MSE News: Proof Lloyds advertised 'life-long' pet insurance before axing cover

udydudy

Lloyds is owned by the government so they can do what they want!! Does not the government do what they want?? Bankers should lose their bonus (even without a legal case being held against them) and we have a minister with a court case and still seems to be wanting to take his severance pay of 3 months.

No wonder Lloyds seeem to think they can get away what ever they want.

Though I do not hold a pet policy(do not have pets) I think Lloyds and Halifax should pay out for any costs(not repaying premiums) for pets until the life of the pet due to mis-selling. It seems plaina dn clear that the idea was to mis-sell otherwise why would they bother to put it as a headline promotion??

Zorz_2

corbyboy wrote: »

Or does "lifelong" refer to the life of the policy rather than the life of the pet?

That's a tautology. "Duration: We will provide this policy as long as we will provide this policy." It's pointless.

wozearly

Halifax look like they're up a certain creek without a paddle. If the marketing misrepresents the t&cs to that extent, then closing the product would make them guilty of mis-selling.

Lloyds is a bit murkier if the name of the product / range is "Protection for Life"...but its not an unreasonable leap to assume that a product called "Protection for Life" was offering...well...protection for life. Legally they're probably on solid ground, but it does seem to be a case of being morally bankrupt shortly after going...erm...financially bankrupt.

SnowMan

Not overly keen on linking to the daily mail website but there is an interesting article here which suggests that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) are putting pressure on Lloyds to sort this out.

annettejm

My 12 year old Labrador who is riddled with arthritis has been insured by Lloydstsb since she was 1 yrs old, i swapped to them as was told this would cover her for life and i have a policy booklet that confirm they will extend cover for pets up to 20 years old if i continue to renew this policy at terms to be agreed. There is no one that is going to insure her, her tablets cost £118 a month. I will be fighting this when they come to tell me they are not renewing cover!

magpiecottage

One of the things FOS always does (or did) with an endowment complaint was to look to see if there was anything relating to the sale which might amount to a guarantee that the amount of the mortgage would be paid out.

If there was and it had been published by the insurer (which could simply mean a rep writing it on company letterhead) that would be deemed to be what is known as a collateral contract and the insurer would be forced to honour it.

If you can persuade FOS that this advertisement amounts to a collateral contract then I cannot see how it can do anything other than uphold your complaint.

Plushchris

Just been reading through on here after seeing Watchdog last night..

They are ending our policy at the end of this month and we had the letter through a couple of weeks ago..

We had a bit of a scare at the weekend with our cat Ernie he became really poorly and was peeing blood (not nice) had to take him to the vets monday afternoon, before going we phoned the insurance to make sure he would be covered after reading some horror stories online as to what the problem could be, the agent told my OH that we would be covered for anything that happens until the end of the month then thats it, we would have to sign up with the new insurer or go elsewhere, but if the problem continued we would not be covered as its a pre-existing condition..(even if we did sign up to the replacement)

The letter we got through from the new company had the new price hidden away in it, it just said "sign the credit agreement to continue covering your pet" hidden away on the credit agreement was the price OVER THREE TIMES THE PRICE! :eek:

Luckily the vet thinks its cystitus and Ernie seems a lot better now, but the whole thing infuriates me, if he was taken really ill (we were thinking it would be a case of surgery) they would only cover him for the remaining two weeks, then we would be stuffed, we actually had the talk about having him put down as we would be able to afford big vet bills going forward..

The thing is, Cystitus is something that may come back so if he ever gets it again we wont be covered..

We've had the policy for five or six years and I'm sure (as has now been proven) that it was sold as a "for life" policy, now I'm forced to go elsewhere, some places wont insure him due to his age, those that will are all more than double the price we were paying..

The worst thing is, we have three cats, all were insured through Halifax, all policies are going to double if we go elsewhere..:(

magpiecottage

I suggest you fax a complaint to Halifax at 01422 326 580 for the attention of Ant!nio Horta-Os!rio: Group Chief Executive.

Say that you were provided with literature which clearly stated that it was "for life" and that you consider this to amount to a collateral contract which you now require Halifax plc to honour.

I do not normally recommend writing to CEOs up front but this is clearly a decision by LloydsTSB (the owner of Halifax) that he knows, or should know, about. The FSA has made quite clear that those in control of businesses it regulates are personally responsible for ensuring customers are treated fairly so complaints addressed to him that are rejected and then overturned by FOS is potentially damaging for him.

GrahamSK8

The Ombusman has made a provisional ruling - but I can't post a link to the page. Try googling pet-insurance-mar12.pdf