SunLife's Over 50 Plan Offer

[Preston]

I'm thinking about taking one of SunLife's Over 50 Plans out via their online website, having been sent marketing material through the post.

I have been urged to apply online:

sunlife.co.uk/values quoting your online code 195311 before 2nd July 2018



The minimum monthly premium is apparently £3.90.

A £90 gift card is sent to you after 3 months of paid premiums. The first month is free. It is implied, by the inclusion of photos in their literature, that can be an Argos or M+S one, although this is not explicitly stated in writing.

You can cancel at any time, although if you do "your plan will end and you'll get nothing back"!

Hmmm, let me see - £90 less 3 x £3.90 = £78.30.

To my simplistic mind, what's not to like? Am I missing something obvious?

[Sarah]

Nice potential profit there. I suppose, some possible snags:

* Are you aged 49-85?

* Premium might be higher than the minimum, depending on answers given.

* They get your data, or whatever data you enter.

* They can ask for ID or decide not to award the gift card, if they wish.

Plan T&Cs:
https://www.sunlife.co.uk/siteassets/do ... itions.pdf

[Preston]

Thanks for those useful thoughts Sarah.

Unfortunately, I do fit the age criteria.

With these plans you actually get to pick the level of the premium you want to pay. There is no health questionnaire - just name, address, db, tel no, how much you want to pay, and bank dd mandate stuff.

The fact that SunLife are reserving the right to change or withdraw their Gift Offer at any time has got to be the major risk though.

I'm going to research a little further, and then probably have a punt at this.

Worst case scenario seems to be I could lose my £12 - but if everything works out I could end up with £78 profit and of course that lovely smug feeling you get when you manage to get one over on a financial institution. Or is that just me?

I'll report back with progress and outcome.

[Sarah]

I looked at some comments on MSE after making the above post. It seems to be successful prospect, although I note that the incentive has varied in recent years (previously £100 or goods valued up to £120 have been offered) on a downward trend, whilst the minimum number of payments to qualify for the welcome gift is on an upward trend (at one time only the first payment was required). Obviously most discussion is centered around the long term value of the plan (or lack thereof) which isn't a concern when the intent is to cancel as soon as possible upon receiving the incentive.

[planteria]

good luck to those of you who qualify.. withdrawal of the 'gift' would seem very harsh.

[Sarah]

Yeah, it seems pretty straightforward; they surely wouldn't want to discourage fully qualified customers from giving them decades of premiums. I've had success with many similar offers on 'term assurance' products, however I'm avoiding them lately since they now tend to have no-repeat clauses for the welcome gifts and many plans are the same underwriters with different branding (which might not necessarily be a problem but obviously makes it easier for them to spot patterns and flag issues if they want to play tough). I'm happily not yet within the criteria for "Over 50" plans, otherwise I'd try my luck!

Here's another - Royal London - up to £510 cashback but they'll no doubt take a lot in premiums before they pay out:
https://www.topcashback.co.uk/royal-london-over-50s/