Pet Insurance - Recommendations

Lulee36

Hi All

Just shopping around for pet insurance , I am currently with M & S and its gone from 10.10 per month to 17.99 which i think is a little high to say i have never claimed in 3 years since taking out the insurance .

Done a few quotes and there are some competative prices but would be good to know whos good to deal with and who to stay away from

Thanks

dacouch

Avoid anything that is underwritten by E&L (Their name is not always obvious unless you check the "Summary of Cover" or "Policy Wording").

Petplan are arguably the best, however like most things in life the best costs more.

If you have claimed on your M & S Policy, bear in mind that if you change Insurers, the new company will exclude cover for any claims for the same condition or anything directly related to the condition.

You also need to bear in mind that Pet Insurance always goes up in premium, the increases are generally well over normal inflation. This is because inflation in Vets costs is well above normal inflation, this is basically due to the Vet fees but mainly due to continual developments in treatment that are often very expensive. Pet treatment follows advances in Human medicine, this means that things that could not have been treated last year may be treatable this year. A good example is an MRI scan which can now be performed on a pet should the vet decide it's needed. So be prepared for any pet policy you take out to increase in premium year on year

justwannabeloved

im currently looking for pet insurance too, teco renewal gone from 12.43 to 19.86 per month, for 7 yr old Labrador.

Just went on go compare.com and ran quote, they came up with a company called Animal Friends Feel Good Insurance with Lifetime cover for 14.43 per month... quite happy with this but just wonder if anyone had heard or use this company for their pet insurance.

justwannabeloved

any one heard of pet-insurance.co.uk... got even cheaper quote of best cover of 11.97......

dacouch

justwannabeloved wrote: »

any one heard of pet-insurance.co.uk... got even cheaper quote of best cover of 11.97......

They are underwritten by E&L who battle it out with Tradex as the worst Insurers in the UK.

"Pet-insurance.co.uk is a scheme administered and underwritten by Equine & Livestock Insurance Co. Ltd."

Please do not go with them, if you do do a search of MSE for "E&L" or google them

Here are some reviews of them, bear in mind the 5 star ratings are from people who have solely registered to leave a review. I always find these as highly suspicious, especially when they start their review with something along the lines of "I panicked when I read the reviews here" as surely if you read the reviews on them you would not have insured with them in the first place...

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews57547.html

Here are just some of the MSE threads on E&L

http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2068843

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1257747

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/441402

andyo

I have just moved from More Than to Admiral and although I haven't made a claim, their cover seems to be good and reasonably priced. More Than were reasonable with their monthly premiums, but theirs was not a true 'life' policy and what worried me a bit was the fact that you have to pay 10% of the vet's bill over and above the policy excess. It's all a bit of a gamble I suppose, and you always hope you don't have to make a claim. Good luck.

justwannabeloved

thanks for pointing that out, thought it was to good to be true, will take a look at admiral, started off with more than, then moved to tesco... never ever claimed on any of the insurances, to date and hopefully wont have to , but you just never know whats around the corner hey

thanks again, pet-insurance.co.uk is a no-no then .

dacouch

Have you looked at any of the Axa policies, most of them are for life policies

RINGLANDRANGER

Lulee36 wrote: »

Hi All

Just shopping around for pet insurance , I am currently with M & S and its gone from 10.10 per month to 17.99 which i think is a little high to say i have never claimed in 3 years since taking out the insurance .

Done a few quotes and there are some competative prices but would be good to know whos good to deal with and who to stay away from

Thanks

I have my dog insured with Tesco. I tried to shop around and found that a lot of other companies have conditions attached. For example, if your pet has behavioural problems, ie vicious tendencies, you will not be insured by a lot of them. Tesco are quite competitive.

Joto_2

Just want to add that I would stay away from E&L as well, google for reviews and you will know what everyone is saying.

We are with E&L and have been for the past 12 years. Unfortunately it's only when you need to claim that you find out how good a policy is!

Unfornunately our dog was over 8 years old when we had to make our first claim and classed as a mature dog so no one else would insure her. The claim with E&L did go smoothly but the next year they excluded all growths, tumor etc even though her growth at the time was benign.

We are now in the process of another claim and the first thing our vet asked was who we were insured with. He said they will wait payment on Petplan. Tesco, Marks etc but E&L query everything, try to get out of paying when ever they can and take months to payout so they insist that we pay the bill and then claim - not quite what you take insurance out for.

You also need to check your policy for us because our dog is classed as a mature dog( 12 yrs) our maximum claim for each condition is £500 less £69 excess and 35% of vet fees which means we will get back a maximum of £280! We pay out £20 a month ( £240 a year) so unless we have several different conditions in a year we aren't exactly saving anything.

loopsntroops

I recommend Sainsburys. We adopted our dog from a friend who had cover with Sainsburys and they paid out very quickly on all claims. We are with them and the cover is competitive and very good.