AIA Vitality Singapore — How to Game the AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge & Other Insurance Reward Programmes

For quite a while now, I’ve been buying groceries from Cold Storage for free thanks to AIA Vitality rewards. When I get tired of my usual kopi, I go to Starbucks – also free.

Awesome right? With these tantalising rewards, it’s no wonder why AIA Vitality has been the most successful insurance reward programme thus far. In fact, the benefits are so good that sales of AIA Vitality-integrated products quadrupled in 1 year for the insurance company.

To get more points, I’m so motivated that I have been walking and running a lot more than before.

Lest you think that AIA is such a benevolent commercial entity to encourage people to exercise, think about it. The ultimate beneficiaries are themselves, because with healthier customers, claims will be fewer. Also, they get better access to your health information, which in turn helps them design their new products. What a win-win-win move!

But I’m not complaining. It helped me to develop a great habit of exercising and gotten me many free cups of coffee, so yay.

Currently, AIA Vitality leads the insurance marketing scene, so we’re gonna take a close look at how to top the AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge. We’ll also check out other insurance reward programmes in Singapore.

 

How does AIA Vitality Singapore work?

At $8 a month, AIA policyholders can join the AIA Vitality programme and begin earning points for rewards.

To do that, the first thing you need to set up is to get a fitness tracking device. There is no specific AIA Vitality Fitbit or anything like that, so you can use a Fitbit, Misfit or Garmin tracker, or just use a Polar heart rate monitor. AIA Vitality members get 25% off when you purchase one of the above.

Then, you need to download an app to track and integrate with your AIA Vitality account, such as the S Health or Apple Health. Sync your tracker with the AIA Vitality app every day.

Even if you’re not in it to earn points, as a member of the programme, you get access to a host of benefits including 20% off Fitness First gym membership, $3 off 2 Golden Village movie tickets a month, 20% off HealthFood foods from Cold Storage, and 10% off Emirates air tickets.

Earning AIA Vitality Points for AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge

There are a few ways to accumulate AIA Vitality points and get vouchers.

You earn a maximum of 50 AIA Vitality points for clocking at least 10,000 steps per day on the AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge app, and earn up to 100 AIA Vitality points per day for working out (measured by heart rate). Each visit to the AIA partner gyms earns you 100 points as well.

As a newbie, you’ll first start out with a Bronze status, and move through the ranks by getting more points. The higher your status, the more benefits and cashback you get at the end of the year, the highest status being Platinum.

If you attain Platinum membership, you get $150 cashback at the end of the year, which means that your Vitality annual membership ($96 for a year) is paid for, and you profit too.

From January 2019, the $5 Group Weekly Reward given out for every 250 points will only be unlocked by members who have attained Gold or Platinum status. The voucher can be used at Cold Storage, Starbucks, Grab or Singtel.

If you form a team of 8 (including yourself) and everyone manages to earn 250 vitality points that week, everyone will receive an additional $5 voucher. This is only applicable to Gold and Platinum status members. If you’re a loner, you can also go to forums to get people to join your team.

There are other ways to earn Vitality points too. You can go for health screenings, dental checks and vaccinations at selected medical institutions. You can also buy HealthFood at Cold Storage and take online assessments related to your nutrition and stress levels on the AIA app.

See the full list of AIA Vitality rewards and discounts and which AIA policy plans are eligible for the AIA Vitality programme.

 

Other insurance reward programmes in Singapore

Although AIA Vitality very much dominates the scene when it comes to insurance reward programmes, other major insurers have their own programmes too.

Insurance company	Rewards programme
AIA	AIA Vitality Programme
NTUC Income	Orange Health Programme
Manulife	ManulifeMOVE Programme
Great Eastern	GetGreat Programme

 

NTUC Orange Health Programme

The NTUC Orange Health programme seems quite similar to the AIA Vitality. These are the ways to earn Oh! points:

• 5,000 to 7,499 steps = 5 Oh! points
• 7,500 to 9,999 steps = 10 Oh! points
• 10,000 and above steps = 20 Oh! points
• Scanning QR code (up to 3) at food outlets = 10 Oh! points
• Scanning QR code at an ActiveSG fitness centre (up to 2) = 20 Oh! points
• Checking in at the park once = 10 Oh! points
• Sleep for a minimum of 7 hours = 5 Oh! points

Compared to the AIA Vitality programme, the Orange Health Programme is definitely more onerous, requiring you to physically travel to NTUC’s selected partners to get the maximum points. If you faithfully do the maximum of everything, you get 105 Oh! points a day.

