We recently churned to Medibank Private for the family. I realised that we picked a cover which isn't all that generous in terms of claims for extras.
So I hopped on to live chat to ask them - in order to get the 6 weeks free, do we need to pay 4 weeks at the higher premium cost, or is it just paying for 4 weeks at any premium amount. The live chat agent told me that it didn't matter what premium we had before the 6 free weeks, we could upgrade or downgrade at any time.
If this is correct, wouldn't the best plan of attack be to join (for example) Medibank Private with a modest insurance plan, increase the coverage just before the free weeks, then downgrade just after the free weeks expire?
It seems a little bit too good to be true, so I'm wondering if I'm missing anything here.
What would you want to claim from the higher-tier plans, and would the waiting period apply? I imagine the waiting periods are designed to curb that sort of switching (and the 2/6 month waivers with signups probably won't be applicable if you switch to a higher plan during membership).