Discovery Health - Vitality & Team Vitality plus everything else you need to know

[The Ouzo]

That would help a little, but you'd still need 3 activities per week of 30 min plus. 

plus the extra points I get for longer distances as an endurance athlete work out better.

[Twaatie]

plus the extra points I get for longer distances as an endurance athlete work out better.

Reduce to normal athlete and make target every week. Or stay endurance and say target is to hard to reach.

 

Will only take a few months more to reach gold , endurance vs normal athlete

 

Well thats my take on it.

2 x300 point rides, plus gym or steps makes the 900 points for the week in my case

Edited December 4, 2019 by Twaatie

[Veebee]

Reduce to normal athlete and make target every week. Or stay endurance and say target is to hard to reach.

 

Will only take a few months more to reach gold , endurance vs normal athlete

 

Well thats my take on it.

2 x300 point rides, plus gym or steps makes the 900 points for the week in my case

 

endurance is easier if you only doing 2 rides on the weekend, but then it needs to be 2 long rides to get you the 600 points each day.

[Oxter]

The discovery credit card at this stage only gives you discovery miles, am i right? All the added discounts on top of flight discounts etc. fell away?

[bertusras]

The discovery credit card at this stage only gives you discovery miles, am i right? All the added discounts on top of flight discounts etc. fell away?

 

At the moment I get an additional 6% discount (41% total) on local flights due to my card.

[madmarc]

Except Discovery is NOT jsut a medical aid company. They're a bank, a life assurance company, a short term insurance company, a wellness management program, a medical aid administrator and a medical aid company. Each individual companies under the Discovery Group umbrella. 

 

The items that you're complaining about are the extra benefits that were introduced a few years ago to get the average joe to exercise more and monitor their health more closely, to get them healthier. The underlying Vitality benefits have improved over the years, with the addition of the VAR program, enhanced discounts for clients with more "integrated" portfolios and more incentives to know and manage your health. This has nothing to do with any of the other businesses, except where you get enhanced discounts and / or interest rates (which are already among the best in the banking environment, even on BLUE VM status) or extra paybacks. 

 

The VAR board game is really just the smallest part of it. Yes but its a

 

Yes but its all become smoke and mirrors for average joe in the street - Its so complicated to understand and work out if you are actually getting out more than you put in. For you guys whose business it is, its easier to understand because you involved with it every day. 

 

If for example they simply did away with all the miles / boosters / cashback / points / discounts etc etc and reduced my Med Aid subscriptions based on my health and activity then id be a lot happier.

 

I question why as a healthy active person i am still paying the same premiums as Fat Joe couch potato who probably costs them 10 times what i cost them.

 

If i get to GOLD or DIAMOND i'm not interested in discounted flights and movie tickets - Just reduce my premiums. Maybe then i'll consider investing those savings in your bank or another financial product you have to offer.

 

Vitality has become a money making scam

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Yes but its all become smoke and mirrors for average joe in the street - Its so complicated to understand and work out if you are actually getting out more than you put in. For you guys whose business it is, its easier to understand because you involved with it every day. 

 

If for example they simply did away with all the miles / boosters / cashback / points / discounts etc etc and reduced my Med Aid subscriptions based on my health and activity then id be a lot happier.

 

I question why as a healthy active person i am still paying the same premiums as Fat Joe couch potato who probably costs them 10 times what i cost them.

 

If i get to GOLD or DIAMOND i'm not interested in discounted flights and movie tickets - Just reduce my premiums. Maybe then i'll consider investing those savings in your bank or another financial product you have to offer.

 

Vitality has become a money making scam

Unfortunately that's a legislation issue. Med aid companies are not allowed to charge according to your health profile or wellness status, and to be honest I wouldn't want them to as then we'd be on a slippery slope to the US model of healthcare which is utterly ridiculous. 

 

The only way they're allowed to change premiums is based on your income (a la the low income plans like Keycare)

 

Insofar as the effect Vitality has on the premiums, it does. Substantially. The higher your status, the less you cost them in terms of health funding costs, and it makes up a significant portion of how they canlculate their annual increases and actual costs. If it weren't for Vitality the med aid premiums would be quite a bit higher, over the years. Momentum has the same thing with Multiply. It lowers the annual premium increase by about 1.5 to 2.5% each year, which in a world of ageing clients (therefore higher healthcare expenditure) makes one huuuge difference over time. 

