Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Bromley86

Having recommended NFU Mutual, I'll change that to Halifax. Got my premium down to £152 (NFU £197, M&S £311). That's for Lifetime with a £6,000 per year limit. Paying by DD as that automatically renews every year (although you can change it if you want).

Had a look at Sainsburys. Okay premium at £209 but it looks to me like the policy is a weak lifetime policy (i.e. you can claim in future years subject to the maximum, in this case £6,500).

Didn't bother getting a quote from Virgin. They're another weak lifetime policy, this time it's £6,000 per condition.


Pollyanna24. There are three kinds of lifetime insurance (although the third is often just a subclause of per year):
* Per condition
* Per year
* Per condition per year

Both of yours, assuming that they're the same as the ones M&S and PetPlan are offering today, are per year. That's great (although M&S and especially PetPlan seem pricey to me).

Per condition lifetimes are less useful as you note. They're the ones I've called weak lifetime above.

Per condition per year lifetimes can be just as good as per year ones. It depends what the per condition level is . So Pinnacle (Classic) looked good with a £4k per year limit, but the small print showed a misery condition limit per year of £1k (it was worse with their budget one - only £500!). NFU Mutual and Animal Friend Insurance are unusual in that they have no total limit per year, just a per ccondition limit per year (although AFI is underwritten by E&L and should therefore, apparently, be avoided).

Bromley86

Sorry about the formatting. Something went wrong and I can't seem to edit it back to normality.Hi pollyanna24. I answered some of your questions in another post, but the lifelong/lifetime thing refers to many insurers not paying out in subsequent years for conditions.The per condition thing usually refers to lifetime policies that have an upper limit on what you can claim for any one condition over the life of your pet. You're right, IMO, that per year is better than ;per condition. Although it's conceivable that a sufficiently high per condition limit, say £20k, would trump a £4k per year condition limit, in practice you won't find one.You don't have to worry if you stick with PetPlan and M&S. As you note, the premium will increase with age (and possibly with any claims that you make, although I don't know for certain which companies do that). I didn't check PetPlan, but M&S seemed very fair with their increase (but then again they were significantly higher than some other policies to start with). In my case, a 3m puppy was £311, increasing to £369. Pinnacle started at £260 but increases to £434 at 8 years!Age 8 seems to be the latest that many insurers will accept new dogs (or even age 7). Halifax seem to take on dogs of any age. Assuming that they have no pre-existing conditions, there's no reason why you shouldn't change at any age up to the maximum the company will accept. Of course, if they've got a condition then you probably want to stick with your current insurer.

willowsdad

I'm looking into changing our pet insurance, we've a number of dogs and cats insured with DBI since the year dot. Latest dog is insured with M&S at zero excess and pleased with their claims handling.

Wanting to insure the others with the £0 excess, but the option seems to have been removed? Am I missing something?

TIA.

Elianne

Hi,

I made the mistake of taking out insurance with E & L and would not recommend them and that's without even having to make a claim!

Since taking out an online policy paying by direct debit I have been continually bombarded with automatic upgrades that I do not want and have to opt out of. The upgrade fee is taken by direct debit and then they will only refund you by cheque...in the mean time they are taking more money for the next upgrade! You get so confused; you think you've opted out of all but no, they claim you haven't.

I've complained and expect to receive the usual rubbish about valuing customers (yeah right!) The next step is to change insurers.

My dog is 8 yrs old and I've never needed to claim. At this age its really useful to know companies that pay out with out quibbling too much and companies like E & L that clearly expect custom to be a one way street i.e you pay out continually and they don't. They even get to patronise you as a bonus feature of customer service!

Bromley86

willowsdad wrote: »

I'm looking into changing our pet insurance, we've a number of dogs and cats insured with DBI since the year dot. Latest dog is insured with M&S at zero excess and pleased with their claims handling.

Wanting to insure the others with the £0 excess, but the option seems to have been removed? Am I missing something?

TIA.

Most of the policies that I looked at said in their FAQs that they didn'tdo no-claims because that might encourage you to not take your pet to the vet.

However, the no-claims bonus issue isn't really all that important. Unless I'm missing something, there's nothing to stop companies actualy increasing you premium above their average inflation rate. Of course you can leave and find someone else or resign, but you'll not get cover for that condition.

croftlands

Hi we currently have our dog insured with tesco (standard cover), the dog went lame on one of his legs about a 18months ago the vet couldn't find anything but we still made a claim for the costs of xrays ect.

Unfortunately he has went lame on the same leg again and it appears that he has a fracture (just waiting on confirmation from specialist) but tesco are now saying that we cant claim as we have already done so for that leg.

Is there anyway around this or does anyone know of any other company that would insure him with a pre existing condition?

thanks

lazza_w

At the end of the day, it is up to the insurance company but... if X-rays 18mths ago were taken and were unremarkable and he now has an obvious fracture then I would view these conditions as unrelated, and therefore asking Tescos to reassess the claim would be appropriate.

Were the order of problems opposite then it would be fair to argue that a fracture resulted in an ongoing lameness.

Speak to Tescos and ask them to contact your vets to discuss the claim. If your vets can verify the the lameness 18mths was not associated with a future fracture then it is likely that the current condition will be covered. An exception to this would be if an underlying pathological condition were present (eg a bone infection or tumour) that linked the two, although this is very uncommon, or if there were a fracture 18mths ago that was no visible on the initial X-rays (again unlikely)

Unfortunately your vet is prevented by FSA rules from contacting Tescos off their own bat - you are going to have to make the first move for them. Most vets are happy to argue in your favour if they believe the claim to be genuine as 1) it is in their financial interest to treat your dog to their best ability and 2) making an insurance compang pay out always gives a warm inner glow.

And no, there is no insurance company that will take on insurance of a pre-existing condition. You may be able to change companies but you will then have no cover at all for the current condition, just new problems. Insurance companies are profit driven machines. Asking then if they will pay out hundreds of pounds for a leg that is aready know to be broken if you pay them a £15 premium if not going to make their shareholders rich. It is akin to phoning Direct line saying "My house is on fire. The fire brigade is on its way, but can I take out cover against fire damage whilst I am waiting for them to arrive"

asea

Actually there is a company called Animal Friends who do provide insurance for pets who have pre-existing conditions. They also help out a lot of animal homes, like the Mayhew Animal Rescue Centre (who told me about them)

mazzer12

Hi, My cats have been insured with Tesco since they were kittens and the policy has gone from £19.66 to £26.54. Called tesco about the Hike and they said it was due to the fact that they have gone into a higher age bracket and they could not do any better on the price..Oh Well..

Can anyone recommend a cheaper insure for two moggies please?

Thanks!

jstallan

I think my wife sort our 2 out via the NFU .... Seem to recall it being £16 per month