Is The $8 A Month AIA Vitality Membership Worth It – For The Benefits You’ll Be Receiving?

For those unacquainted, AIA Vitality is a health rewards membership that you can join by paying $8 a month. It is a programme that rewards its members with attractive incentives.

Members earn and accumulate points through weekly challenges and rewards that encourage active exercise, healthy eating and the maintenance of good health. Examples of such challenges can include completing a health and nutrition assessment at approved clinics, or clocking a set amount of gym visits per week.

You advance through higher Vitality statuses (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) as you earn more points. This allows you to unlock bigger and more rewarding benefits.

If you’re considering if the AIA Vitality programme is worth it, here are the potential rewards you can earn and considerations you need to make.

#1 Sunk Cost Of Joining The Programme

AIA Vitality does not just cost you a flat $8 a month. To qualify for the AIA Vitality programme, you need to purchase or have an existing AIA insurance policy.

There also may be a need to buy a fitness tracking device such as a Fitbit to monitor and sync your fitness activity when you clock a run, walk or workout. Being able to track these activities will help you to fully take advantage and maximise the benefits of the AIA Vitality programme. However, this expense might not be necessary if you have already have a smartwatch or a smartphone with fitness tracking capabilities.

Assuming you do not own any device with fitness tracking capabilities, the cost of a basic Fitbit may set you back by about $118.

#2 Partner Vouchers

AIA Vitality rewards you with $5 partner vouchers when you fulfill the weekly exercise requirements. These include vouchers to supermarkets (Cold Storage, Jason’s), Starbucks, Grab and Singtel.

Assuming you hit the minimum of 250 Vitality points a week, you’ll be getting a $5 voucher each week. This adds up to 52 * $5 = $260 of benefits in a year.

You can also redeem 2 $3 Golden Village vouchers every month. This adds up to 12 * $6 = $72 off movie tickets in a year.

#3 Gym Discounts And Premiums

AIA Vitality offers 20% off gym memberships at Fitness First and Gravity. If you are an existing member, this will give you a discount of about $30 per month. Over a year, this would amount to savings of 12 * $30 = $360.

Your AIA Vitality benefits also include 20% cashback on healthy food purchased at Cold Storage. As the discount for this expense varies depending on how much you spend, we will omit it from the calculation.

#4 Vendor Benefits

Another discount is a 25% off Fitbit, Polar and Garmin products. Had you chosen to purchase the basic Fitbit at $118, the 25% discount would give you savings of about $29.50.

The AIA Vitality membership also gives you 50% off Royal Caribbean and Emirates tickets. This is useful if you travel frequently and can help offset some of your spend on travel.

AIA Vitality members also enjoy an upfront premium discount of 5% on selected new AIA insurance policies. There is also a potential premium discount of up to 15% based on your AIA Vitality Status when you renew your policy each year.

Is AIA Vitality Worth It – For The Benefits You’re Getting?

Let’s sum up the costs and rewards for the AIA Vitality programme.

* Includes optional costs/ rewards.

AIA Vitality Is Worth Paying For, If You Are Diligent About Meeting Your Health Goals

The AIA Vitality programme is definitely worth paying for, and even more so if you already have an existing AIA insurance policy and a fitness tracker. Of course, we would add that your insurance premiums should not count as a cost since it should be something purchased only to meet your insurance needs and not to reap the benefits of the AIA Vitality programme.

Assuming you do not take on any optional costs (a new insurance policy and/or a fitness tracker) while maximising the fixed value of your benefits, you stand to gain $332 – $96 = $236 worth of benefits.

This stands on top of the assumption that you are disciplined in keeping to your fitness regime. You also have to be diligent about tracking and syncing your fitness stats to the app for it to register the rewards. Again, the rewards you stand to gain increases even more if you make regular purchases from AIA’s other vendors.

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