 

FWIW I only have to consider the savings I get on my gym contract for it to make sense. I don't have disco med aid, but I do have Disco life. My premiums are lower on my life policy due to Vitality and I cannot replicate the cover elsewhere without paying quite a bit more. BUT - I'm not you, so your experience in the Discovery world may be different (as you rightly point out)

 

For me, everything over and above the gym is a net benefit. Those free coffees I would normally have had to pay for, those vouchers on Cape Union, the heavily discounted movie tickets etc etc are all value-added benefits that work in my favour. 

Edited December 4, 2019 by Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Oh, and the VAR is the mechanic through which they've decided to get more people more aware of their health. That 70-80% of Vitality members on BLUE (whatever it is at the moment) is what they're targeting. If those guys were to get to Diamond / Gold, it'd be a huge cost saving for them on the med aid and life assurance spaces, and it'd filter down to us, the clients, through reduced premiums or lower increases. 

 

If the VAR thing doesn't work for you, fine - cool. Lemme have a look at things to see if we can get more efficient cover / benefits elsewhere. It's what I do, after all

Edited December 4, 2019 by Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

[Oxter]

At the moment I get an additional 6% discount (41% total) on local flights due to my card.

Because you moved over to Discovery Bank?

[edgarblount]

My wife is in quite a panic after seeing this on the Discovery site. Can somebody please explain the below?

 

 

As the main member do you have to get 50 000 points and a dependent can only get to a max of 25 000 points?

 

What happened to getting to 90 000 cumulatively no matter which member contributes the points? Me contributing say 60 000 and the wife 30 000.

 

The wife will find it difficult to get to 50 000, possible, but very difficult.

 

 

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

My wife is in quite a panic after seeing this on the Discovery site. Can somebody please explain the below?

 

vitpoints.PNG

 

As the main member do you have to get 50 000 points and a dependent can only get to a max of 25 000 points?

 

What happened to getting to 90 000 cumulatively no matter which member contributes the points? Me contributing say 60 000 and the wife 30 000.

 

The wife will find it difficult to get to 50 000, possible, but very difficult.

tell your other half she can relax...

 

Here you go. That descriptor is solely for ADDITIONAL adult dependents that are not your partner. IE a kid over the age of 18. 

 

See here: 

Edited December 4, 2019 by Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

[Jako De Wet]

yeah, but now both the main adult members need to achieve 50K points (or combined 100K) a year to get to Diamond...tough ask

Edited December 4, 2019 by Jako De Wet

[ridr]

My wife is in quite a panic after seeing this on the Discovery site. Can somebody please explain the below?

 

vitpoints.PNG

 

As the main member do you have to get 50 000 points and a dependent can only get to a max of 25 000 points?

 

What happened to getting to 90 000 cumulatively no matter which member contributes the points? Me contributing say 60 000 and the wife 30 000.

 

The wife will find it difficult to get to 50 000, possible, but very difficult.

 

My understanding is that it is still cumulative - it will be 50000 + 25000 for 75000 total - not an indication of how many points each member needs to earn themselves.

 

But then reading it again I am also confused

Edited December 4, 2019 by ridr

[edgarblount]

tell your other half she can relax...

 

Here you go. That descriptor is solely for ADDITIONAL adult dependents that are not your partner. IE a kid over the age of 18. 

 

See here: 

Thanks Myles.

 

How we get to that 100 000 won't matter? I can do the 99 999 and the wife the other point?

[travisza]

Yes but its all become smoke and mirrors for average joe in the street - Its so complicated to understand and work out if you are actually getting out more than you put in. For you guys whose business it is, its easier to understand because you involved with it every day. 

 

If for example they simply did away with all the miles / boosters / cashback / points / discounts etc etc and reduced my Med Aid subscriptions based on my health and activity then id be a lot happier.

 

I question why as a healthy active person i am still paying the same premiums as Fat Joe couch potato who probably costs them 10 times what i cost them.

 

If i get to GOLD or DIAMOND i'm not interested in discounted flights and movie tickets - Just reduce my premiums. Maybe then i'll consider investing those savings in your bank or another financial product you have to offer.

 

Vitality has become a money making scam

Which loyalty programme isn't designed to generate more income for the business? Isn't that the point? Reward those customers that use your services so that you make more money out of them?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

yeah, but now both the main adult members need to achieve 50K points (or combined 100K) a year to get to Diamond...tough ask

That's not my understanding, but I will check up on that.