Discovery and Vitality questions

[marco79]

I'm joining a new company next month and will need to take out compulsory medical aid. Discovery Health is their prefered provider with no waiting periods when I join. Momentum and BEPMeds can also be joined but waiting periods will apply.

I am just going to take out a hospital cover for now. I think it is the Coastal Core package. What is the difference between the Coastal and Essential packages?

I was on Vitality for about 3 years and never benefitted from it. Is it worth joining again? I don't think I'll have time for the gym in the next year or 2. How does this Vitality and Pick n Pay story work. How do you know which foods are covered by Vitality and do I have to have a Discovery Credit Card to make use of this benefit?

 

[phoneJunky]

I am on the Essential package, but am considering going to saver as I don't use most of the stuff. On Coastal you need to be in one of the coastal provinces like western cape or natal. I can't remember the differences though.

I am on Vitality and it saves me quite allot as I fly quite often and I save about 35% on my flights every time. The pick and pay thing works, but not as well as I thought it would. I get about R50 a month back from Pick and Pay. I also have a discovery credit card. Well, if you consider that the credit card cost R350 a year, I actually save R250 a year by buying with my discovery credit card. The cost for vitality I make up more than enough out of my flights. The problem is that you need to get your vitality status up to enjoy the best savings, but it is quite easy to get to gold. Just fill in all the online stuff, go to the bio-kineticist twice in a year and score full marks (not that difficult) and you are there. You can also do the other tests and stuff. The medical aid pays for all the stuff. Diamond status gets received after you obtained gold in 3 consecutive years.

O, ja. You only get the full discount if Pick&Pay is less than 30% of your total purchases for the month. Normally my pick and pay total is more than 30% of my total purchases, so I don't get the full discount.

The vitality foods that gets extra discount will be sent to you a week or two after you activate your healthy food benefit. I also gym and for me it is free, so I see that as a completely free extra that I get. You also save at total sports I think and exclusive books, which all is conveniently close to me. I also activated the discovery miles option, but I don't know if I will spend enough to break even. To get your worth out of that you need to spend more than R25000 a year with your discovery card. So that is about R2100 a month. I do normally swipe more than that, but I decided I wanted to pay more money into my homeloan and only live on bare minimum and I think I can get away with less than R1200 to live on (Excluding petrol). I don't know how the buying petrol thing works on credit card, so I just avoid doing it in the fear of getting charged extra.

 

[cbrunsdonza]

We are now on Coastal core as we found on Saver they where anyway just paying from our savings first. This year our family has claimed over R40K without issue. Will advise though to get gap cover - works out about R100 pm for full cover. Just remember that the medical aid only pays certain rates and gap the rest.

Sadly we only discovered now (last week) we have gap cover (long story) and as such we paid in nearly R5K the last year not covered by Discovery instead of submitting it to gap cover. That is 4yrs worth of premiums we could have saved.

On Vitality, well I'm in two minds on its value - depends on the individual.

 

[blunomore]

What is the difference between the Coastal and Essential packages?

http://www.discovery.co.za/portal/loggedout-individual/health-plan-compare-2011

 

[LazyLion]

Vitality costs me R142 per month (Main member plus 2 or more).
I pretty much get that back every month by the savings I earn by buying from Pick and Pay and other partners.

The annual card fee for the Gold card is R350 per year.
But by using the card I get around R1000+ worth of rewards every year through the miles that I earn.

So yeah... on the whole it is worth it.

 

[marco79]

I am going to get the Coastal Core and give Vitality a skip for now. I will activate it later if I find that I could benefit from it.