Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

golly99

Personally wouldn't base the decision on cost as others have suggested, you get what you pay for. We are with Pet Plan and have used it several times (unfortunately) and they have been great.

Freebiemadmum

Hi

I can't recommend Petplan highly enough. We have a 6 year old boxer who has been insured since we had him. His vet costs are so high as he has lots of health problems, the first was he shattered his leg at 4 months old costing over £3,000 which Petplan paid no problem. It costs us £27 per month now, because he is older and a pedigree and £65 excess for each treatment but considering how much we claim each year its a bargain.

The last 6 months alone the vet costs have been around £1500-1800 punds and we have only paid £65 twice for the two complaints. Quite simply if we didn't have insurance he would not be here because we would be able to afford the medical care he needs.

TRINITY

I have a 12 year old golden retriever and have never claimed on her insurance until june 2007 when she had an op for pyrometra and drugs for arthritis. my premium was 23.75 per month and I have to pay first 15% of any claim. I have just had my renewal and they are now charging £39 per month-I am insured with M&S I can get the arthritis drugs on ped med via quidco- just need a script from the vet which works out cheaper than what I would have to pay if I claimed on insurance. I am not renewing but will save the premium from now on

salthepal

Having just received renewal notice from M&S whose policy no longer has nil excess, I have just had an online quote from Tesco for £5.44 a month which will save me £141 per annum. I shall have a look at Halifax and Axa but I have a feeling that they won't be able to beat that!

asquiths_2

Hi all,
I'm struggling to find insurance cover for my 6 month old female shar-pei. i have had a quote from petplan at £34.55 a month but that seems steep. Has anyone else here got a shar-pei and if so who are the best insurers? if not any suggestions would be great thanks

RooBee

Many companies will not offer cover for Shar-Pei. PetPlan is a good company with excellent cover. Although fairly expensive, you can at least be confident in their likelihood to pay out in the even of a claim.

Try https://www.moneysupermarket.com for quick comparisons on pet insurance policies (you just select the breed, age and enter your postcode). Beware any policies offered by E&L or underwritten by them. Their premiums are attractive but they are are notorious for being reluctant to pay up on claims.

Bromley86

Is it like-for-like though? AFAIK, Tesco is not a lifetime policy - i.e. although their Extra Cover policy "has no time limit on claiming", it does have an absolute condition limit of £4k that does not reset every year.

Still, that said, pretty damn good. You may have to decide whether to put down or to stump up the cash yourself for serious conditions though.

Bromley86

You can try the list in this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=108056&page=7

This might be one case where it could be worth using Animal Friends. They're underwritten by E&L, so the usual caveats there, but they don't change the premium based on your breed. Of course, you face those huge excesses when your dog reaches age 8 (35%!), but perhaps you would save enough in the first 7.5 years to make it worthwhile?

jonchill

Just taken out Petplan insurance after a long hard look. Costs us £37 pm for a Springer and cross and includes £4,000 per year per condition for life.

I had a long discussion with a broker that only deals with pet specific insurers and not your general high street operator and as many have pointed out previously with M&S and there shocking price rises and others that are just in it to make a fast buck. The two things that clinched it for me with Petplan was that they gurantee not to increase your premium based on the number of claims you make, the only thing that increases is the excess and that tends to be bi-yearly and when your dogs older you pay a % and it's one of only very few insurers that Vets will deal with direct.

Yes it's more expensive than most but you get what you pay for and the piece of mind your not going to have to fight to get any claims settled.

Jon

Billobel

Let me warn you that Petplan is not all is seems to be, and they certainly don't live up to the promises that they make. I have been fighting with them on my mothers behalf recently, and they seriously do like to drag out paying you for as long as possible. I have had to make many calls to there claim department in the past year.

Indeed I made one this morning. When my mother rescued her dog last year I strongly advised that she take out life cover insurance as the breed of dog that she rescued has a history of back problems. This was fine in the first year and they even paid out for the accupunture that he had to have. When her renewal came through she sent off her payment and we assumed all was well...............HOW WRONG WE WERE. When one of the settlement cheques came through they said that they would no longer pay for accupunture and that the time for claiming on any further treatment for his back condition would run out in Jan 08. Yet there was nothing in the letter inviting her to renew her policy to advise her that this was the case. She was only advised of this is the very small print once she had renewed her policy.

I have asked that a copy of her renewal invatation be sent to me, as I didn't think that it was worth keeping (they have to by law).The claim advisor told me that he was going to get a copy of the original call that was made to ascertain whether we asked for lifetime cover or not and send it to me. But that I would have to wait anything up to TEN days to get it. Ten days is there standard promised time to get back to you about anything........

I will keep you posted on the progress