Animal Friends - anyone insured with them and tried to put claim in recently?

muskey_2

As Animal friends get such a lot of bad press I felt I must follow up with this one.

I did appeal against this decision as I was pretty sure in this instance I was 100% right as dis my vet. I knew that he wasn't covered for the rhinitis and I would never have tried to claim for that as it was a pre existing condition and I knew that it would not be covered.(By the way he has been insured from 8 weeks old but with another company who covered him only for 1 year for it)

My decision to move companies was so that with any new conditions he would be covered for more than just a year, I wasn't losing out as he was no longer covered for the existing condition with them.

So with the courage of my convictions I followed their appeal procedure with full intention of taking it to the ombudsman if I failed.

Today I received a letter from Animal Friends agreeing that the decision was wrong and that they would meet the bill in full.

So to all those people out there who know they have a valid claim I say go for it, I like to think that this does show if a claim is valid as mine clearly was they will pay up.

Good Luck to everyone else who fights back, I just wish they would not try to block all payouts where they possibly can as it really is not doing their reputation any favours.Maybe they need some staff with some medical knowledge in the claims team who actually understand what the medical conditions are.

In my case they should have known that rhinitis is very different to having a massive furball lodged in the back of the nose and just because they both started with being sick doesn't mean they are the same condition! :j

Hillbilly1

AF are truly awful. I worked processing vet claims and they blocked as much as they could.

They will not cover for pe-exisitng conditions, and usually "the symptoms the same or similar to"... and if a condition has affect part of a body system the whole system can be excluded (e.g. respiratory).

Avoid like the plague! Change ASAP do not wait the whole year in case your pet gets sick and creates exclusions!

moggymutt

Doing lots for charity gets used as a guise for otherwise very low morals. (Particularly relevent at the moment sadly)

jen007

Argh, I've just read this and it's put the heebie geebies in me as my lovely puss' Simon is insured with AF.

Luckily he's not had any major problems minus falling out the window at 4 months - 4th floor flat, he's a lucky boy and only fractured a toe!

He's a house cat so luckily doesn't get into too much mischief, but I wanted it for 'just in case'.

Now I want to change after reading this, does anyone know some nice providers who have cheaper house policies (one of the reasons I went with AF I think).

How easy is it to switch?

RedBern

Been with AF for 7 years, and in that time have had two claims. The first was for over £2k for root canal work on Floyd - they were slow paying out but did so. More recently Floyd had treatment for a lump in his throat which we didn't really get to the bottom of, but which cost £400! They paid out very quickly on this more recent one - probably took about 3 weeks from submitting claim which seems reasonable to me.

I suppose as with all services, you hear a lot about bad service, and little about poor. So far, I'm happy enough.

Carcluster

We moved away from Animal Friends about a year ago - they seemed to really try and associate any issue with any possible pre-existing condition, no matter how tenuous. We went back to the original insurer from when the cats were kittens - PetPlan. Our conclusion was that once you have an insurer that you are happy with, then stick with them - when you switch you immediately run the risk of not being able to claim for any treatment before switching. If we got any new pet now we would probably pick an insurer straight away and just stay with them.

nixipixi

My dog is insured with them and only a couple of months in to my policy she developed an abscess in her cheek which needed an operation. Claim was accepted and they paid reasonably quickly

Briezzee

My dog is insured with them. He had a heart murmur when he was very young that had gone by seven weeks of age and before I took up insurance with them. They excluded heart conditions for a year,but agreed to remove the exclusion if he had no heart problems in that year which they duly did. Three years on and he now does have a heart problem (not related to his baby murmur) and although they paid out for the diagnosis scan and assessment they've now stuck an exclusion for heart conditions backdating it 4 years! I took out a lifetime policy because his breed is susceptible to heart problems and he's supposed it have £20,000 worth of cover. Now they're refusing to cover it at all. I'm in the process of complaining and will take it as high as I can,but would appreciate any advise. Does anyone know of an insurer who will cover pre-existing conditions? I too was taken in by their charity work. I'm incensed that they can seemingly behave in this manner and heart-broken that my boy is now not covered for when he does need treatment. Any suggestions would be very welcome.