Pet Insurance issue - They're refusing to pay

ptrichardson

Hi, Hoping someone can help.

We've had a cat for over 3 years, and when we bought him, he was insured with Pet Plan. We kept that policy going for the next years.

Then this June, we bought a new kitten, also pre-insured from Pet Plan.

When they wrote to us to advise the free insurance for the kitten was ending, my wife called to continue the policy. Their advisor recommended their multi-pet plan, as it had a small saving. My wife agreed to this.

As the older cat's policy ran from June2012-2012, and the kitten's free insurance ended in August2012, the new multi pet insurance plan started in August 2012.


We received a cheque from Pet Plan for the policy that we'd already had for the older cat 2 days after the new policy started.


The problem is, we knew the cat needed an eye operation in May. With us getting the new kitten, we decided to delay it by a few months (it wasn't anything serious). Before we knew it, 6 months had passed, and he's in the surgery today.

The insurance company are refusing to pay as they claim its a pre-existing condition. They claim that because the nature of the policy changed, the under-writers will not cover this.


I've tried explaining that there's no way we would accept a £25 annual policy saving when we knew there was a £1,000 vet's bill coming along in the near-future. But they won't budge.


Anyone got an advice? Can they do this?
Please ask any questions if I've missed out details that are important.

TIA

Quentin

You say that they refunded your premium when the "new policy started".

When you started a new policy there would have been declarations to make regarding any existing problems - did the new policy paperwork refer to this?

ptrichardson

Hi.

The older cat was insured by monthly direct debit until next year - so when the new joint-policy started mid-august, they sent us a cheque as we'd paid for that month upfront on the old policy.


My wife said they asked if there were any ongoing claims - which there were none, but she says nobody asked if there were any other issues (such as conditions).

Which is reasonable, why would they ask? he was already insured with them - which is what we thought, anyway.

All she phoned for was to extend a policy for one cat, and was talked into adding the 2 of them to a single policy. I except its a click of a button at their end as both cats were already insured with them. So there were very few questions at all.

FlameCloud

Did they know the older cat would have to go for an operation prior to setting up the new policy?

ptrichardson

No, they didn't know.

We were told about the condition in May (which he's obviously had since birth - its an eyelid defect), but as we were getting a new kitten, we didn't want to have an excited kitten jumping around him.

So we took him to a local specialist recommended from the breeder a few weeks ago, to see what he thought (we were not sure, and wanted a 2nd opinion).

It wasn't mentioned at the time of the policy change. They asked if there were any ongoing claims - we said no. That was their only question.

ptrichardson

NB - More info on the other thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/57217099#Comment_57217099


Short version - Petplan have relented after hearing the recording of the conversation. Thanks for the help.