Life and health insurer Vitality revamps rewards for getting healthy

You can now earn even better rewards from Vitality for improving your health.

You could cut the cost of next year’s holiday or bag a free coffee if you get healthier with your health and life insurance if you take out a policy with Vitality.

Vitality was formerly known as Pruhealth and PruProtect and it has now revamped its incentive schemes. What makes it different is it focuses on rewarding you if you attempt to get healthier.

You can earn Vitality points by engaging in certain healthy activities, which can then be cashed in for rewards or even to cut the cost of your premiums.

What’s changing?

There are now two categories of rewards for Vitality members.

Active Rewards offer certain rewards and treats each week for exercising and tracking your results. Then there’s Vitality Status. As you earn more points, you improve your Vitality Status (starting at Bronze, and moving up to Platinum), and as your status level improves, so do your rewards.

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How do I earn points?

There are some very simple things you can do to earn points, such an online health review (100 points, available once per year), declaring yourself a non-smoker (100 points, available once per year) and buying healthy food from Sainsbury’s (one point per £2 spent, cannot earn more than 520 points per year this way).

Exercise can also go a long way towards bumping up your points total. You get 10 points per gym workout, which you can boost by using certain tech products like a heart rate monitor or Fitbug (which tracks how many steps you’ve taken in a day).

If you have various body tests (such as measuring your blood pressure or cholesterol levels) you also earn points, though you can only do this once per year.

What rewards can I get?

There are all sorts of Active Rewards you can enjoy. Earn nine Vitality points and you can get a free drink from Starbucks, or a free cinema ticket to use at Cineworld or Vue.

Other treats include money off at Virgin Active gyms, Evans Cycles, Seatshop and discounted membership at WeightWatchers.

And from later this month you’ll also be able to enjoy discounts of up to 40% (including taxes and charges) on European flights with British Airways. If you have a Bronze Vitality Status you get a 5% discount, but move up to Platinum and you could cut 40% off the cost of your booking. Other rewards tied into your Vitality Status include discounts of up to 50% off Eurostar and money off at boutique hotels from Mr & Mrs Smith. 

You can also get cashback if you don’t smoke. The higher your Vitality Status, the more cashback you’ll get. So for example for someone with a £25 monthly premium and a Bronze Vitality status, avoiding smoking for a year means £15 cashback. If you manage to get your status up to Platinum, you’ll pocket a cool £45.

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Health insurance perks and incentives

Vitality is the only health insurance provider that actively rewards you for improving your health. But there other insurers also have reward schemes which mean you get a little back on top of your cover.

For example Aviva offers Aviva Advantages. Bonuses at the moment include up to 50% off Haven holidays, 25% off gym membership at various health clubs and discounts on other insurance policies with the firm. Bupa also has a membership scheme, which offers discounts with a range of retailers, particularly those operating in health and fitness.

Others go down the money route. For example, sign up with Simply Health before 28th January and you’ll get two months of cover for free.

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