Anyone taken up the current 100k Assure Sign on Bonus

[bwhouse]

Just wondering if anyone has taken up the current promo of 100,000 points if you take out combined top hospital and extras cover with Qantas Assure?

I had initially dismissed it as Qantas assure seems to be a little more expensive and not as good a cover as others, however in reading the fine print on the weekend you appear to only need to keep it for two months so it would seem that it is pretty easy to 'churn health cover' for the bonus.

 

[rock86]

Just wondering if anyone has taken up the current promo of 100,000 points if you take out combined top hospital and extras cover with Qantas Assure?

I had initially dismissed it as Qantas assure seems to be a little more expensive and not as good a cover as others, however in reading the fine print on the weekend you appear to only need to keep it for two months so it would seem that it is pretty easy to 'churn health cover' for the bonus.

I want to, but my better half has completely balked at doing it - although there are reasons behind it due to a few minor surgeries & dental bills coming - so I've left it at present. However, once all that is done and dusted we'll be taking advantage of their offer (it seems they run this every quarter nearly).

Also just a note, you'll probably need to pay 3 monthly premiums as I think you lose any un-posted points if a policy is cancelled & the bonus points won;t post to your QFF account until the 3rd month. Plus, the cover which nets you 90K Bonus points (Top Hospital & 2nd Highest Extra's) is actually the better deal points per $. For us we'd pay an extra $70/month for 3 months to net 90,000 Bonus points (0.233c point); whereas for both top covers it was going to cost us an extra $180/month for the 100,000 bonus points (0.54c point).

Have fun churning your health insurance

 

[bwhouse]

I want to, but my better half has completely balked at doing it - although there are reasons behind it due to a few minor surgeries & dental bills coming - so I've left it at present. However, once all that is done and dusted we'll be taking advantage of their offer (it seems they run this every quarter nearly).

Also just a note, you'll probably need to pay 3 monthly premiums as I think you lose any un-posted points if a policy is cancelled & the bonus points won;t post to your QFF account until the 3rd month. Plus, the cover which nets you 90K Bonus points (Top Hospital & 2nd Highest Extra's) is actually the better deal points per $. For us we'd pay an extra $70/month for 3 months to net 90,000 Bonus points (0.233c point); whereas for both top covers it was going to cost us an extra $180/month for the 100,000 bonus points (0.54c point).

Have fun churning your health insurance

Thanks good tips. It was actually the second top extras I was looking at as well.

 

[Lemon_Party]

Are you intending to keep your original insurance and just take this out at $70/month to score the points? Or is it not possible to hold 2 policies concurrently? Happy with current provider and coverage etc, but for $210 I'd take 90k points...

 

[annielee]

i just tried and i got quoted for $70 weekly..and im keen to get it if i can have 2 policies at the same time

 

[Jack_OC]

Are you intending to keep your original insurance and just take this out at $70/month to score the points? Or is it not possible to hold 2 policies concurrently? Happy with current provider and coverage etc, but for $210 I'd take 90k points...

i just tried and i got quoted for $70 weekly..and im keen to get it if i can have 2 policies at the same time

Why would you want 2 policies at the same time? There is really very little downside to churning private health insurance policies.

Also, I don't think you're going to get 90K points for $210. I have taken out Qantas Assure policies twice, and both times I had to pay 3 months' premiums before the bonus points arrived. I don't think you're going to get top hospital and high end extras covers for $70 per month - I'm paying about $500 a month (for a family).

 

[bwhouse]

Yup as Jack3139 has said I am looking at switching (and then probably switching back), top hospital and the second top extras is closer to $500/month which is about a $20 premium over what i am being quoted elsewhere.

From what I can tell all the providers honor each others waiting periods so there seems to be no real downside to switching providers. Jack, have you had any issues with your multiple switches?

 

[rock86]

Thanks good tips. It was actually the second top extras I was looking at as well.

Are you intending to keep your original insurance and just take this out at $70/month to score the points? Or is it not possible to hold 2 policies concurrently? Happy with current provider and coverage etc, but for $210 I'd take 90k points...

I know by law you're definitely not allowed 2 hospital covers at once, not sure if it's the same for extra's but I'd presume so.

Why would you want 2 policies at the same time? There is really very little downside to churning private health insurance policies.

Also, I don't think you're going to get 90K points for $210. I have taken out Qantas Assure policies twice, and both times I had to pay 3 months' premiums before the bonus points arrived. I don't think you're going to get top hospital and high end extras covers for $70 per month - I'm paying about $500 a month (for a family).

It may have been me who were confusing some posters above when I was talking about paying only $70/month for the Top Hospital & 2nd Highest Extra's. I should have been clearer and said that the Qantas Assure was going to cost $70 more a month then what I'm paying now - hence, the bonus points are really only costing you that additional amount if you're already paying for cover you intended to keep.

 

[gonecountry]

I seriously looked into the income protection insurance, but as it turned out it just didn't match the benefits of our existing policy. I was really disappointed, love the idea of getting points for paying insurance!

 

[Lemon_Party]

I know by law you're definitely not allowed 2 hospital covers at once, not sure if it's the same for extra's but I'd presume so.



It may have been me who were confusing some posters above when I was talking about paying only $70/month for the Top Hospital & 2nd Highest Extra's. I should have been clearer and said that the Qantas Assure was going to cost $70 more a month then what I'm paying now - hence, the bonus points are really only costing you that additional amount if you're already paying for cover you intended to keep.