If you manage to earn 4,500 points in 6 months, you can redeem $40 worth of vouchers and use it at Garmin, Grab, Wang, Shopee or Capitamalls. The fewer points you earn, the lower the cash voucher’s value. The lowest is a $10 cash voucher for 2,000 points earned.

Let’s say your favourite food court is Foodfare and you live near a park, you would need to stay active, sleep well, go to different spots multiple times a day to scan QR codes and check in at least 43 days in 6 months in get the maximum 4,500 points. Wow! That’s a lot of effort for $40! Think it might be easier to get a high-paying part-time job instead.

Also, the programme is only eligible to policyholders of 3 designated insurance plans namely the Enhanced IncomeShield, IncomeShield Standard Plan and IncomeShield. Holders of whole life and endowment plans are not eligible.

Similar to AIA Vitality, the NTUC Orange Health programme offers additional rewards when you and your team meet the requirements.

 

Great Eastern GETGREAT Programme

The Great Eastern GETGREAT programme offers health tips and allows you to earn points through staying active. You can redeem Al-Futtaim, Shell, Watsons, Gain City and Krisflyer vouchers, among 135 merchants.

The great thing about GETGREAT is that anyone can join the programme and it is not restricted to Great Eastern policyholders only. However, non-Great Eastern policyholders will earn fewer points.

Complete different challenges at different difficulty levels (Lite, Intermediate, Turbo) and level up. Levelling up will give you bonus challenges and more opportunities to earn points.

An ongoing challenge is the Step Quest challenge held in conjunction with FairPrice where participants have to clock a minimum of 7,000 steps daily from 11 to 30 October.

Participants have to do a short write-up on what motivates them to eat healthily and how. If you complete these 2 tasks, you stand a chance to win $5,000 worth of FairPrice vouchers. Pretty neat.

The user experience of the apps can be improved though. Currently, getting points and redeeming rewards are on 2 separate portals. You earn on GETGREAT and redeem on UPGREAT portal, so that’s kinda confusing.

 

ManulifeMOVE Programme

The ManulifeMOVE programme is very straightforward and has no frills. It provides two ways of earning cash rewards.

One, take a daily average of 10,000 steps over a period of 6 months to get a $50 cash reward or two, take a daily average of 7,000 steps over a period of 6 months to get a $25 cash reward.

Compared to the AIA Vitality programme, the ManulifeMOVE is more demanding in the number of steps to take since it requires a daily average. The cash rewards are also less enticing. With the Vitality programme, you could earn $120 in cash rewards for take 10,000 steps for 5 days in week over a period of 6 months.

To join, you need to be a primary life assured of at least one Manulife policy issued on or after 1 January 2018 with a minimum annual premium of SGD/USD 3,000.

If not, it should be an Heirloom or Signature Series single premium policy in order to quality for the ManulifeMOVE programme.

 

Should you buy insurance just for their rewards programmes?

Some people are drawn to buy insurance policies because of the perks they get out of reward programmes. You can be cheapo and smart by buying a cheap plan to join, but is it worth it?

Well, yes, if you really need the plan’s coverage and you are willing to change your lifestyle to game the system. Note that insurance companies are now restricting the eligibility of the reward programmes to selected insurance policy holders.

But if you blindly want free vouchers, you may end up buying a more expensive policy than you wished for just to join the programme. In other words, consider your needs carefully before buying insurance plans.

Rather than pay for unnecessary insurance to get into a rewards programme, why not consider other low-cost channels? For instance, you can get free entry to the gym and swimming pools by using your ActiveSG credits. Or you can earn points on your credit card to exchange for shopping and dining vouchers.

Are you a member of AIA Vitality? How do you like it? Share your thoughts with us below! 

 

Photo by FitNishMedia on Pixabay