AXA pulling out of pet insurance

Johnny_Dangerously

There are many reasons why axa might want to pull out. Relatively, pet insurance is tiny for them and post 2008 capital is critical for insurance companies so a lot of them have become a lot more focused rather than being generalists. They may have just had a bad experience and pulled out.

Agree with rises comment above though in that pet insurance has become a vicious spiral. I think it is currently struggling to define it's value proposition. Hopefully it will mature into more defined products. For example true cover (and priced) for life, or just smaller emergency, capped cover for people who just want to limit the odd really big bill.

dacouch

Johnny_Dangerously wrote: »

There are mang reasons why axa might want to pull out. Relatively, pet insurance is tiny for them and post 2008 capital is critical for insurance companies so a lot of them have become a lot more focused rather than being generalists. They may have just had a bad experience and pulled out.

Agree with rises comment above though in that pet insurance has become a vicious spiral though. I think it is currently struggling to define it's value proposition. Hopefully it will mature into more defined products. For example true cover (and priced) for life, or just smaller, emergency capped cover for people who just want to limit the odd really big bill.

If Axa's Pet Insurance was a viable business and only being sold to free up capital then they would have sold the book to another Insurer which as well as freeing up capital would have the added bonus of bringing in additional capital from the funds from the sale.

Incidently Pet Plans combined Ratio (Premium less costs eg claims & expenses eg wages but excluding investment returns) is 92% which for the uninitiated means they make £8 in every £100 of premium plus any returns on their investments which now days are not very high.

That sort of return is not what I would describe as very lucrative, granted it's a better return than most Insurers would make on motor insurance but saying it's a very lucrative business is exaggerating.

Bearing in mind Pet Plan is the main player in the market with a premium brand their premiums tend to be higher than the rest of the market. Certainly their premiums were higher than Axa who were a fairly new entrant to the market. As Pet Plan have a lot more experience in the market it would be fair to assume they know better than Axa how to make a profit from Pet Insurance. If you also factor in Pet Plan's higher premiums. It's not hard to see why Axa exited the market if Pet Plan are making 8% and charging higher premiums for similar cover.

As I said before, if Axa's book of business was a viable business one of the other Pet Insurers would buy it out for the client base or an Insurer not currently in the Pet market who wanted to enter the market would buy it.

Pet Insurance is not as lucrative as you're making it out to be. It's can certainly be a profitable area if an Insurer sets it's premiums at the correct level for the level of cover they're providing which Pet Plan are doing. It would appear that Axa under estimated the market and set their premiums to low

Johnny_Dangerously

Not trying to start an argument on why axa pulled out, as i said, could be for many reasons including the fact they may have just got it wrong. I've seen units wrapped up previously purely because investors don't like the idea, or reinsurers no longer want to share risk. And 8% ROI pre investment income isn't bad for 12 month insurance risk. Assuming even 2% investment income giving 10% I think most insurers would be happy with. Anythin 14% upwards is generally considered very good in todays word.

Anyhoo, all a bit off topic. I'll stop distracting from the original purpose of the post

sheramber

dacouch wrote: »

If Axa's Pet Insurance was a viable business and only being sold to free up capital then they would have sold the book to another Insurer which as well as freeing up capital would have the added bonus of bringing in additional capital from the funds from the sale.

Incidently Pet Plans combined Ratio (Premium less costs eg claims & expenses eg wages but excluding investment returns) is 92% which for the uninitiated means they make £8 in every £100 of premium plus any returns on their investments which now days are not very high.

That sort of return is not what I would describe as very lucrative, granted it's a better return than most Insurers would make on motor insurance but saying it's a very lucrative business is exaggerating.

Bearing in mind Pet Plan is the main player in the market with a premium brand their premiums tend to be higher than the rest of the market. Certainly their premiums were higher than Axa who were a fairly new entrant to the market. As Pet Plan have a lot more experience in the market it would be fair to assume they know better than Axa how to make a profit from Pet Insurance. If you also factor in Pet Plan's higher premiums. It's not hard to see why Axa exited the market if Pet Plan are making 8% and charging higher premiums for similar cover.

As I said before, if Axa's book of business was a viable business one of the other Pet Insurers would buy it out for the client base or an Insurer not currently in the Pet market who wanted to enter the market would buy it.

Pet Insurance is not as lucrative as you're making it out to be. It's can certainly be a profitable area if an Insurer sets it's premiums at the correct level for the level of cover they're providing which Pet Plan are doing. It would appear that Axa under estimated the market and set their premiums to low

AXA did sell the business to NCI for an undisclosed sum

NCI agreed to cover existing conditions but are charging much larger premiums.

shambolics

I just got the new quote for my 10 year old Labrador. She has had no problems so far and AXA have dumped off their 'life' policy to nci insurance. They want £912 a jump from around £400 ! Surely this is just a way to get rid of the life policy I had with AXA? Which they claimed would be honored, it's a crazy amount considering I have payed the for years.

Are there any reasonable policies for an 10 year old?

I feel really done over. I can't afford this.

sallyj17

shambolics wrote: »

I just got the new quote for my 10 year old Labrador. She has had no problems so far and AXA have dumped off their 'life' policy to nci insurance. They want £912 a jump from around £400 ! Surely this is just a way to get rid of the life policy I had with AXA? Which they claimed would be honored, it's a crazy amount considering I have payed the for years.

Are there any reasonable policies for an 10 year old?

I feel really done over. I can't afford this.

There are plenty of policies who will take 10 year olds.. main question is have you have taken her to the vet for anything other than vaccinations/neutering.. if so she may well have pre-existing conditions that won't be covered by a new policy.


Lifetime policies for dogs 10 or over...


No upper age limit


Animal Friends £2,000 / £4,000 / £6,000
Argos £7,000
Asda £7,500
Avid £1,000 / £3,000 / £6,000 / £7,500
Buddies £4,000 / £7,000
Homebase £1,000 (cats) / £2,500 (cats) / £7,500 (dogs)
John Lewis £3,000 / £7,500 / £12,000
Legal & General £2,000 / £3,000
Marks and Spencer £7,000
More Than £12,000
Pet-Insurance.co.uk £4,000
Petguard £1,000 / £3,000 / £6,000 / £7,500
PDSA £8,000
Pets at Home £4,000 / £7,500 (cats) / £9,000 (dogs)
Purely Pets £7,500


Under 11 years old
Aviva (for cats) £1,500 / £3,500 / £6,500

sheramber

I moved my 10 year old dog to Tesco.

krlyr

How long before renewal did people receive their new quotes? Still awaiting mine, insurance runs out in just under a month

Kinski

My renewal is the 1st of April and I've not heard anything yet, I'm going to call on Monday if I haven't heard anything by then.

rising_from_the_ashes

Oh for goodness sake, you'd think they'd have their act together by now :mad:

I didn't hear until about 10 days before the cats were due to renew - but that was in Sept when they first took over ..... obviously not a lot's changed!


I'd phone on Monday


Also - check you haven't / don't get any emails from 'Close Brothers' about your new credit agreement - I got this before I even got the 'renewal quote' - and they took money from my bank account without me signing a new direct debit, so also keep an eye on your bank accounts / check no new d/debits have been set up