vitality rewards – apple watch.

company heath scheme is about to move to vitality and one of the touted benefits is a ‘free’ apple watch.

it appears you have to log a certain amount of vitality points a month to qualify for a free watch, from what i can tell, it looks like i’m comfortably doing enough a week to qualify but i’m sure the devil is in the detail..

anyone got any experience of the scheme?

I have a friend who used to send his kids to school wearing his when they had PE and games. He gets a lot of points, hopefully they are not tracking location and HR

I’ve used it for a couple of years to get ‘Free’ Amazon prime.

You link Vitality to your Garmin account (other options available, but NOT Strava) and then get awarded points for activities – all works fairly well, but it is definitely aimed at getting people who don’t exercise to do a bit, rather than people who do a decent amount, so the way the points are awarded is slightly odd.

I have a ‘usual’ running route, I ran it quicker than usual the other day and so my run was about 29 mins 30 seconds = 0 points, as it was less than 30 mins. If I had left the watch running for another 30 odd seconds, it would have been 8 points which is the daily max.

Equally, you top out at 8 points per day & 40 per week, so shorter (but more than 30 mins), regular exercise gets more points than a couple of long rides at the weekend.

anyone got any experience of the scheme?

Wife had her watch paid for by Vitality – did end up with her quite often pacing round the bedroom at night making sure she got her step count every day!

I’ve used it for a couple of years to get ‘Free’ Amazon prime.

i assume you can only claim one reward at a time?

No you can claim more than one thing.

@tomnavman is spot on about the tracking though. I deliberately make my shorter runs 30 minutes rather than 3ish miles now to avoid missing out on points.

There are quirks in benefit though. 10,000 steps gets 5 points. However, a walk of at least 30 minutes burning 150 calories also gets 5 points. For me, that walk would only get about 3500 steps. I need to walk 5 miles to get 10,000.

We’ve been with Vitality for 5+ years. Easy to record enough activity to achieve the max points every week – the only times I’ve not been well, but we’ve achieved/maintained their platinum status for years now.

Wife’s had a couple of Apple watches so far (IIRC you can apply every two years?; I’ve had discounted Polar fitness stuff. Amazon Prime. Used to be a free Starbucks drink every week but changed to Caffe Nero earlier this year – I can take or leave those. Pre-COVID we made good use of the free cinema tickets too. I’ve not bothered taking up the Apple Watch as I’d never wear a smart watch (prefer wearing an old-fashioned ‘smart’ watch) but do wear the cheapest of the cheap fitbit bands to track steps for days I don’t get a ride done. Most of my points come from exercise – commuting and/or daily rides from the house on the days I’m not working.

MrsP has had it through work for a few years – the rewards are slowly getting less generous as originally I think 1 hours exercise a week got you a cinema ticket each week and a free starbucks, these days it’s something like 2 hours a week for 2 weeks to get a cinema ticket that’s then valid for a fortnight (not used many of them lately!). Can’t grumble though – over lockdown they switched to a weekly free streamed movies from Rakuten TV, and it’s Cafe Nero instead of Starbucks now, we also get cashback at Waitrose (how STW) and have had a discounted Garmin 830. As mentioned above if you’re reasonably active anyway then it just ticks away collecting rewards.

I’ve been using it for a few years now. Had got some discounted Garmin kit, but I get the same discount thru Defencediscountservice.

The points are slightly weird. I get 8 for a 130 mile ride or half an hour on a stepper….but what it has done is make me more conscious of my weekly activity and as a result fitness has improved and my waistline has shrunk a little.

Amazon Prime, free cinema other goodies I don’t get. Used to get 50% off certain Evans kit, but sadly that’s gone.

I downloaded whatever tracking app Vitality suggested a few years back, as you could “earn” up to 50% off at Evans.

After 6 months I had earned barely anything –

My bike commute is 25 mins morning, 28 mins home, both scored 0 points as it was under 30 mins. If I really slowed down, then I got the points but not the fitness. 🤷‍♀️

Morning run was often 20-25 mins to do 4k or so. Nil points. 🤷‍♀️

It didn’t track hill days, because 5+ hours of walking up 1000m hill wasn’t ‘excercise’ – but I could set it to track pottering around in the canoe while drinking coffee. 🤷

I didn’t spend at the various paid companies that do online spin classes, or food supplements, or buy staggeringly tight yoga tights, so scored ‘nothing’ for my lifestyle.🤷

I then discovered the app was one that tracked a hell of a lot more than my exercise, and was sharing all sorts of data with app and Vitality.

I’ve deleted the app.

I’m not sure I’d sign up to anything just for an evans discount code.

but I get the healthcare for family as a work benefit, if I can get a free upgrade to my watch and my Amazon prime paid for, for the exercise I already do then it’s all good.

30min cutoff is good to know, have a few routes that are 27/28 mins. I assume I could just leave the logging running for a couple of minutes as long as the average HR stays high enough? Or just lengthen those loops slightly.

It didn’t track hill days, because 5+ hours of walking up 1000m hill wasn’t ‘excercise’

You should get steps for that, so you can still get your daily max points.

30min cutoff is good to know, have a few routes that are 27/28 mins. I assume I could just leave the logging running for a couple of minutes as long as the average HR stays high enough?

Just leave it running, IIRC it doesn’t care about HR eg Yoga class would count.

You might get a free watch, but you’ll struggle to make a successful claim. An absolute shower in my experience.

