A year in the life of the Vitality policy - Is it worth the extra money?

***Just to start on the right foot here, this article is a personal account of my findings of the "engagement" aspect of the vitality offering and is in no means to be mistaken as either financial advice or an endorsement of the actual suitability of the vitality life/cover itself - If you would like to discuss further PM me***

Right disclaimers out of the way

I'm probably not the only one who over the years has been massively confused by by how the plan actually works in terms of points - I'm not spending masses amount of time explaining in this article as that is not the aim of the piece but after a little bit of reading its actually not that difficult

In short you achieve daily points by either hitting a step target or some devices record heart rate - 30 mins of decent cardio would generally get you max points of a day, or 12,500 steps (both are accurate as of 13/04/2018)

Far from what I initially thought you don't need to be doing insane amounts of exercises to hit the top "Platinum" level more regular smaller amounts is key.

I had been training for a half marathon in October and my insurance plan started in February, however you don't need to do anywhere near the level of training in order to hit Platinum over the 12 months you are allocated, I think from memory it took me 9ish months, but my training allowed me to regularly hit max weeks and months - and its not a requirement to do that however my competitive "gaming" of side reared its head and after I began to see the points rack up my determination went up a notch as well – Which all in all is part of the reason why the product works by encouraging you to do a little more than you would normally- it almost introduces exercise accountability!

Back to the additional benefits

I love my coffee and the weekly large FREE Starbucks was a nice touch - coming in at over ￡3 a pop most weeks, most weeks I take advantage of this.

To be fair I don't buy a Starbucks every day normally, but I would say a weekly treat was around the norm so to get it free was awesome.

I have my two younger daughters on the plan as well and at age 6 and almost 4 a trip to the cinema costs the best part of ￡25 for the tickets for the three of us.

I have always loved the cinema experience and can’t beat it for certain films, you could go every week FREE of charge as a vitality member (I'm not so sure that there are enough new/fresh good films to allow you do that).

We did however go and see the same films more than once on a few occasions, anyone who has kids is probably familiar with new found TV favourites - They are on non-stop repeat 24/7. The cinema is no different and the kids enjoy a second viewing as much as they do the first! When I have looked back there have been 15 trips to the cinema over the year.

As part of my training towards the race I also decided to get new running shoes, I visited a local retailer in Glasgow and they done all the measurements on my feet, put me on a treadmill for gait analysis - how my foot is when I land, whether my stride is normal and my general running "form". They recommended I try 3 different shoes, I selected the pair that were best fitting and ordered online with a 50% discount from the shop price of ￡120 using my vitality membership number and they then arrived within a week.

Within two weeks of the first anniversary of my policy I received a cash back of ￡125 paid into my account and notification that my premiums for the upcoming year will be almost ￡1 per month per more LOWER than in my first year.

I knew that this would happen, but it is still a pinch yourself moment, I remember thinking to myself "I'm a year older and my premiums are going down! And I'm getting paid to have insurance to cover my mortgage!"

Clearly ￡1 a month saving isn't going to make me rich but that's not the point As an individual I feel that I need to protect myself and my family in the home. I would be doing that anyway even if I wasn't getting anything in return AND I'm getting encouraged to maintain a reasonably active lifestyle.

The value for me has been well worth it, I haven't even looked at many of the other rewards this year and yet I have been extremely impressed with everything on the health engagement side.

Even the Iphone app has been upgraded and it easy to navigate. Sometimes you find these products that offer discounts/rewards the benefits can be extremely difficult to qualify for and even more awkward or time-consuming to claim - Couldn't be further from the truth on any of the areas I have used - Simple and quick.

When I have added everything up I was surprised at the total value of the rewards over the year-

Total Value of the Year with my Vitality Insurance Policy

• Coffee the savings - ￡150 approx
• Cinema - ￡375 approx
• Running Shoes - ￡60 approx
• Platinum Cashback - ￡125 approx
• Total - ￡710

There are several other rewards and benefits that I haven't used–

• 50% off Nuffield, Virgin Active or David Lloyd monthly gym membership (not all areas),
• 50% of British Airways Flight,
• 50% off the kids trainers,
• 50% off Lloyds Pharmacy,
• 75% off Champneys Spa breaks,
• Discounts on Eurostar,
• Ocado healthy food shopping and others.

Now that ￡710 doesn't mean my insurance has been paid back in rewards, for many people it would be more than the insurance has actually cost over the year.

But everyone has different circumstances, needs and insurance costs are different. It just happens that my insurance costs are greater than this, you might be considerably less per month than me.

I’ts great getting things for free, but its not really sensible taking a product for the additional benefits like this unless there is an actual need for the products itself.

That said you can get the Vitality for things such as life insurance, critical/serious illness, mortgage cover, whole of life, income protection and private medical insurance.

Pm me if you would like more information, a quote or just a chat as to how the product might work for you.