Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Joyful

cathodetube wrote: »

£28 per month doesn't seem unreasonable but I don't understand what you mean by £115 versus £150 per claim. Are you saying the excess used to be £150. The 20% I understand.

In 2008 when I made my claim I paid £150 in total. For the same claim now I would pay £115 plus 20%@£400 making a total of £515. This will be on top of paying £336 per year.

All I can say is I hope people who are thinking about getting a Dog take a long term view of the costs.

In the Summer my Dog needed 2 lumps cut out. She also needed medication for her Arthritis which they told me I could claim for. As the medication came to £78 they told me to wait until it went over £150 to make a claim. It has only just done this but I am in a new year so I believe I have lost out on that. As her op was also £130 and I would have had to pay £150 excess again I could not claim. This is because both the op and the medicine were treated as separate claims as they were both for different things.

catlou

Mephista wrote: »

However, if your dog is quite young - don't worry about any price hike. My advice - and perhaps there are those who don't agree with this - is to go with the cheapest offering exactly what you want and then re-look at the whole thing again next year.

Don't take this personally but....

That is bad advice - with Pet Insurance it's not like car or home where you just get the cheapest every year for the same cover. Because if your pet then gets a long term illness you are stuck with the current insurer for "life" as no other company would pay out for that condition as it would be classed as an "Existing Illness". So you really need to be looking at it for the long term.

An example from this forum is a few people went with M&S a couple of years ago who were doing a very good deal at the time they have since massively hiked the excess and premiums but the people whose pets have long term existing conditions have no choice but to stay with M&S. This can happen with young dogs too.

The whole thing really is a bloody minefield!! :eek:

TessaW_2

I've been insured for a couple of years with Marks and Spencer for my 2 year old cocker spaniel. He has no medical problems and we have never made any claims.

My premium for the last year has been £22 per month and they've just sent me renewal quote for £27 per month. If I go to their website and get a new quote for my dog it's only £17 per month!

Really annoyed that they can overcharge people on renewals. I will be calling them tomorrow and hopefully they'll match the other quote anyway but this sort of things winds me up!!!

RobertinHerts

TessaW wrote: »

I've been insured for a couple of years with Marks and Spencer for my 2 year old cocker spaniel. He has no medical problems and we have never made any claims.

My premium for the last year has been £22 per month and they've just sent me renewal quote for £27 per month. If I go to their website and get a new quote for my dog it's only £17 per month!

Really annoyed that they can overcharge people on renewals. I will be calling them tomorrow and hopefully they'll match the other quote anyway but this sort of things winds me up!!!

It's now 'normal' for renewals to be much more expensive than new business for all insurances. The excuse is that people buy the cheapest, as displayed on the comparision websites, so the new business is promoted at unrealistly low rates.

TessaW_2

RobertinHerts wrote: »

It's now 'normal' for renewals to be much more expensive than new business for all insurances. The excuse is that people buy the cheapest, as displayed on the comparision websites, so the new business is promoted at unrealistly low rates.

Indeed, I have heard about this with other types of insurance too. It still seems very wrong - and it must be mainly disadvantaging people who are less web-savvy and therefore don't both to shop around.

Got the same level of cover with Sainsbury's at £13 per month which is less than half of the M+S renewal quote and therefore £168 saved over a year.

GOOD_BOY_3

kris_cs1 wrote: »

Has anyone had any experience with vetsmedicover?
They offer one price for the life of your pet that never goes up (as far as I can tell) and includes dental treatment. This way there is no shock of premiums going up to £40pm - however it starts off higher and has an excess of £80.
I think I may go with them when I get my cat but can't seem to find any reviews..

i was thinking of going with them too for my dog but i can not find reviews either all i can think of is that they have only been in business for a year or so that way no one has come to the end of their insurance so they have not done any reviews!

i put a post on here a few days ago asking the same thing have a look!

oh and im going to chance it and go with them i think so ill let you know if i have any probs!

regards

Mephista

catlou wrote: »

Don't take this personally but....

That is bad advice - with Pet Insurance it's not like car or home where you just get the cheapest every year for the same cover. Because if your pet then gets a long term illness you are stuck with the current insurer for "life" as no other company would pay out for that condition as it would be classed as an "Existing Illness". So you really need to be looking at it for the long term.

An example from this forum is a few people went with M&S a couple of years ago who were doing a very good deal at the time they have since massively hiked the excess and premiums but the people whose pets have long term existing conditions have no choice but to stay with M&S. This can happen with young dogs too.

The whole thing really is a bloody minefield!! :eek:

Not at all. Everyone has a right to an opinion. I just found that I went with the cheapest that offered what I needed in terms of cover but didn't consider lifetime until now.

Its worked for me and I have never had any trouble with payouts form any of the company's whom I was insured with so I have been quite happy but as I said, might not work for everyone.

I know people have strong opinions either way so I suppose its down to the individual as I can only advise on what has worked for me.

I do think its good that people get a chance to see both sides though so that in this - you are correct in saying "minefield" - of pet insurance, others can at least benefit from our experiences.

Angiepange

catlou wrote: »

An example from this forum is a few people went with M&S a couple of years ago who were doing a very good deal at the time they have since massively hiked the excess and premiums but the people whose pets have long term existing conditions have no choice but to stay with M&S. This can happen with young dogs too.

The whole thing really is a bloody minefield!! :eek:

Couldn't agree more! Took out M & S insurance in 2007 for £15.99 pm for our crossbreed dog. He has arthritis and hip dysplasia as ongoing conditions.

Have had increases every year. Received my current renewal price today at £62.99 :eek: Just can't afford to renew

jazzidoodle

Pet Plan are awful at the moment, they used to be the best never quibbled and were very sympathetic, not now. I unfortunately had to have a horse put down under veterinary advise pet plan refused to accept his decision and made the poor animal live until loss of use was cleared otherwise to quote pet plan "no horse no insurance no pay out" This was to a distressed owner who did not know where to turn I had to constantly phone, re send fax re email and remind them where the claim was. It took over three months to sort this out and I am still out of pocket for phone calls and vet bills between being diagnoised and put down, plus the fees for having her put down and buried. The vet nurse told me I was not the only person having problems even the practise were having problems and they were not listening to them. There vet even had to pay out over £900 and argue the toss with pet plan. If the vets cant recommend them then Pet Plan has had their day. I would move my animals that I have but unfortunately they are too old now to reinsure so I am locked into a high fee no service policy!

Mephista

Poor you. It really is a pity none of us have the wherewithal to do something about these people. Take the business from under their noses with the proverbial finger salute!!!!