Different HR averages give different amounts of points, but if you’ve run for 28 mins then leave it running to tick over 30 and you’ll be fine

To counter the claim comment above, i have claimed and the process couldn’t have been simpler for me… Usual STW sample size of 1 of course 🙂

Ive had it since August and its helped me lose a few pounds (20+)by having a target for excercise

There are some really easy rewards – Cafe Nero and Cinema tickets / Rakuten films – a couple of days activity gets you those

I found it a little difficult to understand the points as others have mentioned 30 mins at 120bpm gets you 8 points, but you need 12500 steps to get the same – that would take a couple of hours of walking

I’m a fan – although my apps have not been accessible since the new log-in process and I am fed up of chasing them to make it work again. Points have stopped syncing too which means its difficult to manage my effort to keep the watch + Amazon payments free

Recent glitch aside I like the idea of helping prevent illness through rewarding activity – sedentary lifestyle is a bigger killer than obesity at a population level

My wife is on her second watch through the scheme, I think the upfront cost went up a bit but it’s a no-brainer IMO if you want an Apple Watch. If you’re active enough to get the points it’s a cheap way to get one, if you don’t then the monthly fee is no more than you’d be paying if you bought one elsewhere.

She does leave some workouts running a bit longer just to make sure the 30 minutes is passed, other than that you just log as normal.

I think we join the scheme in jan and currently saying £0 up front until feb for an AW7.

I’ve got an AW4 so it’ll be a welcome upgrade.

There are some really easy rewards – Cafe Nero

Yep, my wife uses that religiously every week!

I like the idea of helping prevent illness through rewarding activity – sedentary lifestyle is a bigger killer than obesity at a population level

Yep, seems like quite an enlightened approach.

If you also have an Amex Vitality card you can link that and increase your cashback. Think I’m maxing it out at 1.25%

Serious?

You are going to trade your most personal data with a life insurance for a free coffee now and then?

What do you think they are going to do with the data? There is no winner here except the insurance company.

How is that bloke above’s wife going to feel when they don’t pay out as he defrauded them by making the kids wear it?

I’d say you’ve been given a fair summary by the responses so far. You certainly need to make sure you are dialled-in to how you earn points.

May be less of an issue if it’s a corporate scheme, but for anyone else you should be really careful with how much more you pay for Vitality compared to equivalent insurance elsewhere, and what you are really saving. Also be wary of how much they jack the premiums up by year-on-year for existing customers – and remember that the watch effectively ties you in for at least one renewal…

My last renewal quote was laughably expensive (despite being a long-term customer and never having made a claim) – the amount they wanted to charge me over the price for (me as) a new customer was somewhat more than the retail cost of an Apple Watch (in just 1 year).

And I’d agree that they are a shower of sh*te to deal with on a customer-service basis, and their general admin has become borderline incompetent in the past few years. On the positive side, this has meant that I’ve continued paying the Vitality discounted rate for my gym membership for 4 months after ceasing to be a customer.

You are going to trade your most personal data with a life insurance for a free coffee now and then?

Oh get over yourself. Do you really think they are processing details about your location or how your heart rate responds to effort? Nope you can get points by just logging the fact that you did a workout – no location, no hr trace so what sensitive data are you trading there?

They’re clearly using the rewards to incentivise people to be a bit more active, thereby reducing the risks of a claim. But some will always assume “they” are doing more but I’ll bet at least 5 pounds that there’s a tiny overworked data science team trying to answer loads of routine questions from the business and they don’t have the time to worry about where Mrs smithers did her last 5K. (from an overworked person in a tiny data science team)

Sorry that came across a bit punchy! What I meant is that vitality don’t mandate you to hand over sensitive data to get the rewards so it’s less likely that they’ll be depending on that to understand their customer base. Furthermore you’ve probably already given them plenty of sensitive data just to get a quote from them.

I don’t deny that there are plenty of organisations with large overworked data science teams who will analyse a lot of customer data for their own purposes – Facebook Google etc spring to mind as do most large retailers – Sainsbury probably know as much about my health as vitality.

Anyhow back to points and rewards and apple watches.

What’s the threshold for an Apple Watch? On the Vitality website it says must pay over £48/month for insurance products which we do, but the watch option doesn’t appear in rewards. Is there something else? Currently gold level membership.

Oddly enough, I signed up for it a few weeks back (also with Vitality) and have been using a series 7 for a few days now. My step count etc should make it essentially free, monthly.

Its my first non-Garmin smartwatch ever, after being a Garmin user daily for about 7 years. From the EULA, all they take is basic data, and the Apple Health app controls this in typical Apple style. I wouldn’t worry too much about it sharing unwanted data.

so just got all the joining documents, signed up with the app and quite surprised only my step count came through from the last week or so it goes back.

turns out it only accepts workouts logged via the apple workout app on your watch, not third party apps which is a bit of a pain as I tend to use workoutdoors for most stuff.

still, AW7 ordered which will be a nice update to my AW4 which seems to have a rapidly fading battery life.

I’ve been with them for a few years – got life insurance through the BMC which turned out to be working as a broker for Vitality.
I like the rewards, I got an AW3 a few years ago and have also used their rewards for Garmin, Prime, coffee, etc. Annoyingly I don’t meet the minimum premium for a watch now, else I’d get a S7.

One thing to watch is how they add the points up. For Prime, points accrued roll over to the next month, so it’s pretty easy to make the target. They don’t for the Apple Watch, so depending on what day of the month the 1st falls on it can be very hard to hit the target for the full payment, so I had to pay a proportion sometimes.