Pru Health

Phoned with a simple query regarding whether the moves app had been linked to my account as points not been awarded meaning not qualifying for benefits, on hold twice for 20 mins before being cut off, rude staff eventually leading me to cancel policy when it could have been handled so much better.They said a manager would phone me back but heard nothing

constant calling to discuss issues with admin resulted in holding on then starting again with same choices and same department answering despite requesting a rerouting.

trying to change provider but unable to do so! very frustrating now!

I have been a policy holder for 5 years and, until you have to deal with them, they are fine. But make contact and they are a disaster in every way. The benefits of staying healthy are good, but you pay for them in the inflated price. You cannot claim al the rewards, as they don't track properly. The site is always down when you want to claim. Their customer service is just appalling - they take ages to get back to you. Just utter rubbish - don't think about using them.

Had a Pru Health policy through my employer..

I recently had a severe illness. Was in hospital for 20 days including 7 days ICU.. so I tried to claim the 'NHS Hospital Cash Benefit'. Except that apparently this only applies to scheduled visits (not mentioned on the summary document, of course - is this even legal?).

I needed physiotherapy as part of rehab, but of course it was the wrong type of physiotherapy (!) so again, not covered.

All discovered as part of a series of long and exhausting calls, being passed from person to person, when I was very weak after 3 weeks in hospital. It was quite clear that the purpose was to avoid any claim and wear me down.

They have a lot of glossy marketing, free tickets and the like, but the delivery is awful. The worst part is that because it's an employer based thing I can't cancel easily.

I have tried to update my personal health check on the Pru Vitality website several times on different dates so that I can claim "vitality points" which count towards discounted premiums. Very hit and miss. After spending however long it takes to enter the details, the website often throws up a message asking me to try again as they are experiencing technical problems. Very frustrating and a waste of time. What are they going to be like when it comes to administering a claim if they can't even administer their own website?

A second point: I submitted a "vitality points" claim for my most recent routine dental check up as per the form on their web page. i.e. when, where, by which dentist and the outcome. Pru have now sent me an email asking me to send them a pdf or jpg of "the report" from the check-up. I have been going to NHS dentists for a routine check-up every 6 months for 55 years and have never been given a report. You are either asked to make an appointment for treatment or not. Which NHS dentistry service are Pru using? Do they expect dentists to start issuing reports to say that a patient attended for a check-up but no treatment was required? It's just bureacratic nonsense.

I am thinking of changing to a provider which has got it's act together as I'm not prepared to be an unpaid clerk for Pru.

Since Pru became Viatility they seem to devote too much efforts towards branding and promoting offers with Apps web campaigns and magazine that they have taken their eye off the ball in terms of what they are supposed to be a health insurance company.

Despite getting assurances that treatments were covered for the second time now we are being chased by Prudential to pay the hospital direct. Last time following a large amount of time reviewing all our notes diary entries and invoices a phone call to them accepted that it was their mistake. this time its taken a week so far for them to accept the same.

It was bad before the Vitality re-brand its much worse now. My advice for anyone considering Prudential is to steer clear. If you have no choice due to work arrangements then if you are unfortunate to need to claim, keep all correspondence, write down all telephone calls, with name of person, time and date and what was agreed. Keep these for at least 2 years after all treatment is completed (we are being chased for a so called non-payment that was for treatment over 10 months ago!)

Being this the second time due to company reasons that I've got pruhealth I would say please avoid at all cost, it's not worth the savings compared to others and the vitality program has been changed several times within the same year.

They started removing the cinema free tickets, now you have to earn them with points buying a device (their app will not work, so you need to end up buying what they want from the partners), then their website will never work properly so they make sure you can claim your benefits in time (we had to miss the 3 first months of the year of tickets because their site was never up, then we found out that they have never activated our policy) and finally when you need to make a claim, because you need real medical advise and treatment which is why you get private insurance first they will make up every sort of excuse to not approve you the treatment and avoid at all cost sending you to the consultant.

If you had any medical conditions the 5 years before you underwrite you policy and for whatever reason you suffer from a pain in the same region even not related, they will stop the claim and ask you for forms, back and forth the GP, delaying and eroding your patience.

Please avoid at all cost. We will make sure that we convince our company to write the insurance with some other insurance as it's terrible for all the employees in ours.

Also customer support centre won't help you or call you back when they say they will and will be so cocky always about how safe they play with their terms and conditions.

I've had lots of problems with Vitality. The most recent one was that they were clearly advertising that you get '50% off a bike' with them. I went to buy a bike and was told to pay full price then contact Vitality for a rebate. I did this and was told that, rather than 50% off, it was 50% cashback over the course of a year. It was highly misleading but I accepted it as I had no intentions to cancel my policy. However, Vitality then changed their policy so that you had to earn points by exercising in order to get rewards. This effectively stopped me being able to get rewards as i'm pregnant and have trapped nerves so can't exercise. Still, I tried by downloading an app and walking lots. Unsurprisingly the app didn't work and I STILL didn't get rewards (conveniently for them). At £45 a month I wasn't prepared to have the policy without the rewards so I cancelled. As a result Vitality refused to pay the rebate for the bike i bought even though it was due to be paid this month. Their customer service is appalling, it's difficult to contact anyone, they just outright ignore emails and if you do manage to speak to anyone they're rude and dismissive.

We had 2 policies with Pru Health for fit young people in their 20s for about 6 years, in which time annual cost has more than doubled despite zero claims on one policy and minor claim on the other. Making a claim has been a nightmare. Pru Health Vitality use every excuse in the book for not paying and when they do eventually pay, they pay a reduced amount and send the money to somebody else. Pru Health refuse to acknowledge or reply to letters, even if sent by registered mail.

Are Pru Health/Vitality Health extraordinarily incompetent or are they dishonest, I hope that it is the former. My advice is don't get duped by Pru Health Vitality Health swish marketing and low starting premiums, there are component health insurance providers in the market such as WPA.

One is meant to get free cinema tickets every week amongst some of the other benefits of this scheme. This is all meant to happen on line - Well it does not for me and has not done so for the last two years . For last two years I have to waste time and ring Pruhealth for the tickets - so bad luck if you decide to see a movie and their offices are closed !

Terrible service and and also a bad attitude by some of the staff .