Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Puttytat

Hi,
I have been with Healthy Pets for several years now and they have only ever been fantastic! I have made one claim which was dealt with efficiently and sympathetically. My three cats are all getting on in years and I pay £17 per month which seems reasonable. The only thing worth mentioning is they don't pay the vets direct, you pay and claim back.
HTH
Putty Tat

itsgototstop

Hi All,

Just had my renewal docs from AFI, my monthly preium has gone from 15 a month to 20??

Have 2 cats, both, vac, neutered chipped

One is 8 one is 2, older cat had a claim last year after falling off a wall ( I know!!!) and pulling a ligament, cost about £500 which they paid after excess

Am I paying too much?

Bromley86

Things may have changed, but when I looked at Healthy Pets they were the limited lifetime policy i.e. the limit is for lifetime but does not renew each year.

NFU phone quotes are pretty quick and, in our puppy's case, competitive. Worth a try especially if you've had a good experience with them.

Bromley86

heavenly wrote: »

When we first got him we had to pay out nearly £2000 as he had nearly eye problems straight away and we couldnt get the insurance to pay. He had a complete face lift!

I hope it works out for you, but there's a chance that the insurance company may exclude any new eye work as a pre-existing condition.


Parks. It's not as bad as you might think. Assuming that you (a) don't want to pay PetPlan prices and (b) don't want to check every insurance company out, try Halifax, AXA and NFU. The first two are online quotes but NFU is phone only. All three are the good kind of lifetime i.e. the limit renews each year. Personally I wanted a limit of at least £4k per year.

ednotdave. We went for Halifax and are having to make claims for a pup. I'll post here when our first claim is sorted (it was sent today), but so far they've been good. For example, their Terms state that hydrotherapy needs to be at a CHA pool. There isn't one near us, so Halifax said they'd be happy with whatever our vet referred us to. They could have stuck to the terms in the hope that we couldn't be bothered to do a 2 hour round trip for the treatment.

Bromley86

Can't help with the premium, but you will be paying too much if you ever have to claim on that 8 year old:

Excess:

For Vet's Fees
plus 35% of the remaining claim.

itsgototstop

Blimey, I should have read the small print

Do most insureres do this for cats 8 and over?

Bromley86

Nope, these guys are the only ones. Plus they're underwritten by E&L and, as pboae will no doubt point out in a moment, that's not good . Although you appear to have had a good experience with claiming.

I'm a little confused though. I thought that the one good thing about AFI was that they had a fixed quote regardless of where you live, what breed etc. Just had a look and their Platinum Super is £14.14 if your cat is less than 8 and £15.56 if your cat is over 8. And that ignores your 5-10% discount. Or was that £15 for both cats?

If you want to change, some insurers do accept older pets (Halifax is the only one I remember, although PetPlan must as well). Check with them whether they'll use that previous injury as a pre-existing condition excuse.

ednotdave

Bromley86 wrote: »

ednotdave. We went for Halifax and are having to make claims for a pup. I'll post here when our first claim is sorted (it was sent today), but so far they've been good. For example, their Terms state that hydrotherapy needs to be at a CHA pool. There isn't one near us, so Halifax said they'd be happy with whatever our vet referred us to. They could have stuck to the terms in the hope that we couldn't be bothered to do a 2 hour round trip for the treatment.

Yes, please let me know how it goes - I hope your pup's ok...
Thanks

JCR

My golden retriever (nearly 3 years old) has been insured with Healthy Pets since March 2006. I am just going to start a claim with them as he is in for an operation today (probably having it done as I type this). I am on the Bronze option which covers up to £1000 of vets fees. When I phoned up for the claim form they were helpful and sympathetic and the form came the next day. I will let you know how it goes with the rest of the claim. I only pay £4.53 a month though, which is very reasonable I think.

itsgototstop

Thank you for that, Halifax will insure both for 11 a month, so I have switched, same cover but no 35% excess on older cat!:beer: