Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

hethmar

Oh bless, hope he has a long and happy life with you.

I dare say the cob they thought you would be likely using a lot more for work than the 18 year old pony??

melbury

After getting loads of quotes, I ended up renewing with Petguard for another year as they seemed the best value - despite having to pay out well over £2,000 in vets fees over the last year.

I do like the simplicity of their policy, in that you can knock out all of the things you don't want insurance for and basically just get cover for vets fees and third liability.

orlao

hethmar wrote: »

Oh bless, hope he has a long and happy life with you.

I dare say the cob they thought you would be likely using a lot more for work than the 18 year old pony??

LOL, the cob is only ridden on high days and holidays or when the supply of valium is plentyful:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:as he is *ahem* hard work....he's 90% retired and that's the way he likes it:D

The pony is in full work, ride and drive and tbh most 16 year olds (bar accidents) have many years ahead of them and I've never understood why insurance companies exclude them so early. After all younger, less experienced horses are much more likely to do themselves or someone/thing an injury as they learn about life

Bromley86

Wow, good news on the Halifax front.

IIRC, we've claimed 1.7k in the first year and the full £6k this past year. The premium increased from £12.50 to £15.02 at the end of the first year, so I was expecting something like £20 this year.

The renewal came in at 15.21! Best company ever.

Of course, the excess has increased to £100 as part of the change in underwriters, but the excess has never really mattered to me.

hethmar

You did well - we hadnt claimed a penny on ours.

hed_2

I'm trying to get insurance for my dog, and am getting more confused as I look at the options. I know I want life cover, but who is best for service and value?? M&S are looking good, but pet.insurance .co.uk are much cheaper! Help please!!

hethmar

M and S were the best a couple of years back, no excess and reasonable premiums but they changed underwriter and terms. Now £70 ? excess and the premiums went up a fair bit.

Generally its considered better to go with the companies that do their own policies, eg AXA, Pet Plan, NFU. I was quite impressed by Helpucover by Pinnacle Insurance but its a new boy on the block so cant find any reviews. Having said that Pinnacle is a very well established insurance company.

Good luck Take your time choosing because once you have insurance its best to be able to stay with the same company for life. If the rates shoot up and you have even visited a vet to ask about a condition the new insurer will exclude it.

kats53

I've just been looking at quotes for insurance for my 3 year old labrador, I've only had him 9 month and haven't insured him yet so I must get something sorted.
I've done all the ones recommended on here like M&S, Petplan and Axa. Axa were the cheapest out of those three at £ 18 per mth. I've also got a quote from Animal Friends which is £14.59 mth which gives £20000 lifetime ongoing condition. Has anyone been insured with them?

lowis

kats53 wrote: »

I've just been looking at quotes for insurance for my 3 year old labrador, I've only had him 9 month and haven't insured him yet so I must get something sorted.
I've done all the ones recommended on here like M&S, Petplan and Axa. Axa were the cheapest out of those three at £ 18 per mth. I've also got a quote from Animal Friends which is £14.59 mth which gives £20000 lifetime ongoing condition. Has anyone been insured with them?

when i adopted an older cat animal friends, axa, M&S, hsbc and halifax were just about the only ones that would cover him and offer true lifetime insurance.

halifax and hsbc wanted about £80 a month (ridiculous), M&S and AXA were very closely matched on their premium (£28 a month) and Animal Friends were the cheapest at around £18 a month. On closer inspection of the policies I noticed that Animal Friends' excess for older pets was something like £75 plus 35% of all claims - this is why they were cheap. That is the only thing that stopped me insuring with AF as their policy at the time (a year ago) looked very good. I couldn't find much negative stuff at all about AF when I did my research, so they must be OK.

In the end I went with AXA as 1) their policy is very good 2) they do not discriminate aginst the older pet and 3) they are a stand alone insurance company who do not use underwriters, hence far less chance of a sudden change in policy due to changes in underwriters.

kats53

Thanks for the info Lowis, the excess with Animal Friends is £99 which is not much more than the other companies. However I'm going to phone NFU for a quote today and see how they compare. I'll let you know how I get on.