HalifaX pet insurance - second pet query

Loopylou82

I have recently adopted two 14 year old cats, Tommy and Timmy. Having shopped around for the best pet insurance, Halifax was the only one I found that only had the £50 excess, and didn't have a 25/35% charge also on the remaining vets fees. It also said that if I insured a second pet, I would get a 10% discount on the fee.

I went online to buy this (due to the 5% discount buying it this way), and the form I filled out only asked for details of one cat. One question asked me whether I had already got insurance for another pet, or whether I would be insuring a second pet, of which I selected Yes. After I got to the end of the form, I had insured Tommy no problems. I assumed there would be an option to then put in the details of Timmy, but there wasn't. Slightly worried I had missed something, I called up the helpline and was told that as long as I had ticked the box asking me if I was going to insure for a second cat, then this would be covered under their "good faith" guarantee - they would "trust" that I was telling the truth, and the policy would then cover both cats. I was slightly sceptical about this, but he said the paperwork would be sent to me within a few days, so i thought i'd check this out when it arrived.

It arrived the other day - I have scrutinised the wording, and no-where on there does it say that my policy covers two cats. Within the policy summary it even says that "Pet" is "The Pet named on the Schedule of Insurance". I have requested a call back from the customer services, and am going to ask them to email or post me some evidence of this.

Another query I have is of the 5% discount for buying it online, and the 10% discount for insuring a second cat. Where did this 5% discount come off, or is the quote online automatically with this discount? Also how can i get a 10% discount if they have only let me insure ONE cat?!! It's all very confusing to me!

So at the moment I am paying £11.64 a month for Tommy...which apparently includes Timmy, but this seems a bit too good to be true! Hopefully I can be proved wrong! If anyone has used this policy and could clear this up for me, I'd be very greatful.

dacouch

It sounds like you have only insured one cat with them as the premium for one cat is circa £11 a month so two cats would cost you circa £20 a month in total

Their website asks if you have another cat insured with them, this is so that they can apply the multi policy discount.

You need to ring them up and confirm they will pay claims for both cats, state their names to the call centre staff and make a note of their full name and the date and time of the call so if they have told you the wrong thing you have some compe back if you need to make a claim.

Loopylou82

I know you're probably right - don't worry I'm going to get down to the bottom of it anyway! When I rung up, the bloke I spoke to had no idea, but he asked his line manager who gave him that information. I should have got their names but didn't.

In plain simple english I said to the bloke- if the OTHER cat got ill, would he be covered, and he said definitley yes. If this is wrong information I will be writing to them after all this to complain! I know I will get this sorted and not caught out, but there may be others out there not as suspicious as us, and they could get caught out for hundreds of pounds!

dacouch

I think the line manager was refering for to you getting the discount for having two pets insured when he mentioned "Good Faith" eg he was saying they were trusting you not to lie to get the discount.

Remember Insurance is in effect a contract and you should treat it as you would any other contract. The Policy and the Schedule are in effect your contract so it should show either both cats names or if they cover the second cat without naming (I very very much doubt this) it they the policy should at least mention this.

I would try and sort this out asap as you do not want to be arguing this point with them at the time of a claim which in its self is very stressful and expensive without having to argue with an Insurer.

Its lucky that you are what we call an informed customer as most people would just take the Insurers word for it without questioning it.

UKTigerlily

Loopylou82 wrote: »

I have recently adopted two 14 year old cats, Tommy and Timmy. Having shopped around for the best pet insurance, Halifax was the only one I found that only had the £50 excess, and didn't have a 25/35% charge also on the remaining vets fees. It also said that if I insured a second pet, I would get a 10% discount on the fee.

I went online to buy this (due to the 5% discount buying it this way), and the form I filled out only asked for details of one cat. One question asked me whether I had already got insurance for another pet, or whether I would be insuring a second pet, of which I selected Yes. After I got to the end of the form, I had insured Tommy no problems. I assumed there would be an option to then put in the details of Timmy, but there wasn't. Slightly worried I had missed something, I called up the helpline and was told that as long as I had ticked the box asking me if I was going to insure for a second cat, then this would be covered under their "good faith" guarantee - they would "trust" that I was telling the truth, and the policy would then cover both cats. I was slightly sceptical about this, but he said the paperwork would be sent to me within a few days, so i thought i'd check this out when it arrived.

It arrived the other day - I have scrutinised the wording, and no-where on there does it say that my policy covers two cats. Within the policy summary it even says that "Pet" is "The Pet named on the Schedule of Insurance". I have requested a call back from the customer services, and am going to ask them to email or post me some evidence of this.

