Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

cathodetube

oggy1511 wrote: »

Hi We have a kitten and Im looking to insure him anyone know the best and cheapest company to get this done with ? Many thanks
Oggy

Had you read any of this thread before posting? You really need to go back a few months and then start reading. Insurance is always changing and it depends on where you live as to what quote you get. The top company seems to be AXA.

cathodetube

Mephista wrote: »

Hi my reason for needing these blood tests was probably pretty specific in our case. As you may have seen me mention before, Roxy sadly had to have her womb removed and during that it was discovered that she may have a slight heart murmer and some of her bloods were not entirely normal. While she was getting the stitches done it made sense to get this checked up while it was being paid for anyway because they wanted to be sure whether it was the infection elevating the readings or whether she actually had something else happening that they needed to keep an eye on.

Luckily for us, her bloods have come back normal so it was reassuring to know that she is now in perfect health once again.

I understand that this may not necessarily be the case for everyone but it does make sense to me that if any work or medication she needs goes above the excess and there is something else that may need looked at, may as well get it all done and covered at the same time.

Made sense to us on this occasion anyway. Does that help explain? It doesn't help explain the cost I know and our vets are in the middle of achieving hospital status (NI does not have many of these) so I would say the costs are not going to go down for me either._pale_

I would have thought that the blood tests would have come under whatever claim you made when she had her womb removed if they thought the blood infection was related. I would really pursue that with them instead of having them whack that on this recent bill. They are supposed to itemize everything to the insurance company.

You said you were on holiday when your dog ripped her leg so it appeared that you would have visited a temporary vet not your normal one.

Mephista

cathodetube wrote: »

I would have thought that the blood tests would have come under whatever claim you made when she had her womb removed if they thought the blood infection was related. I would really pursue that with them instead of having them whack that on this recent bill. They are supposed to itemize everything to the insurance company.

You said you were on holiday when your dog ripped her leg so it appeared that you would have visited a temporary vet not your normal one.

We weren't too far away so we were able to take her to our home vets. She did have blood tests done at the time but these were follow up blood tests which would have been done at her next check up anyway.

I really appreciate the advice though.

meerkat2007

I just got the latest renewal notices for the two policies I have with AXA - or should I say had, as I've just come off the phone from cancelling them.

The excess has gone up 50%, from £50 per condition to £75 per condition. That was potentially bad enough, but it was the premium that knocked me sideways: I had budgeted for what I thought would be a reasonable increase, given that I had had a couple of small claims (vet bills were probably no more than £150, for which I got about £100 back), but I don't think, by any stretch of the imagination, that a price hike of 89% :eek: is reasonable.

cathodetube

I think that £75 excess is completely normal now. Some policies are £100 or more plus a percentage of the claim. How much did the monthly payments change by?

aurora5772

My mum is having exactly the same problem with this - her renewal notice has the yearly premium increasing from £145.61 to £289.77 and for the other from £138.33 to £202.00 - this is with absolutely no claims this year!!!!!!

Last year was Mum's first year with them - she moved from Dog Breeders because they seemed so much cheaper - they never said anything about an introductory discount, so Mum is absolutely dropped on. She really can't afford these sort of prices.

catlou

OMG!! :mad: :eek:

It had seemed that AXA were the best of a bad bunch and I have gone with them........

Not heard any bad feedback about them before.

I changed to them from NFU as they hiked my premium from £152 to £274 for a healthy 18 month old dog with no claims.

It makes me SO mad - if they all carry on like this I will have to just consider self insuring. How do they get away with it?

catlou

PS. aurora5772 & meerkat2007

You do mean Pet insurance direct with AXA don't you?
Not a policy that is underwritten by them for someone else?

cathodetube

aurora5772 wrote: »

My mum is having exactly the same problem with this - her renewal notice has the yearly premium increasing from £145.61 to £289.77 and for the other from £138.33 to £202.00 - this is with absolutely no claims this year!!!!!!

Last year was Mum's first year with them - she moved from Dog Breeders because they seemed so much cheaper - they never said anything about an introductory discount, so Mum is absolutely dropped on. She really can't afford these sort of prices.

When your mum queried the increase, did they say/admit that she had been given an introductory discount? Or are you presuming that? How old is her dog?

meerkat2007

cathodetube wrote: »

I think that £75 excess is completely normal now. Some policies are £100 or more plus a percentage of the claim. How much did the monthly payments change by?

As I said in my post - 89%.