Vitality

Shocking and stressful service from Vitality I am currently in the City Hospital (NHS) in Nottingham where I have been since the 30th March after a heart attack. When I was told that I would need a heart bypass operation on April 3rd, I was of course shocked but thought, its ok as I have the full private medical insurance cover from Vitality. Think again people. At no point through the process has anyone said to me “don’t worry, we got this” and everything was pushed back to me to sort and chase. Paperwork to take to the GP and then chasing people at Vitality to do something about my claim. The one issue there seems to have been is that the private hospital that this operation is normally done at doesn’t have the equipment working at the moment and we were told in this case, it can be done elsewhere, such as the NHS hospital I am in at the moment and there would be no cost to me. I have received just one phone call from someone at Vitality throughout the process so far but then she went off to speak to someone else and I never heard from her again. Both myself and my wife emailed her a number of times but after the initial first couple of emails, it went dead. Just to remind you, I am in hospital after suffering a heart attack! To cut a long story short, I was told the claim had been approved earlier in the week. Consultant came down to see me yesterday (Wednesday) to say all was good to go on Saturday. Consultant came down today (Thursday) to go through the op and what happens and then tells me that there may be a thousand or so that I would need to pay as Vitality were not going to meet the whole costs. Cue phone call to Vitality to then be told the operation isn’t even confirmed for Saturday! Spoke to the call centre person’s manager who then put me onto the medical team who then advised that, as it was a cardiac case, I should have been transferred to them when I had first registered the claim. I am guessing this would have reduced the stress I have been through over the last week! 36 hours before the operation is due to be done, I am none the wiser. Will it happen? Your guess is as good as mine which is just what I need right now! My main issue here is that when you need this kind of insurance policy and especially for something like heart bypass surgery, you expect to get the kind of service you were promised when you signed up….only to be let down. As a comparison, I spoke to someone today who is insured with BUPA who went through the same illness and operation and they couldn’t sing Bupa’s praises enough. That is what I would have preferred to have been writing on here for Vitality.

Terrible company, who doesn't care about giving customers a good experience. The iWatch and 'activity' bonus scheme is a joke (or scam) because their website & app never work properly (see their twitter feed for all the complaints). I've been with them just over a year primarily to get discount gym membership at Virgin, but it really hasn't been worth all the hassle and am quitting soon. I'd actually rather pay more direct to the virgin gym than get cheaper access via vitality. They haven't improved at all in the last year and I highly doubt they ever will. Please avoid them !!

My company moved from AXA insurance to Vitality. The reason of movement was free coffee, free cinema tickets, free amazon prime, free apple watch, discounts on health tracker. BUT.. now i need dental treatment of 100£ value. For AXA - I was just submitting photo of my receipt, but Vitality wants FULL ACCESS TO MY HISTORY details, just for simple treatment. Breakdown of each procedure! I guess to get money back would be not easy. Vitality is advertising Champneys SPA stay with 75%. I called them in May and asked for availability, where I can check it. They told that availability can only be checked on the phone and earliest appointment I can book is for 7th of December! We started our policy on 12th of May, 10 working days - I still have not received information pack. Very bad service. I regret that the company moved from AXA to Vitality. Vitality is only good if you have no issues with health, if you have - better be with another insurance company.

they pay you to take care of yourself. A good insurer.

Excellent insurance company, great customer service & tons of great perks to motivate you to stay healthy and active.

The customer service advisor was outstanding! Helped me so much

Vitality Health Insurance is the worst product I have ever come across. I submitted my claim in January 2019 with a referral from a private Vitality doctor. Vitality sent me a form demanding more information from my NHS GP, who I did not see about my claim at all and never have as I didn’t have any symptoms when I last saw him. The reason for the form was to determine if it was a pre-existing condition. I submitted this form back to Vitality and now in April they are saying they are unable to process the claim as the NHS GP didn’t provide any information about my claim which was sort of the point. The NHS GP said the form was very confusing and didn’t make any sense at all. In several calls from Vitality they insisted that they had to have his input. How is he supposed to comment on a condition he didn’t see me for? Additionally, their app is useless for tracking exercise etc and hasn’t tracked anything since January so I am not receiving my Vitality points. Their solution - try reinstalling it, as if in 2019 I haven’t thought of that before and done it many times. The result, I ended up paying 75% of the cost of the “free” Apple Watch. It’s blatant thievery. Next step is the ombudsman. I truly wish I hadn’t move from AXA PPP who never once even questioned a claim and just gone on with caring for my health. STAY AWAY FROM VITALITY!!!

really good experience this year. had no issues and was helped with every query we had.

