Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

bouncydog1

You may find that on shopping around the conditions for which you have claimed are excluded under the terms of any alternative insurers's policy, as pre-existing.

We are with Kennel Club for both our dogs and pay c£36 per month for the older one (who is nearly 13) and £21 for the younger one (6). When the premiums went up in Jan, I almost cancelled - glad I didn't - younger one got pancreatitis, 5 day stay in vets, numerous test and bill of c£600. Insurance paid everything apart from our excess!

Older dog is now on permanent drugs for arthritis which cost c£50 per month, which are picked up by insurer apart from 10% excess!

Moving and getting an exclusion is not always the best option - sometimes better to stay where you are - however, as always individual choice.

pboae

cherrink, I have a St. Bernard insured with M&S he has a lot of health problems and I'm happy with the £7,000 per year limit. The only thing I am aware of is that there is a possibility of him needing 2 hip replacements one day. If we did that the cost we be about £4,000 each so they would have to be done over 2 policy years if possible.

Evmoloney as far as I know M&S are the only ones who offer a comprehensive policy with the 'no excess' option. Are you sure they have withdrawn that for you though? The letters were rewritten this year and a lot of people (including me) thought they had to pay a £50 excess, but actually it was just a badly worded letter. On mine it did say 0 excess in the small print on the policy schedule, I phoned them to confirm it in the end as it was so confusing.

As bouncydog1 says, other insurers will exclude anything you have previoulsy made a claim for. Some insurers have wider ranging exclusion policies than others.

boots_babe

aytch wrote: »

I have today opened up my renewal notice from M&S - I nearly fell over! I do not care who they are being underwritten by, there is absolutely no justification for a 50% premium increase. :mad: My premium has gone from £122 per yr to £195, £10 per month to £16. :mad: :mad:
My problem is they have me over a barrel, my 2yr old irish wolfhound has a pancreatic enzyme disorder and therefore I have claimed several times and will need to keep doing so, and any new company i go to will exclude the condition.

I have never been so disgusted and am writing, on real paper, to tell them so... and there was me thought they were one of the few genuine, customer first companies left, how wrong was I!

There feel better now!

I too had a shock when my renewals came through. I did a quote for M&S online and it was much cheaper. So I have called to cancel the renewa and taken out the new one online - have you tried doing that?

This still made them by far the best option for me compared to anyone else.

Jessie*_2-2

Help! I recently got a cat from a rescue home and had insurance cover which lasted for 6 weeks. Stupidly i let the insurance lapse for 4 days, within which time my cat developed cystitis and had to be treated by a vet. It cost us £600!! Does anyone know of any insurance company anywhere that will cover him for this condition?? I havent found anywhere that will, even if we pay a high premium and we are having to consider giving him back to the rescue centre, which i cant bear the thought of!

pboae

You won't find anyone that will cover him for a pre-existing condition.

aytch

Hi
I am a dog insurance supremo.... having had a variety of dogs (usually in need of a vet!)and used a variety of insurances!!;)

First of all check it is a 'for life' policy. Cheaper policies are usually not, and at the end of the first year will exclude any medical areas you have claimed for.

I know petplan was not a for life policy when I got a quote, and my mother fell foul of the exclusion clause when she claimed for a skin allergy at the end of the first year they excluded it and she was stuck.

The best insurance company I have dealt with is Pinnacle, a little known company that provides a big service. My choc lab and Irish wolfhound are both insured with them, I have claimed endlessly as they have life long illnesses, they are prompt, no quibble and I pay £16 per month per dog (have claimed at least £5000 in 3 years)
The worst is M&S, great for the first year then massive unjustified hikes in premiums second year - would avoid like the plague.

Hope that is helpful:rolleyes:

kr15snw

O.K I know not everyone will agree with me but I just wanted to let you know what happened in our family and to plea to all of you moneysavers.

Bit of background:
My brother has a lovely little girl cat who got pregnant! (They didnt realise she could get pregnant so young, silly brother). Well they kept one of the kittens and sold the others when they were old enough. The cat they kept is called Chunky. (He was 3 times the size of the others when babies)

Last week we got a call to say Chunky was in the vets as he'd fallen out of their kitchen window! The biggest problem was that they live on the 3rd floor

Poor little Chunk isnt well, he has no movement in his back legs but has nothing broken. They think its a spinal cord injury, or worse a brain injury. Now they want to do an MRI scan but my brother didnt get pet insurance and its already cost them hundereds. Unfortunately my brother cant afford this so they are having to see if he gets better. Its a horrible situation

I feel so sorry for his fiance who doesnt even remember opening the window, but knows she must have. Shes heartbroken as she knows its her fault They are so carefull normally.

We got one of the kittens and got her insured straight away. If only they had done the same thing, then chunky would be getting the best treatment in the world. They want to do this but simply dont have the cash to do it.

So just a small plea, please get pet insurance. Its not that much a month, and in the long run it could save you a fortune

(Sorry if this isnt money saving, but it would have saved my brother a fortune if hed thought of this)

keelykat

Hi-yes we have insurance for our two cats. my cat at 'home' had a little accident which cost my dad several hundred pounds! i learnt from that when having my two!

Def get insurance!

keely.

virgin_moneysaver

i can't get pet insurance for my dog as shes from a rescue home & no-one knows her age or background hence they don't wanna know

Eels100

Poor Chunky - please remember that MRI scans give information, but they don't make anything better. There's often little can be done in this sort of case apart from watching and waiting. I hope he gets better soon.