Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

thesim

Twinklie, I dont think any pet insurance company drops the price as a pet gets older, as all insurance base their prices on your pets breed, age and location (i.e, vet fees in your local area). Some companies will base it on other stuff to (i.e, your doggie is classed as high risk by alot of companies- Sainsburys, Axa, Petplan). As you have found some (i.e- Axa) wont even offer insurance, others will but it will be a higher rate (Petplan). One thing I would advise if you are shopping around is find out on exclusions as some companies will exclude conditions that breeds are prone to, even if your pet has neither had an injury or illness in its life!

cathodetube

Twinklie, Couldn't you ask the breeder about insurance or is there a club for owners you could try?

catlou

cathodetube wrote: »

Catlou, sounds like NFU is one not to bother with anymore. Wonder if anyone else has had that problem. I remember when I talked to them they stressed that they would 'guarantee' a price for 3 or 5 years which I found hard to believe. From what I remember their cover is not as good as AXA - ie 4000k per condition per year versus AXA 7000k.

Yes I was really disappointed in NFU the reason they told me for the massive increase was that their Pet Insurance business was losing money so they have made big changes to it. When I took out the policy I even asked for quotes of how much it would be in future and they just changed my dogs age to give a few ideas and they said it would only be £180 when he was 5.

Their cover was better than AXA as it was up to £4000 per condition so say if the dog had 4 separate conditions (or more) you could claim up to £4,000 per condition per year where as AXA is just £7,000 total for all conditions per year but realistically that should be enough.

No wonder it still says this on the Pet Insurance article on MSE:
"01 Sept 2009. IMPORTANT. This article was last updated in 2006.
We are currently re-researching the top products and will be publishing the rewritten guide shortly"

They probably can't bring themselves to trawl through all the complications of it!! :rotfl::rotfl:

cathodetube

Catlou, wouldn't that have been great if you could have got the bit about the price in the future in writing? Didn't realise that AXA was 7000k per year, not per condition per year. Maybe that is why NFU is changing all their prices etc., not that I am agreeing with them.

catlou

cathodetube wrote: »

Catlou, wouldn't that have been great if you could have got the bit about the price in the future in writing? Didn't realise that AXA was 7000k per year, not per condition per year. Maybe that is why NFU is changing all their prices etc., not that I am agreeing with them.

Yes it would have been - I should have recorded the conversation!! :rotfl:

AXA seems to me at the moment like it would be the best bet for most people wanting for life cover - I can't imagine that many claim more than £7,000 in a year? I'm sure Petplan are good too but just SO expensive in the first place!

Be_Happy

In a previous post I recommended Healthy-Pets insurance. I take it all back after my policy renewal experience.

I've had our cat insured with them for approx. 5 years at very reasonable rates. She is now a healthy 13 year old, never needed vet treatment (apart from non-qualifying teeth) so no previous claims. Policy premium has gone up from £6.29 a month to £12.59 a month. But, not only that, the excess has gone up from £65 to £75 + 25% of claim. According to the policy notes the new excess applies to all cats over 5 years old.

I've shopped around, comparing policy conditions carefully and found many other insurers were charging less than this new premium and have even managed to insure the cat for £6.49 a month, excess £90 and vet cover increased from £1,000 to £2,500. with similar conditions.

twinklie

Thanks for your answers folks. I have a DDB and so yeah, it's not easy to get her insured. The breeder used PetPlan and I have the 4 week free trial with them...so looks like I will have to go with them. I'll give them a call as the weekend anyway and find out what they are offering us. Online quote suggests £47.99 pm for the middle level cover.

Looks like the gym memberships getting cancelled then! Ha ha.

ukmofo

I have a dog policy with Pet Insurance.co.uk underwritten by E & L Lifetime cover.
It would appear their exclusions are "any costs for house/out of hours calls and residential vetinary treatment unless your vet confirms that your pet is suffering from a life endangering condition."

So for example if your dog cuts itself on a Sunday morning walk and you have to go to an emergency vets for stiches not only is the cost of the consultaion not covered (which I guess is fair enough and reasonable) but the cost of any treatment recommended / undertaken out of hours is not covered either !! Unless your dog is deemed as having a life threatening condition.

Have I bought a bad policy or is this exclusion common place amonst other insurers.
Any comments anyone ?

elsien

Petplan don't say that. I've taken mutt down on Sunday's for things that aren't life threatening but which I didn't want to wait till Monday, and the insurance has paid up. The last time was when she had a foot operation, it got infected and she wouldn't leave it alone - I took her along because I was concerned that if I left it she'd have 3 legs and a stump by the next day. It may have got through because it counted as ongoing treatment from the op so the vet lumped it all in together, but I don't think so.

moomin5

I don't think our pet insurance policy has such a clause, but to be honest it doesn't surprise me with E&L they used to have a poor reputation for paying claims.