Pet Insurance

Bromley86

More Than isn't suitable for the OP as they're £7k per condition.

Ensuring insurance companies deal direct with vets is overrated, IMO, but I appreciate others may be in a different position. It's just you can spend effort finessing that part only to find your vet has changed their policy towards direct payment, you've changed vet or you're seeing a different vet (i.e. a specialist, who will deal direct with all but the worst offenders).

zaksmum

My dog Lucy's annual renewal came through and they wanted £38 a month (Direct Line)...she'll be 10 next birthday and been insured with them since she was a puppy.

Got some other quotes, and settled on Marks & Spencer at £23 a month, £70 excess and 20% of vet fees, but 7K per year cover.

John Lewis, however, wanted £86 a month!!!

gettingready

Bromley86 wrote: »

Ensuring insurance companies deal direct with vets is overrated, IMO

Ermmm - Zara's hip replacement bill came to nearly 6k, could not be done without a possibility of direct claim.

con1888

gettingready wrote: »

It depends on the vet if they take direct claims or not - my one does direct claim if a bill is over £300 and only from few companies that they have experience of dealing with.

They do for their 'loyal cutomers' so need to see if they think I am loyal :rotfl: I've used them for only about a year but they were our family vet when I was a kid and had animals... I always pay then and there and I always make my appointments...

We would have the provision to pay up front but it's not really something we would like to do as it would be either borrowed from a family member or on a credit card ( we have NEVER used it, it's for emergencies only ).

So would rather the vets could do a direct claim.

jenny_ramone

No experience with dogs, but have always used Petplan for my two cats and wouldn't consider changing! I'd say it's very important to be able to claim direct, I certainly don't have money lying around to pay up front. Only had to claim once, but my premium has only increased once in the past few years. They also cover things that a lot of insurers don't cover, such as dental work!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Bromley86 wrote: »

RSA underwrite both JL & Tesco, and it didn't change mine

I'm pretty annoyed with JL - choose them as they were underwritten by Axa (and not RSA as a lot of companies seem to be now) and now they've changed ....:mad:

Current year is OK (as got in before they changed) but on renewal it will move to RSA & has different limit levels etc - not sure whether to stick it out until renewal (and hope she doesn't have any problems) or start a policy with Axa and move now......

Bromley86

gettingready wrote: »

Ermmm - Zara's hip replacement bill came to nearly 6k, could not be done without a possibility of direct claim.

Already covered that possibility:

or you're seeing a different vet (i.e. a specialist, who will deal direct with all but the worst offenders).

Plus, from memory, when you're dealing with that level of expenditure, the company will pre-authorise, which makes it more likely the specialist will accept direct payment.

[Veteran of 2 hip ops ]

Bromley86

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I'm pretty annoyed with JL - choose them as they were underwritten by Axa (and not RSA as a lot of companies seem to be now) and now they've changed

Petguru seemed to think RSA was a solid bet and the cover levels include 7.5k & 12k, so that's good. In theory then JL u/w by RSA should be as good next year as they are now with AXA.

ScattySkewbald

I've claimed through Pet Plan on my equine policies and they've been fab! Paid up very quickly and were generally great to deal with. I've got the dogs with Argos and touchwood I've never had to claim. Ideally would have preferred to have them with petplan however the price I was quoted for one dog (I've got a small x breed and a JRT) was more than I'm paying to insure both my shetland ponies with them

GRM

Our westie has just turned two and the renewal from Axa is £14.79/month for the cover outlined in post #25 i.e. £7k/year. We claimed for a total of roughly £1000 in his first year via two claims. Processing and payment were straightforward and swift.