Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

MrsE_2

malfollie_01 wrote: »

I would say stretch to what you can afford though it is always a lot cheaper than the vet bills!!! Hope the post is of some help

Hi, not being picky but its NOT always cheaper than the vets bills.
In fact its usually not, thats how insurance companies make their money.
If it was cheaper than vets bills, they would be making a loss instead of a profit.

I'm also very reluctant to OVER insure, people only need to cover medical bills, some of the extras & ad ons on these policies are just frills & filling, you don't need death cover on your dog/cat? Its not like you are going to miss his wage?

Insurance for all sorts is thrown at us from every angle, if we insured for everything, we would have no money to eat!

jeannieblue

lowis wrote: »

please be careful with the tesco 'standard' policy, you do indeed get £2500 per condition, but each condition is only covered for the 12 months from the first date of treatment i.e. if you only claim £1000 in the 12 months, you do not get to roll over the £1500 for future treatment beyond those 12 months. so if your dog gets a condition in 2009 and you claim £1000, and then the same condition returns in 2011 you will not covered for that condition the second time around.

if you can find a value policy that doesn't have this 12 month time limit on their vet fees claim allowance i would suggest this might be a better option.

good luck x

For the 4k per condition with Tesco's - there is no 12 months limit. And like MrsE - I really don't want death cover........ can't see the point in that at all. Unless you wanted to throw a big wake....

hethmar

Jeannie, dont know much about Tesco, except there was someone on here a few months back distraught because they had stopped paying out on a chronic condition when the pot of money ran out.

Just had a look on their site:

Standard cover...

• covers the cost of treating an injury or illness up to £2,500 per eligible condition
• offers a maximum of 12 months cover from the start of the eligible condition

lOWIS has explained above why the standard cover is duff.

• 
  

Extra cover...

• covers the cost of treating an injury or illness up to £4,000 per eligible condition
• has no time limit on claiming (on a live policy)

The two policies above are NOT for life. Both are limited to the amounts shown per condition. So, even on the best policy there - say you had a dog with a broken hip - your £4000 would be gone in one go and you would get NO further cover for that condition or anything related to that condition. So if the vet said, it needs remedial surgery - you would be on your own. If your dog got arthritis because of the hip - it would be related, so that would not be covered.

Although it misleads a bit by saying," no time limit "-on claiming (as long as you pay the premium every time), that actually means, the condition will only be covered until the money has been used up. So broken hip, pinned together £2500k one year, further surgery the following year for £5k - youd have to find £3.5k of that yourself.

On a proper for life policy with say £7k cover

Broken hip - £4k paid, Next year, hip still causing probs and needs ongoing remedial work - another £5k - paid. Following year, still problems, another £5k for surgery and therapy - paid.

Do you see what we mean? If it said £xk per condition per year - thats different to £xk per condition.

hethmar

Maggie, Im with Halifax which is underwritten by AXA. Why I wish Id gone with NFU or Petplan is that they are longest established and are unlikely to suddenly double premiums or change their conditions (though I noticed petplan has bought out an economy not for life plan recently).

jeannieblue

Thanks Hethmar - I will take a look at NFU - I wasn't taken with Petplan, if am honest.

marshallka

Dreamy wrote: »

We have just got tesco insurance for our two dogs a Rottweiler and a Doberman both under 1 one company I phoned wanted over £60 each per month tescos is doing us a policy for £25.35 a month covering both for up to £2500 each the excess is £60 not sure how good they are at paying out and that is the most basic policy but its really good as you can choose to be covered for travel to Europe, death and various other things for just a few pounds extra per month for both of them and got 20% of for applying on line have phoned them with a querie and got a quick answer even though I went through to the wrong department.
In answer to the person who asked why you would want them on the same policy the reasons I like it is 1 its one less form to fill in
2 one less piece of paper to have in the house and to know where to put
3 one less thing going out of the bank
and 4 you often get discounts as the insurance company doesn't have as much to do either

Thanks for that, just done a quote for my two and its £38.22 for the same policy (older dogs) and I know its not the best but at least its something. I will have to think about it and juggle some figures and bills.:o

prudryden

One of the problems with these STORE policies e.g. Sainsburys, Tesco's, etc. is that they use these policies as LOSS LEADERS. They get you in for the first or second year cheaply hoping you will do more shopping for car, house, health, contents etc insurance. About the second or third year, they wallop you with double premiums even if you haven't had a claim on your pet. They then blame it on the underwriter, which I found just wasn't true.

marshallka

prudryden wrote: »

One of the problems with these STORE policies e.g. Sainsburys, Tesco's, etc. is that they use these policies as LOSS LEADERS. They get you in for the first or second year cheaply hoping you will do more shopping for car, house, health, contents etc insurance. About the second or third year, they wallop you with double premiums even if you haven't had a claim on your pet. They then blame it on the underwriter, which I found just wasn't true.

Oh, don't say that. We have just taken the tesco basic policy :eek:out for our older dogs. (one 8 years, 4 months and one 11 years, 7 months). Is it not possible then to change insurers if you are not happy with the price and shop around again like with car insurance and home insurance?? We used to have insurance but had to cancel during the credit crunch and had NEVER needed it then either.:mad:

We are at the vets again tonight with our border and it cost us £165 on holiday monday and then the fees of tonight (and whatever other fees there are until he is better) as it happened before the policy (which i have only done today) so it has to worth something...it was corneal ulcers on both eyes which I HOPE were due to walking in the woods (loads of thistles!!) rather than an actual illness although they are on both eyes. He has stopped rubbing his eyes now but does squint at sunlight still. They have said they are superficial though... . He had cut down the side of his nose just below the eye at the same time but i had bathed that myself and its fine but a couple of says later he started with this. If this is a one off then there is still a chance his eyes are not covered and anything arising from his eye problem but just hoping and praying it was injury and they will not omit them forever.

hethmar

I think its likely they will exclude his eyes. Any excuse with most of the insurers. Really depends on what the vet wrote on the notes. If he has put a trauma injury then its a one off.

Of course you can change insurers but the new ones will exclude anything you have claimed for or even visited the vet about previously. Thats what is so annoying about Marks and Spencers, they lured us all in with very good premiums and NO excess then they bumped up the premiums and added an excess. Those of us who had claimed during our sub or even just visited the vet about something were trapped. Cant move to another insurer if the problem is likely to return or continue

hethmar

jeannieblue wrote: »

Thanks Hethmar - I will take a look at NFU - I wasn't taken with Petplan, if am honest.

Well Petplan is the industry standard really Jeannie and if Id been able to afford it when I got mine it was probably the way to go. Though Im not keen on the way they have bought out the non life policy aswell, which could confuse people.

The NFU you have to telephone - they dont do online quotes, they tailor them to you. They dont have a very high benefit, about £4k I seem to remember but it is PER condition PER year. In theory you could be claiming any number of conditions at £4k a year for each of them. They dont raise the excess either which is good. I believe they cover any age - check that out though, its a while since I got the quote. Also they dont include things like taking dogs abroad and so on, which is optional and which most of us wouldnt need. They also ask if your dog is covered by your household insurance for third party liability and if so, dont include that.