Sorry - I skim read and assumed $70 per month at 3 months = 90k points and thought it was a golden goose - particularly if I had been able to take this out and keep the existing one! I will struggle to persuade the wife to jump ship for 3 months for a few points so we'll probably be staying put...

 

[Jack_OC]

Yup as Jack3139 has said I am looking at switching (and then probably switching back), top hospital and the second top extras is closer to $500/month which is about a $20 premium over what i am being quoted elsewhere.

From what I can tell all the providers honor each others waiting periods so there seems to be no real downside to switching providers. Jack, have you had any issues with your multiple switches?

I have not had any issues, and in the last financial year alone I switched 4 times! My understanding is that regulations require all providers to honour each others' waiting periods, and there are also regulations in place to allow seamless switching of providers whenever the customer feels like it - for example, you don't have to give any notice to your existing fund - in fact you don't even have to contact your existing fund - the new fund will do that on your behalf (if you sign a form/tick a box), and the old fund is obliged to act on that. It also has no impact on credit rating, assuming you pay your bills.

I'm aware of one caveat with Extras cover: with Medibank, the orthodontic limit increases each year you hold the policy, up to a pre-defined lifetime limit. As far as I understand it, that resets to zero if you switch (open to correction on that). The thing is though, the benefit starts at $400 and then increases by just $200 per year until it reaches $1,200. If you ever have to use this benefit, even if you had the maximum $1,200 limit available (which would require you to pay very high premiums for at least 5 years), you are still going to end up out of pocket by several thousand bucks (at least). Orthodontics is only covered on the Top Extras package - which costs a huge amount, so the off chance of claiming back up to $1,200 after 5 years is not a big consideration IMHO. There might some other little quirks in there, but not enough to stop me harvesting a couple of hundred thousand FF points per year!

 

[djchuckles]

I had a Qantas Assure policy before and got 50k points - can I take it up again and sill get the 90/100k points this time round?

 

[Jack_OC]

I had a Qantas Assure policy before and got 50k points - can I take it up again and sill get the 90/100k points this time round?

Yes I believe so. At least I hope so. I'm on my second Qantas Assure policy now - read the T&Cs on taking it out and it said nothing about excluding former policy holders from the bonus offer. I'm expecting my second lot of bonus points very soon, so I will report back.

 

[djchuckles]

Cool. Mine will be a single policy and it’s 300 a month so I don’t think will bother as 600 for 45k isn’t worth it and if I get charged a 3rd month then definitely not

 

[Jack_OC]

Cool. Mine will be a single policy and it’s 300 a month so I don’t think will bother as 600 for 45k isn’t worth it and if I get charged a 3rd month then definitely not

Yeah, if you don't already have private health insurance, I wouldn't take it out just for QF points. However, people who have an existing policy will probably find that they only have to pay a small amount extra to switch to Qantas Assure - for example in my case it was about an extra $30 a month.

 

[Ken1]

We switched to Qantas Assure health insurance in mid June. Back in March we dropped our Extras cover with our previous health fund as we found we were only claiming for dental and physiotherapy and in the previous 12 months we had paid $1200 extra and only claimed back $700 so we decided to put the $100 a month we saved into an account to cover extra medical expenses.

We've taken Advanced Hospital (the second top Hospital cover that doesn't include things like pregnancy, cosmetic surgery etc.) and Top Extras and that is costing $452 per month. At the time they were offering 60,000 points for this combination but after I had done an initial online quote I was phoned and offered double points if I sign up over the phone so I'm waiting on 120,000 points. We don't plan to keep the Extras after the points post and after that we will pay $267 per month for the hospital cover. If we had just taken out the Advanced Hospital cover we would have received 40,000 points (offer was 20,000 points x 2) so I decided it was worth paying the extra for 3 months to get the extra 80,000 points.

The third $452 payment was charged to our Amex card last week on the day 2 months after switching to QA. I was told that the points should post after 72 days so that should be next week. Hopefully the points will not be delayed so I can cancel the Extras cover before the next payment comes out.

 

[Ken1]

Yeah, if you don't already have private health insurance, I wouldn't take it out just for QF points. However, people who have an existing policy will probably find that they only have to pay a small amount extra to switch to Qantas Assure - for example in my case it was about an extra $30 a month.

Once we are on just the Advanced Hospital cover we will be paying $10 a month more than our previous health fund but I think it's worth it since I can use my Amex Explorer card to get 2 points per dollar as well as an extra point per dollar from Qantas Assure whereas I can't use Amex with our previous health fund plus of course the bonus sign up points I'm waiting on.

 

[Flymeanywhere]

Just read the T & C's and you need to be aware that if you are already in NIB and a number of other health insurance companies, you don't get the points.

 

[djchuckles]

Yeah, if you don't already have private health insurance, I wouldn't take it out just for QF points. However, people who have an existing policy will probably find that they only have to pay a small amount extra to switch to Qantas Assure - for example in my case it was about an extra $30 a month.

I wouldn't say a small amount extra - I pay $132 at the moment and Qantas top is over 300..

 

[bwhouse]

I wouldn't say a small amount extra - I pay $132 at the moment and Qantas top is over 300..

It would all depend on what your current cover is.