Pet Insurance guide discussion area

orlao

The only animal insurance I can comment on is horse insurance.

JMHO

Petplan - very good for veterans (over 16's) and not as dear as you would expect. Vets sigh with relief when you say that's who you are insured with as they aim to pay within a week. They are underwritten by Aviva.

NFU - used to be very good but have got very nit picky (and expensive at renewal) over the past couple of years and use an agent to manage claims which means they are slow to pay out. If you do decide to go with them, get your policy through one of their offices rather than on the national 0800 number - IME the call centre are inaccurate with info and very, very ditsy...

KBIS, Stoneways and Carriageway all get good reviews from owners but I always found them very expensive for an average happy hacker type, think they're geared to valuable competition horses.

I looked at Animals Friends and had never heard of their underwriter so steared clear - once bitten twice shy and all that

E&L and anybody underwritten by them - avoid. There are reports that they have improved but TBH even if they have improved 100% from a couple of years ago they will still be [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL].

Other info

There is no life long insurance with horses sadly - 12 months only from onset of condition.

Any previous illness/injury will be excluded plus anything that might be linked to the previous injury.Sometimes you can challenge an exclusion with support of your vet but it's rare.

Travel and stabling at the vets isn't usually included - with horses that can cost hundreds especially if you are referred to somewhere like Newmarket and have to hire transport. Ask me how I know! A horse staying at the vets will cost anything from £30 - £100 per night.

PetPlan cover MRI scans - NFU only pay 50%

Most policies willl cover remedial treatment - remedial farrier, physio etc but only on veterinary advice.

£5k is the normal limit for vet cover but it is easy to spend that and more on a single colic op and that's your limit for the year not per condition.

Excesses are anything from £125 - £2K

You can join WHW, BSJA or take BHS Gold membership for public liability cover but they have a £1k excess and you have to try and claim on any other insurance including household before they will pay out.

If you want to change insurer and the horse is over a certain age or value they may ask you to have a 5 stage vetting done (£200) before they will issue a policy - of course anything mentioned on the vetting is automatically excluded.

mairinaineelizabethosborn

Sharada wrote: »

Thanks for that, I was really leaning towards self insuring but wondered if I was being foolish. I used to have 4 cats (now with the ex) and to this day (after 10 years) they've incurred very little or no vet fees at all. I now have a kitten and will be doing what you advise, £10 per month in a savings account. I am skint, but not in debt, so if I did need emergency treatment costing hundreds/thousands of pounds in the near future then I'd rather borrow the money from my bank to be honest!

I am thinking of a savings account as well. Don't know my way around this area at all as I have never saved in my life! would anyone know a good place to put say 10/20 quid a month.
And is there a time limit before withdrawing the money should it be needed, would a vet be prepared to wait if say the savings account needed notice before giving me my cash to pay the vet?
Many thanks for any ideas or thoughts on this area.

I_am_mad

Hi

I am looking to get my dog and new cat insured and was wondering if any one would be able to give me any advice on the Pets at Home insurance and if it is any good? I have had a good look and if you go for the most expensive cover then it covers for lifetime illnesses as long as you renew and pay the insurance premiums. Basically I am looking for an insurer who will pay life time cover and not limit it just in case on of my babies get an illness that needs constant treatment?

Thank you

melbury

I am totally stressed out about pet insurance!

My dog has an ongoing condition (vet bills of £2000 in the past 12 months) and my insurer for the past four years - PETGUARD - have gone belly up. Received letter today confirming that are no longer able to offer pet insurance as their underwriters NIG have pulled out and my dog will be uninsured in a couple of weeks time.

Of course no other company will cover any pre-existing conditions, so I really don't know what to do. Will any other company even take him on?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

natcurrie

Just wanted to share my experience with M&S pet insurance. I have 2 boxers. I've claimed now and then for things over the past 4 years, nothing major though. Last year it was disovered that one of my dogs has a food allergy (to nearly everything! great!), anyways the bill was only a few hundred quid but it spanned over one renewal year to the next so I had 2 lots of excesses to pay £140. Sorry, I'll get to the point! My insurance started off about £25 for each dog, lifetime cover (as I've been caught out before with other types of insurance and wouldn't buy anything other than lifetime insurance). Last year I was paying £30 a month for each dog and today received my renewals notice.....£37pm for one dog and £47pm for the other.

I know one of my dogs has an ongoing condition but at the mo she's not on medication. There's no way I'm paying M&S those kind of fees when I've probably only claimed about £500 for both dogs in the past 4 yrs. WHAT A RIP OFF!

