Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

han2505

Hey all,

I have just bought my lil dog Holly who is a Collie Cross. She is 3 in October and we have 6 weeks free insurance but obviously looking around for more info if anyone can help.

A few people have recommended More Than to me but i dont know what to look for really?

Thanks

Bromley86

Thanks pboae.

sooty. Can't speak for PetPlan, but I got the impression that there *might* be some scope to haggle with NFU. Then again, they were the only ones that I contacted via telephone.

han. MoreThan had good reviews on another site (labforums) but I didn't consider them because they're a "poor" lifetime policy - i.e. a good limit of £7k, but that's per condition and doesn't refresh every year.

You want (in an ideal world) a "good" lifetime policy. That is one that refreshes every year, so you typically get £4-7k per year for all conditions, although some are per condition (which in theory means that you can claim more than the headline amount per year, if very unlucky).

A bit too much information though. You need to look at PetPlan (expensive but best), NFU, AXA, Halifax & pos. HSBC. IMO don't worry about the excess - you're insuring against big problems, otherwise doing self-insuring (savings account) would be more cost effective.

When I looked at it, I decided I wanted at least £4k per year (all the above have that). Bear in mind that they might not fully cover your costs if there's major surgery, but it's likely to cover 80% of it. We ended up with a £6k p.a. policy for little more than the cheaper policies.

anna42hmr

has any one insured with them? as we have been looking at insurance companies for when the 6 week free kennel club insurance runs out, the cover seems good for the price we have had quoted for our german sheppard puppy, but was wondering what peoples experiences are of them? are they efficient in the event of a claim, do they hike the insurance prices up after the first year?

Feefee_4

Hi there anna

I've had my dog insured with More Than since I got her over 3 years ago & my expeience with them has been nothing but good - i would highly reccommend then. I have claimed well over the amount i have paid in preimums. At the begining of last year she had a problem as she was wetting herself all the time & at 2 that was worrying, the final bill from the vets for all the tests & explority investigation came to well over £1000, I sent my claim in & with the week I had my cheque back. She is now on tablets for life & I send a claim in every 6 months for them & i have had no sharp rises in the cost, fingers crossed for when I renew it in May. Till now I have been very satisfied with the service I have received from them.

All the best

Fee

Bromley86

The problem with MoreThan is the condition limit. They are a lifetime policy, but when you hit the £7k limit for a condition then that's it.

Bromley86

Just had my first claim experience with Halifax and I'm very happy with them.

Received the £190 cheque 10 days after they received the claim. The only deduction was the £50 excess, so that was all good. No quibbling, even though they could have excluded £20 of the claim as it was more than 60 days ago.

We've got a couple of other claims going in now (£50 suppliments, £170 specialist and ~£200 hydro), so we'll soon have some more data on their claims process.

The big question now is how much our premiums will increase by. We'll have to wait until July for that .

A non-Halifax point. One thing I'll do differently next time is to get the vet to add their insurance form processing fee of £7.50 to the claim.

ednotdave

Bromley86 wrote: »

Just had my first claim experience with Halifax and I'm very happy with them.

Received the £190 cheque 10 days after they received the claim. The only deduction was the £50 excess, so that was all good. No quibbling, even though they could have excluded £20 of the claim as it was more than 60 days ago.

We've got a couple of other claims going in now (£50 suppliments, £170 specialist and ~£200 hydro), so we'll soon have some more data on their claims process.

The big question now is how much our premiums will increase by. We'll have to wait until July for that .

A non-Halifax point. One thing I'll do differently next time is to get the vet to add their insurance form processing fee of £7.50 to the claim.

Thanks, Bromley, that's good to hear - do you have eXtra cover?

hethmar

Thats exactly what I was going to say. Ive been with M and S for 2 years now - brilliant policy with no excess but now they have bunged up the premium and put a £50 excess on the first costs of any condition. So I have been looking around again for the best deal.

One dog I cant swop over to another insurer because he has a skin condition which though under control now without any meds, cost something like £600 last year, including tests etc.so that would be excluded by any new insurer.

The other dog Ive had since July bless him he is also a rescue and up to now Ive not made a claim on him at all. I did look at More Than (its about the same premium as M and S) and I was shocked that they can cut off any payments once a condition reaches its limited pay out though I believe thats per year rather than the lifetime of the policy? So hopefully the poster above should be safe with her tabs for life.

But having had a good look round I still think, at the moment, the M and S is a good policy. I understand you can go straight to Axa who offers M and S's policy but they have a no frills one which I may investigate.

Its a minefield because if you make a mistake and your pet is ill, you are stuck for life with the insurer or you just dont get the pay out you expected.

From what Ive researched - the only genuine "for life" cover is M and S and Petplan. If anyone knows of another, please tell us but do check out if, like More Than its not really what it seems.

MrsMW

I've just changed from M&S to AXA. The M&S premium has gone up but the worst bit is that because my dog is now 9 the excess has gone from nothing to £70 + 20% of the rest of the cost !!!! AXA gives lifetime cover with a lower premium and an excess of £50. I'm just waiting for the policy to come so that I can double check that it's as good as it seems.

Bromley86

hethmar wrote: »

I did look at More Than (its about the same premium as M and S) and I was shocked that they can cut off any payments once a condition reaches its limited pay out though I believe thats per year rather than the lifetime of the policy? So hopefully the poster above should be safe with her tabs for life.

All policies have a per year and/or per condition limit. When Feefee hits £7k in claims then that's it.

But having had a good look round I still think, at the moment, the M and S is a good policy. I understand you can go straight to Axa who offers M and S's policy but they have a no frills one which I may investigate.

The consensus seems to be that M&S isn't great value anymore, although the actual policy conditions are AFAIK still very good. They're not underwritten by AXA anymore.

From what Ive researched - the only genuine "for life" cover is M and S and Petplan. If anyone knows of another, please tell us but do check out if, like More Than its not really what it seems.

There are quite a few "proper" lifetime policies (i.e. ones with annual limits that renew each year, like PetPlan & M&S). The other ones I've seen are AXA, Halifax, NFU & HSBC. There's also Animal Friends, but they're underwritten by E&L who (apparently) are !!!!!!!s to claim from.