Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

chocolatepennyfarthing

Thanks for the advice Firecracker petpals seems a very good policy. £15.20 for me for same policy. Just taken my policy out with them.

hethmar

Hi guys, if you go back on this thread you will see that we narrowed down a choice to Halifax, Axa, Petplan, M and S and HSBC as being genuine for life cover - no doubt there are some others that are bona fide but, as firecracker has found out, it is VERY confusing and that healthypets policy he was going to buy is NOT a for life cover but per condition.

firecracker, have you checked out the others mentioned here as the £5k doesnt sound as high as some of these and the premium is quite high.

These were mine for a 2 year old pedigree male: All include alternative treatments

HSBC is £148.68 a year with £7500 per year life time cover and £75 excess (equals £12.39 per month)
AXA is £161 per year for £6k lifetime cover with £50 excess (£13.41)
Halifax is £152.66 per year for £6k lifetime cover and £50 excess (+ £20 cash back available on quid.co)(£11.05 per month)

f1re_cr4cker

i have checked out the others but its actually a very good deal as hsbc was a £75 excess, axa £19per month, halifax was more i believe and pet plan was well over £20!! All had higher excesses as well i seem to recall. i did use the defaqto tool by the way so i know that its genuine lifecover im getting plus it covers everything that the tool looks at.i know a lot of them cover £7000 a year but to be honest id rather take the chance of only £5000.

chocolatepennyfarthing

Are the other policies mentioned per condition and renewable every year or is that cover for each illness for life.

f1re_cr4cker

they are simialar but cover up to £7000 rather than £5000 and have higher excesses which makes them more expensive- well for me anyway.

hethmar

Halifax and AXA have only £50 excess and higher pots for the condition per year. The pot is filled up every year and you start again with the same amount that can be claimed. That is proper life cover. Per condition means that if your pet has a chronic illness, once you have used up the pot of money thats it, you are dumped for that condition. You cant move to another insurer and you are left having to try to pay out yourself. Its dreadful they dont make this clear. NFU was another policy I looked at and was tempted as NFU and Petplan are the longest standing insurers in this field. But NFU offers only £4k per condition per year. This is probably more than sufficient for most pets but its just that niggle that you may need more if you had a pet needing serious operations and treatment.

You need to compare all the "for life" policies and the premiums charged. Bear in mind that a lot of us were caught by M and S when it was the new boy on the block and now find ourselves with a premium that is doubled, increased excess and unable to move to a better deal because we have made a claim. If I had the dosh, without doubt Id go for Petplan.(Quidco do currently give £25 cash back on Petplan policies)

f1re_cr4cker

so weird axa is now coming in at only £16 a month for me....ta hethmar it really is a minefield!

hethmar

Absolutely - It is very very wrong. I work as a volunteer with a dog rescue and also belong to a dog site on the net - one poor girl on the forum thought she had full lifetime cover when her dog became chronically ill on £80 per month meds. Sadly - after the £5k cover ran out she had a young dog still needing the meds and was in a terrible dilemma.

Always check quidco.com and other cashback sites to see if you can use their link for cash back on these policies.

minimoneysaver

I am looking at getting a Jack Russell puppy and wondered if you could please point me in the right direction of the best dog insurance?
Many thanks in advance.

Gareth56

Try M&S (Marks & Spencer) they used to have a zero excess until recently but sadly no longer but having checked the others they come out the best value.