Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

hethmar

Im afraid someone else had a similar problem with Tescos recently. Direct Line is not for life cover. What a problem for you. Hope it gets sorted.

hethmar

Oh it was Virgin that someone had that problem with recently. Another not for life policy. Some sort of legislation is needed to regulate pet insurance - its a minefield and you are sometimes gambling with life here.

prudryden

hethmar wrote: »

Oh it was Virgin that someone had that problem with recently. Another not for life policy. Some sort of legislation is needed to regulate pet insurance - its a minefield and you are sometimes gambling with life here.

I agree. Before I moved on to SAGA (which I didn't renew this year) I had Sainsbury's for about 3 years. They increased their premiums mildly for the first years, then they all of sudden doubled it. (No claim by me for that year). I went online and got a quote as a new policy about 20% cheaper than their renewal. When I called them, they said yes I could come back as a new policy holder cheaper, but any previous medical conditions would not be covered even if it was with them. I am starting to think that this is a way for insurance companies to reduce their exposure and is a SCAM and should definitely be looked into by some higher authority- such as the FSA. Mind you, they didn't do such a good job on the banks, so what chance do we have.

meggymoo78

Can anyone give me advice - my mum insured her puppy with Petplan. Sadly the puppy developed hip dysplasia which was picked up after she suffered an injury to her hip. The insurance paid out for one lot of x-rays, mum then proceeded to have the puppy's hip replaced for £4,500 believing that the insurance would cover some, if not most, of the cost. They have now placed an exclusion on the policy refusing to pay out any more money - where does she stand?

pboae

it depends what policy she has. If she had the value plan it will pay out a max of 3k for the first 12 months, and anything after that will be excluded. So if you spend £6k in the first year after diagnosis (I think that is 12 calendar months, not one insured year, but you would need to check) then they would pay out £3k of it, but you could never claim for that condition again. If you claimed £500 in the first 12 months and then another £2k after 18 months, you could claim the £500 back, but the 18 month claim would be excluded.

If she has the Budget Plan it will pay out £4k per year. So in the example above, the first one they would pay out £4k, in the second example they would pay out on both the £500 and the £2k claims, and if she claimed again the next year for another £5k they would pay £4k of that as well.

So she needs to check her policy and see what plan she bought.

ragjoy

i have just received my renewal from tesco,we only have a low cover policy for our dog last year which was our first year was £6.17 p/m this year £11.13 thats an increase of 80% there was also an increase to the excess to £70.
we only want emergency cover as i feel that we would one way or another get refused pay outs by these band of con merchants if we had top end cover.
there was apparently a 30% discount given to us last year,but even with no discount the % increase is bloody robbery.
we have made no cliams and the dog is 18 mths old,how the hell do they justify such an increase.
i phoned there cancellations dept and was told i could have the policy for £10 i asked if there was somewhere in the office where the sun wasnt shining and told him to place there policy there.
ive just done a check for a new policy under my wife's name all details correct and true price £8.13 excess £60.
RANT OVER:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

hethmar

Well, if you havent even visited the vet with this dog then you could get another insurer with a proper life cover, as tescos isnt. Had your dog developed a chronic condition, you would have been on your own once you reached the max pay out. So this may be a blessing in disguise.

PamG

Anyone any advice on a good Cat plan? My mum has just a renewal through for her cat plan from Argos. Gone up by £3 a month and they gave her the excuse it's because the of the area she lives - however she's lived there all the time!! Plus they said it's because of a change of underwriter... time to change providers me thinks....

lowis

if your mum changes provider now, anything non-routine that you cat has been to the vets for will be excluded from any new insurance policy.

petplan, axa, halifax, m&s, greenbee, anumal friends are all pretty good - and offer true 'for life' cover.

fingerbob7

I used the moneysupermarket website to take out Pet insurance for my dog. E&L came out at top value for £9.50 /month for £2000 vet cover. I was waiting for my documents to arrive and then forgot about them. Meanwhile the monthly money was being taken from my account. I decided to contact them about the documents today (two months later) and discovered they don't send them out. They were emailed to me. I checked my junk mail and sure enough there was an email from them with the policy documents. When I read through the docs I realsied it's not £2000 vets fees covered, but only £500 per condition 4 times a year. What a joke! Anyone with a pet knows even a minor ailment can add up quickly. This policy, costing approx £120 a year is not worth the paper it's written on- I forgot, it wasn't even written on paper. A total waste of money, if you factor in the £79 excess they sneak in.

I feel really stupid. I was with Argos before but they doubled the premium, even though I had no claims for 3 years. I trusted the moneysupermarket website, because it's lined to this site.

Grrr!:mad: