need to talk to pruhealth about that!

punkypickle

I had a complete nightmare yesterday...went to Virgin Active for my free health assessment (for the second time after checking with Doc that my blood pressure was ok)

When I got there, I was told that I had to be a member of the gym for get a free fitness test which isn't true. Even the manager said I had to be a member, so they let me use their phone to call Pru, and the guy explained that I was right, all Pruhealth insurance members can get a free fitness assessment at the gym whether they are gym members or not.

Then I was told that the appointment I had booked for the fitness assessment had been cancelled (blood pressure increasing, steam coming out of ears)

They got some other guy to do the test, but he had run out of Pruhealth forms and just wrote it on a piece of paper...he said he would input on the computer and email to pruhealth..but when he did this the computer asks for my virgin active membership....So I took away my crappy bit of paper and faxed it myself (after a nice long chat with Pruhealth again!)

So I'll have to wait and see what happens next.....hmph :mad: :mad: :mad:

PeteB_London

Hi everyone

Two questions - can anyone advise?

1 I'm quite close to getting to Platinum, which I hope to achieve roughly half way through October. Does anyone know the cutoff date for Pru to calculate how much they're going to be charging me for November's gym membership?

2 I do track some events (running) through ActiveEurope. I am aware these come into the exercise category annual maximum, but are they part of the monthly maximum. IE if I get 50 points from ActiveEurope and 150 points gym usage, do I get 150 points or 200 points?? I've tried to look back through previous months, but it doesn't seem to display properly so it diffuclt to tell. If anyone has already worked this one through, would be good to hear.

Thanks!

luckyfool

1) I believe yes.
2) No, with Pruhealth the Fitbug is the one off fee. You do not pay anything on an ongoing basis except for batteries for your fitbug!
3) You can upload once a week, not a problem.
4) The system counts any visits when you swipe in . . . and you should swipe in on any visit at all. The terms and conditions say that you are committing fraud if you swipe in and do not do any exercise at all . . . but beyond that its fair game.

punkypickle wrote: »

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.

luckyfool

Crazy . . . I reached Platinum status with about 3 months to spare in my first year so my renewal premium was about £2.40 a month.

However I have now confirmed platinum status for my third policy year only 2 months into my 2nd year. I'm assuming there was a bug or error at Pruhealths end as they gave me around 1200 vitality points for a fitness assessment. 300 for the actual assessment, some points for improving BMI band, and maintaining Blood Pressure, but they also gave me 900 points for improving 3 fitness bands. Now I havent read the small print but I had assumed that you should only get credit for improving 1 fitness band at a time, so a maximum of 300 points for this in any one assessment.

But hey . . . I'm not complaining! I don't need to go to the gym or worry about points for the next 10 months and I'm guaranteed gym and health insurance for about £3 a month for the next 2 years. I'm also going to look at Pruprotect Life Cover (extra discounts available if you have both) and looking forward to my cineworld card for £15.

olic

Hi all, I really want to join a gym this month or next month and I am considering doing the pruhealth deal, but because I don't want to wait 3 months till I am a platinum member to join the gym, I am not sure how much it will cost...

Say I gain a level every month and join the gym straight away, can anyone tell me how much it will cost each month for the first 3 months?

QQuaver

olic wrote: »

Say I gain a level every month and join the gym straight away, can anyone tell me how much it will cost each month for the first 3 months?

It'll depend on which gym you intend to attend.