Pet Plan rip off

nic_santorini

I am going to rant now. My cat is 12, she is healthy and always has been, I get her jabbed every year and checked out and have been with pet plan since she was 6 months old. I just got the renewal which has been steadily creeping up and it was a whopping £19.50 a month!!!!!!!!!!!!! I phoned up and asked them to reconsider the costs and they were not interested. I told them my house contents and buildings insurance was only £13 per month! and that this policy was a total rip off and this is with a £75 excess and having to pay 20% of any claim anyway.. I explained this to the calltaker at pet plan and there answer was, well if you dont want it, i will cancel it, which is what he did. Blooming 11.5 years without a claim, should have put the money in a separate account and would have had over a £1000 in it to pay for any mishaps. arrrrggghhh:mad:

thesim

Firstly, dont compare pet insurance to car/home/contents insurance. Its completely different.

Secondly, what type of cover are you on with petplan? they do different levels of cover, if your cat is healthy what about downgrading rather than leaving it with no cover at all?

geri1965_2

Maybe you have been a bit hasty, because you might find it difficult to get another company to take on a 12 year old cat.

You also need to bear in mind that if you cat had an accident, £1,000 won't go far.

Having said that, the thing that puts me off Petplan is having to pay 20% of any claim in addition to the excess. That could work out very costly.

agadoo

i can understand your frustration after being with petplan for so many years, they could have at least provided you with another cover option...

that said, you will find insurance companies that will insure your cat but probably not for less. If less, then the level of cover is likely to be less too.

_Andy_

Why is increasing the insurance premium to reflect a much higher risk of claiming a 'rip off'?

LittleMissAspie

When I was looking for cat insurance, most of the top cover was about £20 a month. If you save that over the lifespan of the cat, after 15 years you'll have £3600, plus interest. Bearing in mind that lots of cats go through their life with no need for any expensive treatment, over a whole lifetime of keeping cats it is probably cheaper to save instead of insure.

Wutang_2

thesim wrote: »

Firstly, dont compare pet insurance to car/home/contents insurance. Its completely different.

I hate it when people bemoan the cost of pet insurance compared to car or home cover. They are basically saying that they care more for the bricks and mortar/road vehicle then their (not-so) beloved pet.

And OP, if 19.50 warrants an angry face thing (I refuse to do them as I am in my 30's) then you're going to face a lot of stress in life.

This web site is transforming the saying 'rip off' into something quite alien.

dunstonh

I hate it when people bemoan the cost of pet insurance compared to car or home cover. They are basically saying that they care more for the bricks and mortar/road vehicle then their (not-so) beloved pet.

They are also the ones that often pay more to protect their pet than they do their family or income.

Debt_Free_Chick

Wutang wrote: »

I hate it when people bemoan the cost of pet insurance compared to car or home cover. They are basically saying that they care more for the bricks and mortar/road vehicle then their (not-so) beloved pet.

I think that's a little harsh. When you consider that your home/car/contents insurance covers thousands of pounds, then the comparison in premiums does appear to be odd. Especially as the OP hasn't made a claim.

I assume it's just that there's less competition in the pet insurance market

dacouch

The claims frequency for Pet Policies is incredibly high and if your with a company with a wide policy such as Pet Plan then if the pet gets a life time condition they can be paying hundreds or often thousands of pounds out each year for the rest of the pet's lifetime.

SiuLoong

Petplan do seem expensive, but you get what you pay for.. reminds me of the old monty python sketch about the insurance policy with the no payout clause - it was cheaper, I can see why you went for it but I'm afraid we don't pay out on that policy.

Petplan tend to be one of the more reliable & reasonable pet insurance companies to claim from and I think that is worth the extra money... my cat is only just two and very healthy but I would have had to claim three times in the last year for accidents/injuries he has had, fortunately for Petplan I am a vet so I dealt with them myself but if he needed specialist treatment I'd have to pay the same as anyone else, which can get into the 000's and I couldn't afford it, but at the same time I'd want him to have the best possible treatment.

There is plenty of competition in the pet insurance market, there are a number of companies that do much cheaper insurance but often they have much lower limits or single year cover, or exclude anything they possibly can. Maybe try a search for E&L ?!

Finally, instead of being upset you've paid all this money to petplan and had nothing go wrong.. be happy that your cat has lead a healthy and happy life so far and long may it continue!! Insurance may pay for the treatment but it doesn't cover the stress of having a sick pet...