Ah, ok. Thanks. So some real benefit, then. Glad to hear.
I guess I'm just suspicious of "loyalty" programs run by commercial entities, especially when they don't easily translate into quantifiable benefits. So often these schemes are designed to generate extra revenues by pushing "loyal" members into additional expenditures and then collecting an agterskot/rebate from the partner/affiliate at the back end, while the "loyal member" gets a relatively small discount. In other words, drive up the member's spend at network partners by say R5000 over the year and collect a 35% discount of which 5-10% is passed on to the member at purchase time and the balance passed to the program owner by way of rebate or agterskot..
I wonder if anyone has ever bothered to calculate the real annual benefit... It must work for people, else it wouldn't be thing., I suppose. Personally, though, I prefer cheaper tickets to air miles for example.
Ah, ok. Thanks. So some real benefit, then. Glad to hear.
I guess I'm just suspicious of "loyalty" programs run by commercial entities, especially when they don't easily translate into quantifiable benefits. So often these schemes are designed to generate extra revenues by pushing "loyal" members into additional expenditures and then collecting an agterskot/rebate from the partner/affiliate at the back end, while the "loyal member" gets a relatively small discount. In other words, drive up the member's spend at network partners by say R5000 over the year and collect a 35% discount of which 5-10% is passed on to the member at purchase time and the balance passed to the program owner by way of rebate or agterskot..
I wonder if anyone has ever bothered to calculate the real annual benefit... It must work for people, else it wouldn't be thing., I suppose. Personally, though, I prefer cheaper tickets to air miles for example.
^^This.
We have to remember that they wouldn't provide these benefits if, on the whole, they weren't making money. I've heard the argument that they make their money because their clients stay healthier and thus claim less money in healthcare costs. This may be somewhat true....however, the amount of exercise they push you to in order to get 'active rewards' reaches a point where you are doing more wear and tear on you body than you are providing additional health benefit (for those of you on vitality, imagine how much exercise you have to do in a week to meet a 600-900 point goal).
I was on Vitality for 1 year. On the whole, I probably didn't lose money if I make the argument that all of those things I paid for, I would have bought had I not been on Vitality. For example: I paid an initial R1500 joining fee for Virgin active, and then only R119 per month after that. For the year, that means my gym membership cost roughly R244 per month, which normally would have cost around R500 (a savings of R256 per month). So it seems like I saved money, right? Well when you factor in my Vitality monthly membership (R219) then the savings was only R37 per month.
So now some of you will say that you also get additional money back from the healthy food reward. That's true, I also made money from that. In months when I was being super loyal, and trying to only buy Vitality approved items I could make back close to R300 per month.
So it seems like a good deal right? Well, then I started to consider, could I by a similar item of a different brand and save money (for example, tin of tomatoes from a brand that isn't Vitality approved but has the same ingredients) and I realized, yes I could. I realized, this was often the case. There were some cheaper, equally healthy items that I wasn't buying just because they weren't "Vitality" approved. Moreover, I would often opt out of buying fresh (cheaper) produce from farmer's markets, because I couldn't get Vitality points or cash back.
I also didn't take walks or runs with my dogs outside anymore, because I couldn't get points for that, unless I wanted to dish out a lot of money on a Vitality approved tracking device or HR monitor.
When you start to consider all of the additional hidden costs (e.g. not buying cheaper healthy food from different brands, not shopping at a closer, more convenient grocery franchise or farmers market, cost of health checks, cost of fitness tracking devices, etc.) the savings turns out to be quite minimal.
I realized, that for me, even if I come out R100 ahead, i'd rather not deal with all of the jumping through hoops to get it. So I cancelled my membership.
