Pet Insurance - Help ASAP!

Frankie.

Petplan want £282 for me to renew with them on the cover for life classic plan. I simply cannot afford this. I know people with them who pay a lot less for the same kind of cat. I doesn't make sense. I don't even live in a high risk area.

I need some recommendations for cheaper insurance but with a company with good reputation.

I hear Co-op have the same underwriters as Petplan. My quote was cheaper, but they only cover up to £5,000 in vet fees.

I only really want to be paying no more than £200 a year.

My cat is a pedigree Bengal born in 2010. You'd say this is why it costs so much, but my sister has three pedigree Bengals and is paying less than me on Petplan and lives in either the same risk or slightly higher risk area. Work that one out!!

My cover with PP has now run out, so I need suggestions quickly! Thanks!

dacouch

Pet Insurance premiums tend to go up a fair percentage each year due to the inflation in Vet costs which is normally into double figures due to advances in treatments.

If your sister is paying less per cat, it's probably due to a discount she receives for insuring more cat and / or has not had her renewal with any increases.

I'm not sure whether Bengals are prone to congenital defects, if they are bear in mind PP normally cover this but not all other Insurers do and the claims can often be quite expensive for this.

The Co op are offering a 25% online discount, if you're taking advantage of this it won't be included in your next renewal and will also have any premium increase.

Have you tried ringing PP and discussing ways of reducing cover and that you have a cheaper quote?

Pet Plan are arguably the best Pet Insurer, interestingly they're owned by Allianz who also underwrite the Co Op policy

Frankie.

Yes. Petplan rang me recently and continued to tell me for 20 straight minutes the same excuse over and over again about the rise in the premium. I couldn't get a word in edgeways. He then went on to try and make me feel insecure about looking elsewhere. It wasn't helpful. He said I could get it down to £259, but it's still too much. Do you reckon they are flexible enough to convince enough to get down the price more? I might mention how others similar to me are paying a lot less. Someone on a multi-pet discount still wouldn't be paying less than someone with just one cat. It is, quite frankly, a p*ss take!

marmitepotato

VetsMediCover , can't recommend them enough.

Frankie.

I was going to go with them for £17 a month, checked their site and now they've uped it to £21, so now I'm less interested. Also, they don't cover loss/theft/etc or any other things like that.

dacouch

marmitepotato wrote: »

VetsMediCover , can't recommend them enough.

Do a google search or search MSE about "White Horse Insurance" who are the actual Insurers for Vetsmedicover.

Apart from having a bad reputation, they're an Irish based Insurer and you would have to deal with the Irish Ombudsman

marmitepotato

I have made several claims, they have always paid within two weeks. They have a pretty good reputation compared with other insurers.

dacouch

marmitepotato wrote: »

I have made several claims, they have always paid within two weeks. They have a pretty good reputation compared with other insurers.

White Horse have one of the worst reputations going.

At least four of the five star reviews on this review website have been written by the same person. A lot of the other five start reviews (Not all) also look to be from one person although they don't make the same highly unusual same spelling mistake as the four I noticed.

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews259997.html#Reviews

I'll be reporting it to their local Trading Standards to check the IP addresses as fake reviews really annoy me and are specifically against consumer law and their regulation by the FSA as it's not fair to the consumer.

marmitepotato

Do you have insurance with them? Have you claimed from them? If not how can you judge? I am only stating my experience with them which has been excellent so far. If you are right about the reviews being fake, then when you have reported them and they are found to be fake they should be taken down immediately.

dacouch

marmitepotato wrote: »

Do you have insurance with them? Have you claimed from them? If not how can you judge? I am only stating my experience with them which has been excellent so far. If you are right about the reviews being fake, then when you have reported them and they are found to be fake they should be taken down immediately.

I've helped quite a few people out on their travel claims with Whitehorse, going into pet Insurance is fairly new for them.

The reason you will have received good service is that upto a certain amount claims will be handled by Vetsmediccover who will want to provide a good service for their brand. Above a certain level they will probably be handled by Whitehorse.

Whitehorse do have a very bad reputation.

With the previous situation with the Insurer of for life pet insurance with drawing from the market and leaving pet owners high and dry last year I would not risk it with them.

Frankie.

Any other recommendations?