Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Pearbear

Does anyone know of insurance cover that cover preexisting conditions? I have a kitten and has been under the weather. Took him to the vet and kept him in for a few days. They only charged me 120 pounds. I think it would of cost more since they did so many things to him. Anyway he came home and acting great for a while and now the same symptoms surfaced.

I need a cat insurance that will cover everything. I am now thinking i should get life time cover. Any tips would be great.

lowis

Pearbear wrote: »

Does anyone know of insurance cover that cover preexisting conditions? I have a kitten and has been under the weather. Took him to the vet and kept him in for a few days. They only charged me 120 pounds. I think it would of cost more since they did so many things to him. Anyway he came home and acting great for a while and now the same symptoms surfaced.

I need a cat insurance that will cover everything. I am now thinking i should get life time cover. Any tips would be great.

sorry your kitten is unwell. no insurance company is going to cover this condition now. it would be good if your vet could be specific as to what this illness is, so the insurance company doesn't blanket exclude anything generic!

best life cover is available from petplan (not the budget policy), axa, M&S, NFU x

star8uck

Been hunting around for quotes, this forum has helped me in understanding what type of cover I should look for. I know I want ''true lifetime'' cover. A cover that has an amount that resets/tops up when you renew your policy. A cover that does not set a limit per condition (other than the yearly lifetime limit).

So from this forum, I understand only a select few companies off this true lifetime cover. M&S, AXA, Petplan & NFU have all been mentioned whilst I scrolled through this thread. Have got a quote from all.

I have 3 kittens and 1 puppy, all pedigree, all needing cover in the very near future... all fresh 3 months old with no medical conditions.

Petplan: The lady was polite, answered all questions and was informative. She did however ''ramble on'' like she didnt know what do say/do once she had quoted me and knew I was just ''window shopping''. Quoted price Approx £800 for 4k a year cover, or £950 for 6k a year cover. Excess £85.

M&S: Nice, short quote. Didn't need to spend a very long time to get to the quote, and to finsih the call after quote. This maybe beacause they were so very high in comparrison. Quote price approx £1,250 for 7k a year. Excess £50cat £70dog (at 9yrs old they claim excess & 20% of claim).

AXA: You cant ring them to get a ''new'' quote. Online you don't seem to be able to get 'multi-pet' discounts, so I rang them anyway. I said sorry, but online I don't see where I add more than one pet and benifit from a discount. I was told, dont worry, just get a quote individually and the system will work out from you info that you are adding more pets and work it out accordingly. Quote price £150 1st cat £171 2nd cat £211 3rd cat £324 dog. I had no idea what was going on, isn't it supposed to get cheaper? I rang them again. The next chap was a little more clearer, but confirmed to me that the process makes no sense at all. You get a refrence number after the 1st animal quote, then u add the last 6 numbers of that referance number to the box on the next quote, then you do that again with the next two. After I used the referance number it quoted me £20 more than if I didnt use a referance number!

NFU: The chap I spoke to here was very informative. At 1st, when he learnt that I was looking for cover of 4 pets, all pedigree, he politely told me they would be high. I told him don't worry, I want lifecover, from a good company, I know you will be more than argos/tesco etc. He never seemed pushy or sales minded. Quote price £700 for 4k £75 excess. 4k per year was their max limit which is a little dissapointing. However there seems to be a lot of plus's. They are underwritten by themselves, unlike petplan/m&s, so less change of big changes if they change owners etc. He said (might sound all gimiky and sales pitch but it really didn't sound like he was saying ''come with us and we give you this'') that NFU celebrate 50 yrs and next yrs renewal I will get 12% cash back (£80 approx). One final point, and this is massive..... **** they offer no clamis discount**** I was not expecting this, didn't think this happened with pet insurance. He wasn't too knowledgeable on this at 1st, but he went away twice to confirm. I said I would like it in writting, he said it was fine, it was in their Terms&Conditions. To confirm he said 15% 1st year 20% 2nd year 25% 3rd year & 30% 4th year and following. Now, I'm not stupid, I won't be put off going to the vets if they are unwell just to keep my no-claims bonus intact... but it their 1st years... I hope and pray they are fit and healthy so this is a massive bonus!



Ok, I must ring AXA again and try and bash a quote of of them over the phone, I am soooo confused by the ''only online quote''.

I must also ring NFU and see if they cover dental... which is something petplan said they covered within the normal 4k policy.

But right now, NFU are looking top dog & top cat :-P

Fire_Fox

Hmmmm, AXA sound like they were clear as mud!! Shame as they were great when I had to ring and clarify. Silly that they can't sort out a multi-animal quote over the phone as that is quite a lucrative sale.

thesim

star8uck wrote: »

Been hunting around for quotes, this forum has helped me in understanding what type of cover I should look for. I know I want ''true lifetime'' cover. A cover that has an amount that resets/tops up when you renew your policy. A cover that does not set a limit per condition (other than the yearly lifetime limit).

So from this forum, I understand only a select few companies off this true lifetime cover. M&S, AXA, Petplan & NFU have all been mentioned whilst I scrolled through this thread. Have got a quote from all.

I have 3 kittens and 1 puppy, all pedigree, all needing cover in the very near future... all fresh 3 months old with no medical conditions.

Petplan: The lady was polite, answered all questions and was informative. She did however ''ramble on'' like she didnt know what do say/do once she had quoted me and knew I was just ''window shopping''. Quoted price Approx £800 for 4k a year cover, or £950 for 6k a year cover. Excess £85.