Currently looking around for other insurance, I'll take my risks with my dog not being covered for allergies in future.

Just wanted to share my experience with M&S, wouldn't recommend them to anyone!

Greenst

I would like you to add NFU to the horse insurance section. I had a horse (unfortunately I had to make the extremely sad decision to sell him as due to the economic situation I couldn't afford to keep him) but while I had him he had 2 fairly major problems, one was a fractured leg he got when he was kicked in the field and another a few years later was a problem in his hoof.

Both times I claimed from my NFU policy and I couldn't rate them higher.

They were very kind and sympathetic on the phone especially with the leg problem. As I am sure you can understand I was distraught at the time, they dealt with the vets, transport costs, over night stays at the vet college where he was sent and any further vet fees that occurred due to vets having to come out daily in the beginning of his treatment to having to come again daily to sedate him when it was time for him to start walking out due to him having been on box (stable) rest for about 18 weeks.

The second time I had to claim for the hoof problem they were more than helpful and said I could even claim for corrective shoeing, of which I was unaware. Thankfully I didn't need to do that but on both occasions the people on the phone were extremely knowledgeable and had horses themselves and completely understood the conditions and how I was feeling.

When I cancelled the policy I was in tears as I didn't want to have to sell my horse, the woman was so kind and said she was extremely sorry and if I got a horse again in the future she hoped that I would come back to them.

I have since recommended NFU to anyone I know who is looking to insure their horse, they may not be the cheapest but they have given me and others excellent service which I think is worth more than saving a few pounds on a policy when you have a large animal and could be in a very distressing situation.

Greenst

Orlao
Not sure if you meant Carridge house insurance not carridge ways?

Anyway a friend of mine had to make a very large claim with Carridge House insurance as her horse had kissing spines, she couldn't rate them higher, they were fast efficient and extremely helpful and paid up all the costs without any problems. She had to pay out for transport to get the horse to Gloucestershire where the operation took place and they paid for that too. All the after care and physiotherapy back at the horses yard.

So along with my recommendation for NFU hope that's of some help to others out there!!

buckrogers

Hi all, need some advice please,
our dog insurance is due at the end of month with M&S.
Vet fees of up to £7,000 each year for premier cover which we have for which is now £191.88 a year form £157 from last year.



But looking at More than , it looks the same policy but cheaper £115 a year

Up to £7,000 vets fees cover for each and every new accident and illness.
What’s more, your pet is covered for as long as they need the treatment, as long as they remain insured with MORE TH>N – many policies limit cover to just the first 12 months of treatment
Obtain a cheap pet insurance quotes from us and it will include cover of up to £7,000 ongoing vet fees cover for each and every new injury or illness should your pet require medical attention. Our MORE TH>N Pet Insurance will also cover you over the course of the treatment – there is no 12 month limit which may be the case with cheap pet insurance.

i cant see any differance with both policys, so can anyone advice if i am missing something is it a good deal/price??

thankyou

lisajane8482

I insured my kitten with Argos Pet Insurance and recently had to claim as het ate lilies, they say on their website nad policy documents that "under normal circumstances payment is made within 10 days". Well it's been nearly 4 weeks since they received the forms, I got a letter a week ago stating they were sending payment out and I still have not received a cheque. When I rang them today I was told that it is yet to be underwritten which will be done in the next couple of days to a week. So I would advise reading reviews carefully, which I did and ignored. Hindsight is a great thing.

albacookie

buckrogers wrote: »

Hi all, need some advice please,
our dog insurance is due at the end of month with M&S.
Vet fees of up to £7,000 each year for premier cover which we have for which is now £191.88 a year form £157 from last year.



But looking at More than , it looks the same policy but cheaper £115 a year

Up to £7,000 vets fees cover for each and every new accident and illness.
What’s more, your pet is covered for as long as they need the treatment, as long as they remain insured with MORE TH>N – many policies limit cover to just the first 12 months of treatment
Obtain a cheap pet insurance quotes from us and it will include cover of up to £7,000 ongoing vet fees cover for each and every new injury or illness should your pet require medical attention. Our MORE TH>N Pet Insurance will also cover you over the course of the treatment – there is no 12 month limit which may be the case with cheap pet insurance.

i cant see any differance with both policys, so can anyone advice if i am missing something is it a good deal/price??

thankyou

With M+S it looks like you get £7000 every year - so if you need to claim for a condition for the next 5 years you could claim up to £35,000 if you need to. With More Than there is no time limit but the maximum you can claim is £7000 total so once you hit that you'll need to cover ongoing costs.