Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

lowis

maggie999 wrote: »

Had a look at halifax and AXA. Halifax are £30 cheaper a year, excess is £10 more and cover £1000 less a year.

What would people reccomend as the better company to go with?

i would go for AXA simply because they are strictly an insurance company and won't be changing their underwriter at any given time, hence more 'solid'.

I don't really know much about the Halifax policy, but AXA do not discriminate aginast older pets either, they just have an excess of £75 - a lot of companies have £100 PLUS a percentage of the claim, in a lot of cases it is 20%. So if you are making a claim for £2000, you would have to pay £400 on top of the £100 excess too.

I have just made a claim for a newly adopted 14yo cat with AXA, for a dental procedure and a heart scan, they paid out without any fuss, despite the fact that the cat was old, with no medical history and was adopted and i had only had him 4 months.

i would also go for the policy that offers the most cover (if the premium isn't that much higher), vet's can do so much for our pets now...but at a cost. i had a cat who had cancer and we claimed £7000 in one year for chemo and associated treatments...and that was with my vet 'doing me a favour' as he was aware I had a £7000 a year limit (and we claimed £5000 the following year).

richleeds

Hi

Looking for insurance for an 8 week old female cross pup. Doing some comparisons its seems around £10 a month gets £4k of cover and there doesnt seem to be a lot in it between the insurers.

Any suggestions for the best of the best at £10 or any that are much less than £10 for similar cover?

thanks

rich

prudryden

UPDATE: Just cancelled my renewal policy with SAGA as they increased premiums by 30-35%. Have gone with AXA saving £86 for this year in addition to having better coverage. Also, got a quote from AXA last year and the quote this year was only marginally higher. Halifax quote for this year was almost double from last year - Halifax couldn't explain the difference. Had a cheaper quote from Pinnacle, but their online application wouldn't work properly and when trying to call them on their 0845 number, I was held on hold for 45 minutes - I finally gave up.

lowis

everytime i have called Axa i have been answered within a couple of rings, and without exception the staff have been knowledgable and helpful, and sound quite friendly too.

carolannjo

I am soooo confused by this whole pet insurance thing!! I have 6 weeks free cover with the Kennel Club for my 12 week old Curly Coated Retriver Puppy this expires on the 10th Feb. It will then cost me £30 a month which I think is rather steep.
Is there anywhere on site which tells me which insurance companies have life cover as opposed to the other one?
I have quotes from various people but am not sure who is life cover and who is not!!

More Than £18.39 for £7000 cover
Pet Plan £21.09 for £4000 cover
Argos £24.10 for £7000 no time limit
Helpucover £21.57 £6000 cover

can anyone assist on which would be the better one to go for, or for getting quotes from others.
Ta!!

hethmar

Of the above I think only Pet Plan is genuine for life unless some of the others have changed very recently.

Just checked ARGOS, even the platinum plan is a limit of £7k per condition in total. So not true life cover. Ditto More Than. Helpucover is lifetime cover - "Up to £6,000 towards vet bills per year for life"

If you read backwards through the thread you will see :

AXA, Halifax, M and S, NFU, HSBC all given as real life cover. Get quotes from them also.

prudryden

I believe Helpucover is Pinnacle Insurance. I was put on hold for 45 minutes on their 0845 number until I finally gave up. They were the lowest quote but, for me, not worth the hassle.

chaliepud

We think we are going to give up on the pet insurance, latest renewals have come in at £96 for three dogs! Have looked around a bit and could get it down but not with good cover, eg excesses will be high, not for life and sometimes not for more than a year. We will put £75 a month away into a "dog account" and keep our fingers crossed! I am going to take them all in this month for their Lepto jab and get a couple of things looked at before this insurance year ends tho, and will deffo look into getting some third party insurance just in case they do something they shouldn't - quite likely with a Cattle Dog! :rolleyes:

hethmar

Check out if you home insurance already covers the 3rd party

lilacjaffa

Hi, I'm hoping for advice or help, or maybe to find someone who has or is in the same situation as me.
My boxer, Lilly had TPLO surgery on her left stifle October last year. We have just found out this week that she needs the same surgery on her right stifle.
We have contacted our insurance company, Direct Line. We have a limit of £4,000 per condition and £3,100 has already been claimed. They are treating both claims as one claim and not seperate which means now we have to find at least £2,000 to cover the cost of her operation.
There is me thinking 2 legs which makes 2 seperate claims I am being told that because both legs showed arthritic changes in the xrays that were taken last October that it is one claim.
I thought the whole point of having pet insurance was to cover you when things like this happen. I am now very stressed!