M&S: Nice, short quote. Didn't need to spend a very long time to get to the quote, and to finsih the call after quote. This maybe beacause they were so very high in comparrison. Quote price approx £1,250 for 7k a year. Excess £50cat £70dog (at 9yrs old they claim excess & 20% of claim).

AXA: You cant ring them to get a ''new'' quote. Online you don't seem to be able to get 'multi-pet' discounts, so I rang them anyway. I said sorry, but online I don't see where I add more than one pet and benifit from a discount. I was told, dont worry, just get a quote individually and the system will work out from you info that you are adding more pets and work it out accordingly. Quote price £150 1st cat £171 2nd cat £211 3rd cat £324 dog. I had no idea what was going on, isn't it supposed to get cheaper? I rang them again. The next chap was a little more clearer, but confirmed to me that the process makes no sense at all. You get a refrence number after the 1st animal quote, then u add the last 6 numbers of that referance number to the box on the next quote, then you do that again with the next two. After I used the referance number it quoted me £20 more than if I didnt use a referance number!

NFU: The chap I spoke to here was very informative. At 1st, when he learnt that I was looking for cover of 4 pets, all pedigree, he politely told me they would be high. I told him don't worry, I want lifecover, from a good company, I know you will be more than argos/tesco etc. He never seemed pushy or sales minded. Quote price £700 for 4k £75 excess. 4k per year was their max limit which is a little dissapointing. However there seems to be a lot of plus's. They are underwritten by themselves, unlike petplan/m&s, so less change of big changes if they change owners etc. He said (might sound all gimiky and sales pitch but it really didn't sound like he was saying ''come with us and we give you this'') that NFU celebrate 50 yrs and next yrs renewal I will get 12% cash back (£80 approx). One final point, and this is massive..... **** they offer no clamis discount**** I was not expecting this, didn't think this happened with pet insurance. He wasn't too knowledgeable on this at 1st, but he went away twice to confirm. I said I would like it in writting, he said it was fine, it was in their Terms&Conditions. To confirm he said 15% 1st year 20% 2nd year 25% 3rd year & 30% 4th year and following. Now, I'm not stupid, I won't be put off going to the vets if they are unwell just to keep my no-claims bonus intact... but it their 1st years... I hope and pray they are fit and healthy so this is a massive bonus!



Ok, I must ring AXA again and try and bash a quote of of them over the phone, I am soooo confused by the ''only online quote''.

I must also ring NFU and see if they cover dental... which is something petplan said they covered within the normal 4k policy.

But right now, NFU are looking top dog & top cat :-P

Just a few points, any decent company do not do no claims discounts. Why? Because there are people out there who will not take there pets to the vets if it is ill simply because they dont want to lost the "no claims".

Essentually, NFU have admitted that if you make a claim they can up your premium.

Any decent insurance company will not have a no claims scheme, but they wont charge you more if you make a claim.

Please dont think of pet insurance as car insurance, its totally different.

Another small point, Petplan are owned by Allianz who underwrite the policies so they wont change owners.


Anyway, best of luck and hope you finally managed to get a decent answer from Axa!

sindersoot

We have two border collie crosses insured with Pet Protect and have always found them to be very good. These are both life time and not 12 month period cover for an ongoing illness. Used to be with Pet Plan many years ago but found Pet Protect gave more value for money at the time we took policies out. I don't know though how they compare to other insurance companies.

hmc

hi
just rung nfu for quote to be told as the dog is 6 they need to see his hipscore stuff from puppy???
i think i have something upstairs will have to look . but what if i havnt? seems an unfair request, if he was a rescue dog i wouldnt have this paper work
im unsure what to do
having read all the posts axa seems the way to go , but as im on full benefits and going through chemo at the moment money is extreamly tight

so wondered if one of the cheaper policies are better than nothing?
or the not for life ones
thanks

lowis

sorry to hear things are rough at the moment...

firstly, please try to avoide the not-for-life policies, ESPECIALLY the time-restricted ones which only offer 12 months of cover for a condition...please avoid these.

there are plenty of policies that offer an amount per condition which doesn't have a time-limit on claiming i.e. More Than, Sainsburys etc. This means you get (for example) £7000 per condition to last the life of the pet, as opposed to £7000 a year, each year for as long as the pet is alive. these might be a good alternative

have you compared the cost of an AXA quote with that of say More Than or Sainsburys? you may be surprised in that the premium is not that much more for the better AXA policy. you could also try Pinnacle pet insurance...they offer life cover and I have read that their premiums are fairly priced.

also, remember that whichever firm you go with now, you are stuck with...you can't chop and change insurance policies for pets as any new insurer will exclude previous conditions/illnesses.

good luck, it can be difficult deciding what is best, lots of people here to help you though x

star8uck

picked up my 3 kittens today. settled in nicley, a little hissing as 2 are bro/sis and the other is a different litter and breed!

still thinking nfu for my insurance. i did ring axa again to explain that when i tried ( read my above post on this page ) to get a multiple pet quote online, it got more expensive rather than cheaper *scratch head* and so could they kindly quote me over the phone..... no. Yup, correct, thats a no then. No they don't want my at least £600 a year? OK fine. Think I will try Pinnacle. Their head office is close to where I work and loads of them come in all suited and booted on their lunch hour. See if I can get a sneaky discount!

hmc

thankyou for the help
these quotes are very confusing
tesco is cheapest with £60 excess'and 4000 per condition
came in at 13.30
any views on this please?