Cat insurance low excess.

jaycat62

Hi,

I have a Siamese boy 9 years old who has been insured by Sainsbury bank for 5 years with the excess of £50. However i have just put a claim in for £268 but they only paid £118 as they said their excess is £125.

On my policy it still says £50 only says higher online. I have just written a letter of complaint to try to get the other £75 off them. I didn't think they could change it without informing their customers.

Monthly premium is £18 but I want something with a lower excess, any recommendations please?

Thanks,

spookylukey

Sainsburys have two types of policy for pets over 9 years old, , the first one - option one, pays out £3000 per condition and has an excess of the first £200 or 15% of treatment costs, whichever is the greater.

The second type - option two, pays out £7,500 per condition and the excess is The first £125 or 15% of treatment costs, whichever is the greater.

Although you probably don't feel it you were actually quite lucky that the claim was relatively small otherwise it would have cost you 15% of the total claim as an excess.

The problem with switching is that the new insurance company will not cover any pre-existing conditions so you will have to factor this in your decision whether to switch. Most insurance policies for older pets have an excess which is a percentage of the total bill, most commonly 15 or 20%, the only one I know of that has a flat rate excess for older pets is Axa pet insurance which is a flat rate £75. Axa underwrite many of the 'branded' insurance policies anyway so going direct with them is simply cutting out the middleman.

jaycat62

Hi, thanks for your reply, my question now is then that Sainsbury USE axa as their insurance company!! Should I try to go direct to them?

Thanks again for your help.

spookylukey

Even though Sainsburys are underwritten by Axa if you change companies and go direct with Axa to avoid the percentage excess for older pets it will still count as a switch so you WON'T be covered for any pre-existing conditions. It depends on your pets medical history as to whether it's worthwhile switching.

lowis

as spooky pointed out, if you switch now then your new policy will exclude absolutely anything (or anything which can be deemed as a clinical sign) that you have claimed for previously. so if you cat has been relatively healthy with mostly routine treatment it might be worth switching.

i am with AXA for my 14yo cat. as my cat was a rescue cat i did not have a medical history for him, i am about to make my first claim for a lesion on his tooth, so he needs an extraction. i'll let you know how good AXA are once the claim has gone through. i really hope they don't turn around and say that the lesion may have existed before i got him insured (2 months ago), and use that as an excuse not to pay up!

jaycat62

Thanks, I have claimed twice once for dental, gum disease, and once for a crystal in his privates, (ouch!) I spoke to axa and they said they would not cover dental anymore, but that would still be cheaper in the long run.
The dental would have cost £160 for 5 extractions, so if at any time I have to put in a higher claim, going direct will be easier, the monthly premiums are about £2 higher, but the excess is £75. Thoughts please?

Please let me know how your claim goes, do hope your cat's ok too.

Thanks again.

lowis

£160 for five extractions? jesus...my vet quoted me £400!!! i rang around his competitors too and the quotes ranged from £300 to £575 - for ONE tooth! i am in Central London...and that immediately loads the costs...but still...it would be cheaper for me to get a train out to wherever you are and get the extraction done there!

hopefully the insurance company will pay up...if not then my vet is going to credit my account with £100 as a good-will gesture for not taking my cat to the vet who quoted the cheapest price - in effect ensuring i pay no more than £300 for the extraction.

ps - having just had a cat go through chemo at a cost of about £11,000 over 18 months - with my excess being 20% - i would definitely choose to pay a slightly higher premium if it gets rid of the percentage element of the excess. if you do switch to AXA (or anyone else) they might deem the crystal in the privates as a clinical sign of just about anything related to his urinary functions. call them and check with them, ask them what they would exclude based on this knowledge. for example i had a cat that had the sniffles when she was a kitten and she was excluded for all 'upper respitaory illnesses' as a result, which seemed somewhat excessive...

jaycat62

Wow, thanking my lucky stars at the moment then. I live in Hampshire btw, so may see you down here in the future

missbargain

Yep, Central London prices are the biggest ripp-off.

Even going to the few outer suburbs away (let alone the countryside) considerably lowers the prices of the treatments. I guess the part of it are crazy rental prices in London, but still, there is lots of pure greed, too.

view

I would shop around if I were you. Also, always go through a cashback site.

We just took out maximum cover for our new wee one £9.66 a month, £50 excess. Cover for life, not for condition (no cap). Also got £25 back from TCB (petplan).

lowis

petpaln are great - i have always had my pets with them, unfortunately when i adopted my old 14yo siamese they only offered a really inadequate policy so I went to Axa for this one pet. £7000 a year for vet fees, for life cover, £75 excess with no percentage of vet fees to pay - a great deal for an oldie cat!