Another query I have is of the 5% discount for buying it online, and the 10% discount for insuring a second cat. Where did this 5% discount come off, or is the quote online automatically with this discount? Also how can i get a 10% discount if they have only let me insure ONE cat?!! It's all very confusing to me!

So at the moment I am paying £11.64 a month for Tommy...which apparently includes Timmy, but this seems a bit too good to be true! Hopefully I can be proved wrong! If anyone has used this policy and could clear this up for me, I'd be very greatful.

Hiya, this may not be helpful but I Insure my Cat with Axa. I've just got a quote for her from Halifax & it came to £10.45 a month with only £1,000 in Vets fees, so i'm wondering, as it's a similar price to your Cat, if you only got the £1,000 of cover??

If not you should have 14 days to cancel the policy afaik, you could try Axa, they don't have an upper age limit, my Cat turns 11 on Wednesday & my yearly premium was £107.59 which I could also pay monthly at under £10 a month. The excess is a fixed £50 NO %, and the cover is for life @ £7,000 per year not per condition, renewed every year as long as the premium is paid. The top Halifax cover is £6k, for me that'd cost £216.96 a year (for £1k less cover & over £100 more a year)

Axa have a great reputation & are even paying for my Cats tooth extraction she had last Wednesday.

Anyway, sorry if you've tried them or anything, but I thought it looked to be a better & cheaper policy & to let you know. Either way I hope you can get sorted x

dacouch

Axa definately have a "reputation", thats for sure....lol

UKTigerlily

dacouch wrote: »

Axa definately have a "reputation", thats for sure....lol

I just love it when people are helpful! The only rep i've ever heard is with Pet Insurance & that they pay out well & are good, what problems with pet Insurance are you meaning? They've always been fine with me?

dacouch

I'm a broker and have a lot of dealings with Axa, their policies offer good cover but in my experience their admin and claims service can be severely lacking.

Their direct arm (Swift Cover) has its own big thread on here, have a read of it as some of the service the people have had will truely shock you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1457537&highlight=swift+cover

Here are some reviews of different Axa Products (I know that people tend to only write a review if they are unhappy but their experiences reflects a lot of the experiences I have with my dealings with Axa)

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews88630.html

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews11384.html

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews75639.html

I don't deal with Axa for pet insurance, I've read their policy and the cover is good but I suspect the claims will get the normal Axa treatment

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews57553.html

I could write so much more on Axa but will bite my lip on MSE's behalf.

Like I said Axa Policies normally have good cover its the customer service and claims that in my experience let them down big time. In my opinion if they could ever get this right they would be a much better company and get far more business.

P.S I don't know many brokers who cover themselves with Axa.

Does any one else have any opinions on Axa?

UKTigerlily

dacouch wrote: »

I'm a broker and have a lot of dealings with Axa, their policies offer good cover but in my experience their admin and claims service can be severely lacking.

Their direct arm (Swift Cover) has its own big thread on here, have a read of it as some of the service the people have had will truely shock you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1457537&highlight=swift+cover

Here are some reviews of different Axa Products (I know that people tend to only write a review if they are unhappy but their experiences reflects a lot of the experiences I have with my dealings with Axa)

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews88630.html

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews11384.html

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews75639.html

I don't deal with Axa for pet insurance, I've read their policy and the cover is good but I suspect the claims will get the normal Axa treatment

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews57553.html

I could write so much more on Axa but will bite my lip on MSE's behalf.

Like I said Axa Policies normally have good cover its the customer service and claims that in my experience let them down big time. In my opinion if they could ever get this right they would be a much better company and get far more business.

P.S I don't know many brokers who cover themselves with Axa.

Does any one else have any opinions on Axa?

Thanks! I'll have a read, too late to change now as she's Insured for the full year, guess i'll just have to wait & see how quick they pay, I know for Pets More Than are really fast at paying, but she's older so they add a % which I don't want. I hope they pay reasonably quick, M&S took 1 month exactly which is a while but not toooooooo bad I suppose, so i'll be interested to see how long they take & how much they pay as they don't have Pre-Authorisation like Pet Plan do!

spookylukey

I know several people that have Axa pet insurance, myself included, and those that have claimed have been very happy, Axa have paid out quickly with no quibbles. They also provide the best level of cover around with reasonable premiums, as UKTigerlily says there's very few insurers that have a flat excess with no % to pay for older pets that provide life cover.

dacouch

Like I said Axa policies are good policies, their problem is when they get in a mess they get into a proper mess and its difficult to get hold of anyone with any sense to sort it out.

The chances are you won't have a problem with them but if you do they will make a mess. If this happpens tell the offshore call centre you need to speak to a superviser in the UK and you should be able to sort it out