Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

hethmar

Greenbee? I cant remember who underwrites it? What is the excess and how much do they bung it up when the dog gets older? Have you tried AXA and NFU?

littlesnuggy

hethmar wrote: »

Greenbee? I cant remember who underwrites it? What is the excess and how much do they bung it up when the dog gets older? Have you tried AXA and NFU?

I think they stopped calling it Greenbee and it's now just John Lewis - it's underwritten by AXA. I've got a direct quote from AXA which is £15.90 pm, with £75 excess and £7k per year limit. Can't seem to get an online quote from NFU so might ring them tomorrow.

I'll try putting his age in a 6 and see what the quotes come back as - would never have thought of doing that before, so thanks!

cathodetube

You can't tell now what a quote will be for a dog when he is 6 years old. You can only tell what it would be for a 6 year now. Anything could happen in that period. Most companies suck you in with a low quote to begin with anyway. Pugs are renowned for having lots of health problems so premium will take that into account.

littlesnuggy

Yes, I realise as with all things, prices will only go one way and in 6 years' time who knows what the premiums will be, but for comparison purposes between several insurers seeing what their premiums are today for a 6 year old is useful.

The difference between JL and AXA for his current age was less than £1, however for imaginary 6-year-old-pug, JL was £25.19 and AXA was £20.66 for what as far as I can tell is identical cover.

Will hunt around for some AXA reviews I think.

cathodetube

littlesnuggy wrote: »

Yes, I realise as with all things, prices will only go one way and in 6 years' time who knows what the premiums will be, but for comparison purposes between several insurers seeing what their premiums are today for a 6 year old is useful.

The difference between JL and AXA for his current age was less than £1, however for imaginary 6-year-old-pug, JL was £25.19 and AXA was £20.66 for what as far as I can tell is identical cover.

Will hunt around for some AXA reviews I think.

AXA is known (you will see if you look back) for bumping up second year premium. It's nice to think you can predict what the insurance companies will do, but it's not possible!

I am a former M&S pet insurance subscriber.

toastiest

I have spent the last week researching dog insurance several hours everyday and I still cannot come to decide who to go with! I've worried about them hiking up the premiums each year, whether they'll pay out, do they do life time and if so is it per condition, how much to pay each month... I wish insurance was easier but with pets once the animal gets ill you have to stick with the provider!

My puppy is 10 weeks old now and getting neutered and microchipped at 6 months decisions decisions decisions

hethmar

littlesnuggy wrote: »

The difference between JL and AXA for his current age was less than £1, however for imaginary 6-year-old-pug, JL was £25.19 and AXA was £20.66 for what as far as I can tell is identical cover.

.

What I meant was in their general conditions do they say the excess is much higher for older dogs? I know I swapped one of mine from Halifax to AXA because at 8 or something Halifax changed the excess to something like £100 PLUS 20% or somesuch whereas AXA kept the excess the same amount.

But we are in the hands of the gods with pet insurance arent we. The thing is though at least AXA provides its own cover (as does NFU) whereas M and S prices shot up because they changed underwriters.

adrenalin

i'm confused about the bit where asks you breed? mine is black and white shorthaird i assume i just list black and white, or on sainsburys says british short hair tri colour or something like that seams unclear, i got my two kittens off parents they now are 1.9 years. I am curious how much is treatment for fleas usually is this covered? my male has bald patches on either side of his rectum and scratches a lot. Are thing like this covered? also wondering how much is priavtly as will get worse i expect.

Also do i need him vacenated? to be covered from various illnesses? i heard was two her needed around £20 each, thanks in advance for any advice

andyelcomb

I've just received the annual renewal from Virgin pet Insurance for my 5yr+ Golden Retriever. With their Extra £6000 cover policy, with benefits and was £19.86 per month. Now they want £25.32pm which is a 27% increase.

Checked online with GoCompare which interestingly didn't get a Virgin quote.
Nearly went with a cheaper company but then went to Virgin website for a quote.
Soon saw that I could get 10% discount online and nearly just bought the same as existing cover but looked harder at the benefits bit and recalculated.
Decided it wasn't worth the extra benefits but that the higher cover limit of £6000 probably was.

As haven't had any claims and otherwise fairly trustful of Virgin, I cancelled the original policy from renewal and bought a new policy online for the same cover but without the lost dog / pay value at death benefits and its come out at £16.04pm including 10% online discount.

Worth noting that the phone call to cancel the existing policy was very easy indeed and soon spoke to a very pleasant UK operator who did as I asked without flannel and she could see that I'd set up a new policy already and that didn't phase her at all.

So, apart from the sneaky premium renewal hike, I'm still happy with Virgin.

catlou

I have just had my renewal from AXA and thought I would share it with everyone as I think it’s reasonably fair (especially compared to my recent car insurance renewal quote! :eek:)

Last year I paid £142.59 I have claimed about £150ish during the year and the renewal is for £156.85. So £14 more. My dog is only young though 2 now so I guess that the price reflects that?

Although just for curiosity I did a new quote on the website and it was even less than I paid last year £125.81 :mad: so I mentioned this on the phone could they not match it for me, they said they are not able to as it's an introductory rate for new customers, but that I could cancel if I wanted and take a new one out but any existing conditions would not be covered etc.

So overall I'm happy to stay with them for now?