Got Vitality life. Quite expensive but if you're active it's worth it. Free starbucks (£3 a week); free cinema (at least £20 a month); half price running shoes (£60 - I like the expensive ones); Free Amazon Prime/ Apple watch and discounted Headspace. ALL of which (except the Apple watch), I was previously buying anyway!!! Good value for me, but you gott a get your steps/runs in!!

Very thorough with the different options of their policies over the phone.

great benefits and helps you stay active and motivated. didn't have to use services yet though.

The worst healthcare you can ever experience. I would really give 0 stars if I could. They will not help you with any health problem, they find 2947 reasons why they do not cover your health issue. It’s the worst company and customer service that I have ever had experience with. They provide a GP service that have no idea about them and tell you they’ll cover you when they won’t and completely waste your time. They will find ANY reason to not help you and say it’s in their small print. They take you money and do not pay out on any claim. AVOID at all costs.

Literally the worst service I've ever received in this country. They would come up with anything to decline a claim. I haven't met one person who managed to get through to a specialist via Vitality, they literally made all sorts of things up to stop you from having access to private healthcare. Stay away at all costs.

Real help when needed is not there. Top doctors and clinics are de-registered constantly. I am paying 30K for surgery they should cover. AVOID. Vitality states that: they agree on "fair fees" for all procedures and if the the consultants / physio don't agree with such fees then it is their fault they are not registered with Vitality. However , as a patient wanting best in class care and paying for highest level Vitality private care , when the physiotherapy clinic says: we work with Bupa Internation, Bupa UK, Axa PPP as well as others but we stopped working with Vitality...that makes you think how nice it would be to be with Axa PPP for example and not pay out of pocket £££ a month on top of the private insurance you are already paying.

Poorest service I've ever experienced They took money out of 2 accounts similtaneously.....getting the over payment back was a 3 week nightmare. The customer service team need retraining. Poor listening skills and slow responses to emails & questions To add insult on injury they attempted to take another payment after everything had been sorted out .....seemingly....luckily I didn't have enough to cover that in my account otherwise there would be 2 payments out again! If it wasn't for life cover I'd bid them farewell awful

They are absolute scammers. I've been with them for 18 months and it was such a frustrating experience. They have have agreed to cover my physio but then sneakingly charged me anyway. When I demanded a refund it took them 8 months to send me a cheque. This is just one of several stories I had with them over that time. My word of advise. If you are with them, leave. If you are with them via a company policy and its not up to you, milk the bastards as much as you can.

Do not trust these scumbags. They set up a direct debit from my Halifax account without my permission and took £48.92 from my account. Customer service staff was rude & shouted at me over the phone. Vitality are modern day thieves. Does Jessica Ennis Hill know what she put her name too. I have reported these scumbags to the fco. Two weeks on I'm still awaiting for my money back from vitality scumbags. Halifax finally gave me back my money NOT Vitality scumbags. Disgusting.

Their membership for Rewards and Benefits is a scam (Their advert says something and they may change the rule next month and let u lose membership fee). It is difficult to contact their people. They don't respond to queries on email rather they will ask you to call their help line. I have recently join this life rewards in order to enjoy the free weekly movie tickets. They have changed their rules and requires me to get 9 points every week. Even if I achieved 9 points by doing an activity or health assessment it takes them 4 weeks to update their system!!! At this age it should not take 4 weeks to update the system, it should be done real time. I prefer to get an annual membership to the cinema and setup a direct debit rather than subscribing to fraud adverts by such a big brand in the industry. I am sure this large corporate fraud people will justify their policies by some quotes from their terms and conditions. Now I feel sad that I have already paid them for the last 3 or 4 months and I did not get any benefit.. and I am sure it will take me ages to cancel this service.

To be honest, if you have an active lifestyle then this life insurance is a no brainier. I think I make more off it than I pay every month!

I enjoyed the benefits of Vitality and it motivated me to be active and sustain a healthy lifestyle on a weekly basis with the rewards !!