Pet insurance - have I misssed the claim date?

Weave · 22 May 2015 at 9:40AM

Hi

Would appreciate some advice on making claims on my dogs pet insurance with 'More Than'.

I foolishly did not read my pet insurance properly and have just realised that I could have claimed for several treatments over the last year that I have not. I have a £75 excess which I assumed was payable for each visit to the vet but the policy says "for each period of insurance one fixed excess applies" so this implies I pay it once only per year if I claim.

She is currently being treated for an ear infection which started about 35 days ago and the policy says we must claim within 30 days so I rang them just now to check and they said I could claim as the 30 days was 'just stated because its required by law' and I was fine to claim in the next few weeks when we have solved this ear infection.

Now I will get to my actual questions (sorry for the long post!)... this is her third ear infection and we have also had an allergic reaction which required an out of hours treatment. These happened over the past 6 months and I did not claim as they amounted to about £100 each time so £400 in total. Do you think it is worth claiming now for these older treatments or will they just say I am far too late? Anyone had experience of this?

If I claim and they say no is there a downside other than the fact they wont pay out?

Thanks.

InsideInsurance · 22 May 2015 at 10:33AM

The insurer will be on ropy grounds to decline a claim based on delayed notification unless they can demonstrate that their position has been prejudiced by the delay.

So to take an easier example, if you had a minor scratch on your car but didnt claim for months by which time the scratch had gone rusty changing it from a small touch up job to needing to replace the whole panel then they'd have reasonable grounds to reject the claim (or only pay out for the touch up it would have needed)

I'd personally be more cautious about the number of claims you want to make and its potential impact on future year premiums especially as they are relatively minor amounts in comparison to what they could be

Weave · 22 May 2015 at 11:04AM

Thanks 'Inside Insurance'. I may just claim for the current ear infection then as we are on our third follow up visit so running at about £250 in costs so far and the vet is talking about doing some allergy testing to try and eliminate the underlying cause.

stator · 22 May 2015 at 12:11PM

It depends on your insurer. The best insurers give you 12 months to claim, I wouldn't bother trying to claim anything older than that.

Do you have a 'for life' policy? Does it say whether premiums will go up if you make a claim? The best policies won't put your premium up so it's always worth claiming. The worst might add exclusions to your policy when you renew and put your premium up.

Weave · 22 May 2015 at 4:49PM

My understanding is that it is a 'For life' policy but it does not use that terminology in the paperwork.

The policy wording states - "you will be covered for up to £12k per year that the policy is made available to you and you continue to renew your policy with us". The 2 lesser products described in the policy booklet expressly state they will not cover the same condition in the next 12 months after a claim has been made in the previous 12 months.

To me that reads as - they will cover the condition for life if they decide to offer me a new policy but they can charge whatever premium they like and impose whatever excess they like. Seems a bit one sided, hopefully they will be reasonable when its renewal time in August.

I am just going to claim for the current ear problem which I have already registered the intent to claim by phone today. This bill will probably come to more than £300 when its all done which is what the policy cost me to buy.

The policy document mentions several times that claims must be registered within 60 days to count so I will write off the earlier bills that I didn't claim for as they may not pay out and will probably just add to cost of next years premium as a higher risk dog.

Pet insurance - have I misssed the claim date?

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