What happens if insurance excess higher than claim?

beachbeth

I have a Pug insured with m&s and she had eye operations last year which they covered the cost of with no excess. She has to have eye ointment for life which will cost about £260 per year. Of course, M&S have changed my policy so that I pay excess now and so have to pay the first £90 as excess and then will get the rest of the ointment free.

How does this work? Do they wait until I have had three lots of ointment (at £30 a tube) until I have spent £90 or do I give them the £90 and then they pay up for all the ointment?

Hope this isn't a daft question but Ive never been able to claim for anything like this before and don't know how it works!

Bromley86

Pretty daft . You should call them .

You pay for the treatments until you exceed the excess. You then claim for the full amount, from which they will deduct the excess.

To avoid any problems, always call to inform your insurers when you've had treatment that you think you might claim for eventually. For example, in our case (Halifax), you're meant to inform within 2 months of treatment otherwise they can refuse the claim. I know they don't stick to this though, as they didn't query a claim I submitted 2.5 months after.

Actually, in theory you may have to inform them of any treatment, but that's a different point.

beachbeth

Thanks for that Bromley. I rang insurance this morning. They said I could either save up my claim forms and then send them together once it exceeds £90 or I could send them in one by one and once it goes over £90 they will pay out. I have a 6 month period in which to send them though so I thought I'd send them as I go just to make sure I don't exceed this.

ali-t

beachbeth, that is a strange set up as it is all related to the same condition so you should get all of the treatment for free. I am with M&S and anything counted as an ongoing condition is free in the future.

pboae

You have to pay an excess for each condition in each insured year.

To simplify things for me, my vet prescribes me 3 months worth of meds for my first claim of the year (after 3 months I have to go back for a check-up anyway). With the meds and the consultation fee it easily pushes my claim over the excess limit, so I pay the vet the excess and they claim the rest from M&S.

After that I go back to monthly prescriptions and the vet just claims for each one as it comes in.

beachbeth

ali-t wrote: »

beachbeth, that is a strange set up as it is all related to the same condition so you should get all of the treatment for free. I am with M&S and anything counted as an ongoing condition is free in the future.

Look in your policy booklet and you'll see that this is actually per year. So for an ongoing condition you have to pay your excess each year for that condition and then everything is free for the rest of the year only.