AXA pulling out of pet insurance

rising_from_the_ashes

krlyr wrote: »

It's a difficult one. It may be wise to change now to prevent being forced to stay with AXA despite possible future increases.

Looks like bad news & Axa are apparently looking to sell their existing customers to another insurer http://www.postonline.co.uk/post/news/2292409/axa-pulls-out-of-pet-insurance-market (I was obviously told the wrong thing on the phone :mad:)

It does say that cover will be "the same or similar levels of pet insurance cover" but who knows at what cost and what about the % that most other insurers apply to older pets?

http://www.confused.com/pet-insurance/articles/axa-to-stop-selling-pet-insurance

Just did a quote with one of the few other insurers I would go with and it's coming out at £58 / month compared to the £42 I currently pay AND I would have to pay 20% of any claim for Archie ... with Maisie falling into that category soon :eek:

ladymarmalade222

Thanks rising from the ashes and eilsen, I think I read on a pet forum about them eventually selling the pet insurance book of customers so you might want to have a dig around. I know people mentioned about contacting Axa by phone and email on the same forum and they were getting all different answers so I would not trust what was being said by customer services as I think they were in the dark too. Axa would not comment on whether the new insurer would use the same terms of "lifetime" policies and the pet owners were up in arms.

I forgot about Argos, I helped my mum insure her new pup with them as I saw it was a lifetime policy after I heard about the Axa situation not taking new customers so will try a quote for my girl and hopefully make a decision whether to stay with Axa, move to Petplan or Argos. The sticking point for me is her age is 8 next month but I have never made a claim and luckily she has never had any illness (touch wood):D

I will keep you update if I hear anything regarding Axa.

xxx

ladymarmalade222

Cross-posted whilst you were typing Rising from the ashes:D

I knew I had read it somewhere!:rotfl:

ladymarmalade222

Ok, I have just done a quote for Argos (RSA) pet insurance it comes out at £24.08pm for platinum policy(lifetime) so is a couple of quid more expensive than Petplan but excess is £65 compared to £90 with Petplan, if I up the excess with Argos to £90 it is £23pm so on par with Petplan.

I have just looked at the small print for Petplan and cannot for the life of me find anywhere it says I have to pay a percentage of the vets bills over a certain age, is this something that just appears when your dog gets to that age? I may give them a call to clarify.

So the dilemma is still whether to stay with Axa and hope the new insurer plays fair with premiums and terms or take the opportunity to move whilst she is under age 8 and still healthy?

Thanks everyone.

xxx

krlyr

I'm sure the website used to be clearer about it, as I looked when getting a quote for Casper last year (I was surprised they would consider a GSD a senior/too old for lifetime cover at 6 years old, given their lifespan is 12-14!). Unless they've maybe stopped the age limit? I'll try a quote for Casper in a bit and see.

From the terms and conditions (available to download at the bottom of this page - https://www.petplan.co.uk/dog-insurance.asp), it refers to the 3 types of excesses, and the third is

c)
A fixed amount and a percentage amount
- the fixed amount will be deducted as explained in a) above.
in addition, you must also pay a percentage of all treatment costs.
the percentage you have to pay is shown on your Certificate of Insurance Animal Details and this will be deducted from all claims submitted and will be calculated on the amount left after the fixed amount has been deducted

rising_from_the_ashes

ladymarmalade222 wrote: »

Ok, I have just done a quote for Argos (RSA) pet insurance it comes out at £24.08pm for platinum policy(lifetime) so is a couple of quid more expensive than Petplan but excess is £65 compared to £90 with Petplan, if I up the excess with Argos to £90 it is £23pm so on par with Petplan.

I don't know why but I've never managed to get a decent quote with Argos - I was quoted £80 for Maisie last year with them :eek: (JL, PetPlan etc were all around the £25 mark)

I'm also really not a fan of RSA which is why I was originally with John Lewis (who at that time were underwritten by Axa) and then moved to Axa when JL changed to RSA

However, I think I'm going to struggle to find one not underwritten by RSA now


For the sake of a few £s, I would personally go with PetPlan - they are good at paying out quickly, many vets will only submit direct claims to them & their renewal premiums never rise beyond what is reasonable :T

I know people who've been with Argos (and others) who've had an OK quote in the 1st year and have then had huge increases in premiums either in year 2 or if they've had claims


Me - I think I'm going to hang on. If I move Archie, I will have to pay a % on top of costs already

TBH if it comes to it, I may go down the route of taking out 3rd party insurance for Maisie, insuring them all on basic Accident / Injury Policies only and putting money aside each month to cover other stuff ....

krlyr

Just did a quote with Petplan, then another putting Kiki's DOB a year earlier to make her 8. At 7, her excess is stated as £100, but at 8 it says £75.00 + 20.00%

I'm not sure if taking out the policy now would mean they'd have to honour the £100 excess for the first year despite your dog turning 8 next month, but I would ring to clarify. Bit naughty that you can't seem to find any mention of this online - most insurers have it somewhere on the website, or at least let you download a copy of the policy document where it's stated.

Girlinstatic

This whole AXA thing is terrible news. I have 2 4yr old ragdoll cats one is with AXA and the other pet plan, we were actually going to move the other one to AXA as it was a great cover and no % after they are 8 years.

Now I have no idea what to do. Is there any other reasonable company that offers lifetime cover with no percentage?

I was looking into Argos and got a £16.22 quote (Axa is £12 atm) but the post above about extreme hikes has scared me! Also I am not sure if there are any hidden nasties like any percentage costs.

Very confused right now!

ka7e

Try Aviva - they're not on the comparison sites and my quotes were comparable to Axa when I changed. 10% discount for buying online and £20 Quidco.

http://www.aviva.co.uk/pet-insurance/

rising_from_the_ashes

ka7e wrote: »

Try Aviva - they're not on the comparison sites and my quotes were comparable to Axa when I changed. 10% discount for buying online and £20 Quidco.

Very quick look at the T&Cs and may be problematic for some:

I quote:

Pets aged 7 years and over
If your pet is aged 7 years or over we will pay a maximum of 85% of each claim for vet fees,the remaining 15%contribution must be paid by you; this is in addition to any excess that may apply.

Period of insurance
This policy is an annual contract between you and us. At the end of each period of insurance we may offer to renew this contract for a further year. If we decide not to offer you a renewal we will write to you at least 30 days before the end of the current period of insurance
.
We are under no obligation to renew your policy.

End quote

The additional % of costs is pretty standard and was one of the great things about the Axa policies (as they didn't do that)

I would personally be really concerned if the T&Cs on any policy I had stated that they could decide not to renew the policy :eek: and would make me feel really vulnerable if they developed an ongoing condition or if you'd made any claim TBH - who's to say they just decided not to renew it & you can't then get covered elsewhere