Transfer Of Animal Friends Insurance Policies

pigeonpie

I have 2 old pets with chronic illnesses insured via AFI with E&L so I am stuck with one or the other company. I'm really upset about all the acrimony and worried that the new underwriters won't last long as all the people with no problem moving their pet insurance will move insurer and Red Sands will be left with expensive, unprofitable clients like my 2 pets! Insurance cos are only there to make money and they won't be for a few years yet. This appears to be Red Sands or Hollards first moves into the supposedly lucrative UK insurance market as well.
Who is going to sign up as a new member of AFI with young healthy pets while all this is going on? I read on their website they are now going to court on it all.

AFI are making very reassuring noises (compared to E&L who are sending out rants ) but I'm still very concerned. I am going to need probably £1000s reimbursed in the next year or two as my pets, like lots of old pets, have a chronic and finite disease. They are going to need a lot of vets treatment before the end of their lives.
I'm used to paying 35% as they are old but I do need that 65% back.

Must have felt like a good idea to AFI to move (I believe M&S pet insurers moved underwriter without this fuss) but wonder if they are now regretting it.

bloggie

I've also had all the letters.

I am under the belief that it doesn't matter too much who the underwriters are, as the company we signed the contract with was animal friends.
I don't much like the cheap and nasty letters e and l have sent to me. I don't think it was ethical that the underwriters have used my private information to write to me and others, just steal business, which is what it boils down to!

of course I may go elsewhere, my cat's not had any 'conditions' so far.

madkitty

does anyone know what will be happening with the cross over if you have a claim - mine is ongoing at the moment and it looks like poor little mite will be going into hospital tonight....I wonder if I will then have to submit a separate claim to Animal Friends?

orlao

It was reported in yeaterdays Mail on Sunday (financial pages) that AFI is going to court to stop E&L trying to poach their customers:eek:

madkitty

and here too http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=447275&in_page_id=3&position=moretopstories

Bob63

orlao wrote: »

It was reported in yeaterdays Mail on Sunday (financial pages) that AFI is going to court to stop E&L trying to poach their customers:eek:

AFI customer service told me on the phone today that they did go to court and were successful.

We have one dog currently with AFI and will stay with AFI due to ongoing claims for existing conditions. The other two are insured elsewhere because AFI pee'd me off big time when our lovely Welsh Springer died a couple of years back aged just 11 months. They had already paid out for the £3000+ treatment he had received prior to his sudden death (albeit very slowly), but I was shocked and upset when the payout for his death was reduced by 25% as he had been neutered. This wasn't an E&L issue, but a condition in the AFI policy. I checked with AFI today to see if this clause was still going to be there with the new underwriter and they confirmed that it would be. Neither of our two other dogs have this grossly unfair clause on their death benefit. I wonder if Chris Fairfax of Animal Friends would care to comment on this clause?

For now, given the unfair clause in their insurance, my recommendation is to steer clear of Animal Friends if you have the choice. I don't

GhostHunter_3

Hi

I am also a customer who has got caught up in this. I haven't been very happy with E&L / AFI for the past year. We have had one of our two dogs insured with them for some time and it seemed fairly reasonable at £12 or thereabouts a month. Last year we took in another dog and naturally wanted to have him insured as well.

I called up the insurance company to try and add the second dog onto the existing policy as it happend to co-inside with its anual renewal. They took the deatails and I was expecting a second pet discount. The amount I was then quoted for 2 pets was £15. I was shocked to find out that I was wrong, the total policy amount is £16. per dog :eek: (£31)!! Both dogs are from rescue shelters, at the time I renewed the policy one dog was 3 the other 4.

Therefore with the recent squabbling with us as customers stuck in the midst of it I am looking around at other policies as I still beleive this amount to be mis-calculated, however even though I have questioned it with them on several occasions they tell me its correct. Yet they are taking 2 separate Direct Debits from my account and I have 2 separate insurance policies, doesnt make sense. From what I see I simply have 2 separate policies and no discount! I havent had to make a claim for either dog as yet thankfully and may it remain this way.

Can anyone reccomend a like for like policy with an alltogether different company that will offer me a discount for a 2nd pet, and a low excess?

On the other paw I may just stay where I am andsee if I can get a 20% discount and 2 dogs on 1 policy and shop around next year. It doesnt help that this has all come litteraly just after my renewal! :mad:

Thanks.

cfairfax

Hi

First of all thanks Madkitty for your kind reply to my post. We certainly want to help customers through the needless confusion caused by E&L. Your query on claims - simple answer. Up to the date your policy is renewed with Red Sands (i.e. the date of the month you took your policy out) claims are the legal responsibilty of E&L and any valid claim has to be honoured. After the renewal date we shall deal with claims ourselves, including ongoing ones where a customer has a lifetime policy.

Now an update - we did win in Court against E&L on 11th July and we got an injunction preventing them from making further contact with our customers for the time being (apart from dealing with claims). We also got an order which will make the transfer to Red Sands as simple as we said it should have been from day 1, namely that customers who wish to stay with us really need do nothing, we shall handle everything for you.

As to Red Sands they are certainly here to stay. They do not stand alone; they are part of a family of companies the insurance arm of which underwrites £500 million of premium worldwide. By contrast E&L underwrites some £15 million of which some £4 million is ours! I see a few of you have commented on E&L and claims. You will perhaps understand then why we wanted an underwriter who would give us full authority to handle claims ourselves at our HQ so we are no longer held back by factors we don't control.

On your individual concerns about aspects of policy wording it is very helpful to get customer feedback so we can look at developing our wording and products. We shall shortly be launching revised and new products - for example we'll be offering a choice of excesses and an option for a 15% excess on older pets rather than the 35% under the E&L scheme.


As ever, if you have any queries please call our team on

cfairfax

It seems the forum cut off the end of my last post! I don't think you're allowed to put up phone numbers?

I simply finished by saying if you have any queries or worries at all then just give us a call at Animal Friends

Best wishes

Chris Fairfax
Director
Animal Friends Insurance

madkitty

Thanks Claire - it gives us a lot more confidence to see that AFI are concerned so much about the trouble this has caused and that you are trying to set things right on the web too x