M&S Pet Insurance - has yours renewed recently?

zzzLazyDaisy · 15 March 2008 at 12:06PM

I posted this on the insurance forum but had no response, so I'm trying on here - sorry if it is the wrong place.

Are there any M&S pet insurance policy holders out there who have had a renewal recently? I am concerned by the changes to their T&C's and wonder if they are going to apply to existing policy holders on renewal?

I have a cat insurance with M&S, lifetime cover, £7k vets fees per year, no excess. I pay monthly and the current year end in May 2008.

I have been looking for cover for a friend's cat and looked at M&S first, as I have been very satisfied so far.

I was horrified to see that the cover for a more expensive policy was much less, including a limit on the cover for each condition and £50 + % of fees excess.

My question is..... will M&S revise my cat's cover in May (if so it will be nothing like the supposedly 'lifetime cover' I signed up for) or do these drastic changes apply to new customers only?

As it happens I have made no claims and the cat has no pre-existing conditions so I could go to a different provider, but what if the cat had developed some illness in the meantime, can the insurer move the goal posts in this way on each renewal date?

If the policy cover is going to change so drastically, I will have to start looking around, pronto

Thanks

pboae · 15 March 2008 at 12:11PM

I have a policy for my dog and M&S have changed my policy when I renewed. There is now a £70 per condition excess and I have to phone and get their permission first before I can use an out of hours emergency service, plus other changes too. I'm not at all happy about it, but there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it.

If my dog had no pre-existing conditions I would jump ship and go to Petplan, I don't know how they are for cats, but they generally have a good reputation.

Contact M&S now and ask them what your new policy will be at renewal. You could probably ask for a sample copy to be sent out now. If you wanted to change, there is no reason why you couldn't do it now. You'd lose a couple of months premiums by leaving your M&S policy early, but that's probably less than the price of one over-inflated excess payment if you need to claim in the meantime.

But do check with them first, because they may not be passing all the new changes on to existing customers, at least not straight away.

MrsMW · 15 March 2008 at 12:16PM

I can't remember the exact figures but I had M&S for my dog and was horrified at the amount they quoted when I renewed it recently. I had a good search round and finally renewed with AXA.
It's definitely worth looking at others, M&S seems like a rip off now.
Good luck.

zzzLazyDaisy · 15 March 2008 at 5:38PM

Ok, thanks for this.

What worries me is that I choose what appears to be a good insurance, because I want to know that I have lifetime cover if anything goes wrong, and then a year or two down the line they can just change the rules.

Yes, this year I can shop around - I'll get a quote from AXA, thanks for the tip - BUT supposing in the meantime he had developed a health condition, that would not be covered under a new insurance. I just feel that they are building up their customer base under false pretences, because once you are with them, if the pet develops a problem you cannot then choose to move - even if by them the policy no longer offers the cover that you signed up for originally.

spookylukey · 15 March 2008 at 10:11PM

M&S are now underwritten by Royal & Sun Alliance, the terms and conditions are bordering on ridiculous (you MUST ring a 'helpline' before you take your pet to an out of hours vet - yeah right, like you're going to find your policy, ring the helpline and discuss whether your dying animal needs to go to a vet :eek:).

When your annual policy expires your renewal will be under Royal & Sun Alliance, the 'good' M&S insurance was underwritten by Axa. I'm going to be jumping ship early and insuring direct with Axa, it is virtually identical to the 'good' M&S policy and having done a dummy quote they are cheaper than M&S.

I'm going to start the Axa policy whilst the M&S is still running so that the first two weeks in which they would not be covered by Axa (all insurers have this clause, they are covered for an accident but not any illneses) they will still be covered by M&S.

sadie11 · 15 March 2008 at 10:44PM

I have just reluctantly renewed my 2 policies with M&S pet.
I have 2 dogs both 3years old my old policy was underwritten by AXA with no excess, I haven't had a claim on 1 policy but I have on the other so my hands are tied as pre-existing conditions wouldn't be covered with a new company(once you've claimed they have you) which is wrong.
I did consider moving insurers for the dog I haven't had a claim with but to be honest I haven't had any problems with claims and don't want to have policies all over the place.
Premiums have risen and excess has gone from nil to £70 per condition.
I did also consider just not bothering with insurance and putting money into a seperate account but it would be just my luck that something would happen as soon as my policies expired.

UKTigerlily · 16 March 2008 at 12:54AM

I had my cat with M&S due to the £0 excess they had & £7,000 cover. At renewal time it'd almost doubled for the year, had an excess & a % too & the stupid you must call us before going to an OOH vet bs

She does have one pre existing condition, arthritis, but i've changed her to Petplan anyhow, unlimited vets cover for life (£90 excess but no %, so at least I know where I am!)

Honeydog · 16 March 2008 at 10:01AM

Thanks for the heads up folks - my M & S is due for renewal in June. I'm going to start looking around now.

Cheers.

greenmoneysaver_2 · 16 March 2008 at 4:29PM

Hi all,

It would be fab if any M&S insurance holders highlighted the new T&C with national press. The veterinary press has picked up on this new "must only use approved M&S out of hours (OOH) service", but it needs to go further and more people need to be alerted.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons www.rcvs.org.uk also needs clients like all of you to protest.

In a time of stress why should you be subjected to making another phone call, and possibly go to an OOH which is not your usual one.

It is unclear if this is being done to divert clients to cheaper OOH clinics, especially in large cities, or if practices will pay to be the OOH service at the top of the list for that area for a specified time (rather like interflora flower shops...), either way it is removing client autonomy, which as health care providers Vets should be promoting at all times.

As a member of the veterinary profession please make your voices heard on this.

pboae · 17 March 2008 at 2:17AM

I've been trying to drum up some interest in this for a while, but no-one seems to be interested.

I also asked ML to look into Pet Insurance but nothing seems to have happened yet. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=564742

Bagpuss741 · 17 March 2008 at 3:02PM

My renewal came about 2 weeks ago and the price has gone up from £149 to £263 plus they will no pay for her specialist food:mad: and as for phoning them before I take my dog to an emergency vet NO WAY, if I feel my dog has to go to a vet as an emergency then she will go to the vets that know her. If she did not have a pre-existing condition I would leave but am now stuck with them.