Any experiences with 'Protect your bubble' dog insurance?

Arcana

As title says.

I'm currently with Tesco's insurance but they are getting a bit expensive for us and a quick search revealed that Protect your bubble can with the same criterias, cut a 1/3 of Tesco's price.
Any views on them?
Otherwise 'Animal friends' have offered a good quote as well.

rising_from_the_ashes

Ohhh that's a new one on me - never heard of them.

TBH I'd be worried about moving to a "new" company (to me) if I didn't know anyone who'd had previous experiences with them.

At the end of the day - it's pointless having insurance if they're not going to pay out / be difficult (which some companies are) so it's often worthwhile to pay a few £s more and know that there shouldn't be any problems.

KxMx

I'd also look at getting quotes from companies who have insurance as their core business and underwrite the policy themselves- Axa and Pet Plan come to mind. What with the recent withdrawal by certain banks which has left people with lifetime cover high and dry as yet.

Arcana

I guess if I don't go with either Protect your bubble or Animals friends, the cheapest alternative is More than which is only £2 cheaper than my current insurance with Tesco's in which case, it's hardly worth changing.

Hillbilly1

Google reviews for them all. Animal Friends please avoid like the plague.

Has your pet been to the vets for ANYTHING? these will be automatically excluded when changing insurers.

I also suspect any insurer offering a similar policy will quickly reach the same premium as Tesco currently are. I wouldnt chnage to more than purely as they are RSA underwritten the same as Tesco.

Bubble and AFI need new customers as are still small in pet insurance terms so need to offer low deals to get people in.

gettingready

With Protect your bubble’s cheap pet insurance (including dog insurance and cat insurance) our Economy level of cover offers you up to £1,000 vet fees cover over the 12 month policy, our Standard level offers up to £4,000 per condition over the lifetime of the policy and our Premier offers up to £7,500 per condition over the lifetime of the policy.

I read it as it says - per condition.

So if your pet has a life long codition and the 7500 runs out - you are stuck.

I have 7k per year policy with Argos, the 7k is renevable every year, life time policy.

Hillbilly1

It depends on the age of the pet. the per condition policy may be good value for the older pet, or the OP may not want to pay for £7k per year cover.

tony336

I have my dog insured with them and am currently trying to cancel the policy .
They have a premium rate number and you are kept on hold forever. I don't know if anyone ever answers the phone because I gave up after 45 minutes .I just wanted a claim form . But it seems that I have wasted my money . So be warned this is the worst company ever.

rising_from_the_ashes

Tony go to "say no to 0870" and put in the 0844 number

It does list alternative 02 numbers - not sure if I'm allowed to post them on here so better you do the search. HTH

k-hkr

Maybe an old post but relevant to anyone else wondering if they are any good.

I have been with them for 2 years for our old dog. £22/m and within a few months of taking out the policy he was diagnosed with arthritis and then cushings syndrome. We have had no problems at all with the ongoing drugs bills being paid which add up to well over £100/m along with blood tests every few months at £140 a go etc. I was dreading renewal time as I felt sure they would hike up the cost but it went up around £1/m so I was singing their praises.

Second renewal just through (for a weeks time) and NOW they have decided to hike it up. Not just double or treble, but £137/m. Bear in mind we also have to pay 15% of costs. It is far cheaper (but still £100+/m) for us to buy the drugs ourselves and I am sure they know this but do not want to insure us anymore.

So they play the old "change of underwriter" card and get rid of us.

Trouble is, we now cannot get insurance for him as noyone will insure for pre existing conditions.

So much for 'lifetime' policies. They just want customers who pay their premium and don't claim, or claim for one off things. They obviously don't want chronic illness ongoing claims. I would have rather they didn't insure us at all in the first place (not offer lifetime policies) and we could have gone with Petplan for £40/m and had the proper lifetime policy.

They have potentailly consigned a dog to be put down because I don't know that we can afford the ongoing drug cost. He is an old dog but what if he were young? They are a despicable bunch of cowboys in my opinion. Do yourself a favour and stay well clear.

coinxoperated

My only experience of them was from there gadget insurance c which I paid duly for 18 months and then dropped my phone (which was covered under the policy). Not only did it take me literally days and days for them to process the claim, they then refused to cover the gadget as it was over 12 months old.

Baring in mind - I allowed it to renew automatically, with the same gadgets on. partly my fault for not re-reading all the T & Cs AGAIN, but they were happy to take the 6 months premium cover cost even though it couldn't have ever been covered.

After 5 months of letter back and fro, I'm resigning from the battle to get part of my premium back as you never speak to anyone. Nobody is accountable for any of the letters / conversations and you just get automated responses.

I wouldn't touch them again for anything, especially not a loved pet.