Fitness trackers and insurance discounts
Personal wearables can be a great way to help you maintain a healthier lifestyle. But can you get fitness tracker insurance discounts and save money on your life insurance premiums? Find out in our guide.
Personal wearables can be a great way to help you maintain a healthier lifestyle. But can you get fitness tracker insurance discounts and save money on your life insurance premiums? Find out in our guide.
What are fitness trackers and wearables?
A fitness tracker is an electronic device that you wear as a watch or bracelet. Using sensors and GPS, it can track your physical activity and other aspects of your general health. You can sync this data to a smartphone app.
Fitness trackers are typically used every day to track and measure:
- Step count
- Weight
- Calories burned
- Sleep patterns
- Heart rate.
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Some devices also track exercises related to particular sports, including running, swimming and workout sessions.
Another popular feature is an ‘inactivity alert’ – your device will alert you if you’ve been still for too long.
What are the benefits of wearables and fitness trackers?
Wearable tech won’t magically make you healthy. But fans of the devices believe they can help you stay motivated and encourage you to maintain a healthier lifestyle.
Harvard researchers found that people who exercised more than the recommended minimum 150-300 minutes a week lowered their risk of early death by as much as 31%. Regular exercise is also linked with a reduced risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Aside from people using them to monitor their own health, there are also some government-backed initiatives offering free personal wearables and fitness apps.
Residents taking part in a pilot scheme launched in Wolverhampton in February 2023 have been given free fitness trackers, which are linked to the Better Health: Rewards app. This offers incentives like vouchers for shops, gym discounts and cinema tickets to people who exercise more.
The NHS also has its own fitness tracker and training programme apps – Couch to 5K and Active 10 – that you can download onto your smartphone.
Can I get a fitness tracker insurance discount?
Smart tech has been a feature of health and life insurance products for a while now, and some insurance providers offer discounts to people who wear fitness trackers to achieve activity goals.
Vitality, for example, is offering discounts on activity trackers to customers who sign up for a qualifying life insurance or health insurance plan. Reward points gained by the trackers are then linked to their insurance profile.
Insurance is all about calculating risk, so it isn’t surprising that life insurance providers are showing interest in how life insurance and fitness trackers can impact a person’s risk.
Will a fitness tracker lower my life insurance premium?
Just owning a personal wearable won’t, in itself, have a direct impact on your life insurance premium.
When you apply for life insurance, your insurance provider will ask questions relating to your health and lifestyle.
These could include questions about:
- Whether you smoke
- Your alcohol consumption
- Height and weight
- Physical activity
- Whether you take part in dangerous sports
- Your occupation
- Your family health history
- Pre-existing medical conditions.
It’s no secret that the unhealthier you are, the more risk you pose to insurance providers and, therefore, the more expensive your life insurance premiums will be.
Used correctly, personal wearables could potentially motivate you to:
- Lose weight
- Eat more healthily
- Be more active
- Sleep better.
If a fitness tracker helps you to maintain a healthier lifestyle or helps you show that you’re trying to improve your health or manage a health condition, it may result in a more affordable life insurance premium.
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