Renewing pet insurance

Frantic83

Hi

We got our cat last year from the Blue Cross. He's about 3 and in good health. We took out an insurance policy with PetPlan, on their covered for life plan paying £12.87 per month. We haven't claimed all year. Now they've sent a renewal letter and are putting it up to £14.30. However if I go onto PetPlan's website and do a whole new quote I get £11.86. Given that we've never claimed and that he's healthy, does it matter if we start again with a new policy or will that come back to bite us if he does get sick long term?

Cheers
Fran

Jamie1989

Even £12.87 seems excessive. Have you considered going elsewhere?

We recently insured our white/ginger male kitten of 8 months for just over £6/month for life with a company called PetProtect, with a £0 excess. I got the quote through confused .com (I think) and PetProtect seemed to offer the best policy all round, although there were one or two cheaper options.

If you're keen on PetPlan, you could always ring/email and challenge them on the discrepancy...

dawn27

do as jamie1989 suggested and shop around, i have tried a quote from petplan a few times over the years and they have always been dearer.
try a comparison site but check the excess as some are now £90 plus before you can claim.

Frantic83

The appeal with Pet Plan was the cover for life thing if he did develop a long term illness that required a lot of meds or treatment for many years. I couldn't find other insurers that offered the same in that respect. Do the insurers you mention offer that?

My main worry is if we break our cover by starting afresh that we will regret it if he gets ill. But on the other hand, he isn't already ill so it shouldn't matter as long as after we declare any illness, we then mustn't break the cover after that.

forgotmyname

They will offer cover and pay for the ongoing treatment, BUT at what premium?

Ahhh you made a claim so next years premium is £399 a month... exaggerated but you get the idea.

Then your stuck pay up or goto another insurer that wont cover the existing illness.

Frantic83

forgotmyname wrote: »

They will offer cover and pay for the ongoing treatment, BUT at what premium?

Ahhh you made a claim so next years premium is £399 a month... exaggerated but you get the idea.

Then your stuck pay up or goto another insurer that wont cover the existing illness.

Actually no, this is what PetPlan say about that:

Will you increase my premium at renewal if I make a claim?

Each year, the premiums you pay are based on the cover you have chosen and the information you have provided about your pet's age, breed and address.

Please rest assured, the amount you pay is in no way connected to any claim you need to make for your pet. To put this into context, if you have two pets of the same breed and age, you will pay the same premium for both, even if one pet has claimed every year and the other has managed to avoid illness or injury.

mtbbuxton

I've used several Insurance Companies over the years and have just moved my cats from Sainsbury's to Petplan. They offer a good level of cover, came out cheaper than Sainsbury's and have an excellent reputation. I've also been told by others who use them that they don't load your premiums if you make a claim.
My lurcher is with Marks and Spencer and we've claimed for him every year we've had him. This has resulted in his monthly premiums rising from £9.50 a month in 2007 to £83 a month now :eek:
Just bear in mind that if you take out a new policy with Petplan, you won't be able to claim for any illness that may develop in the first 14 days. Accident/injury is covered though.

Pet Insurance is a minefield and you'll get as many companies recommended as you get replies to your post

M x

krlyr

forgotmyname wrote: »

They will offer cover and pay for the ongoing treatment, BUT at what premium?

Ahhh you made a claim so next years premium is £399 a month... exaggerated but you get the idea.

Then your stuck pay up or goto another insurer that wont cover the existing illness.

Petplan have quite a good reputation for not increasing prices. I have a friend who uses them and despite claiming into the thousands with her dog, I think his premium went up £1-2 a month last year.

Petplan is the creme de la creme of the insurance world and if you can afford them, I would say stick with them. I don't see the harm in calling up and querying the price increase and whether there are any downsides to cancelling and rejoining if they can't adjust the renewal.

I can't see that it would affect pre-existing conditions if you've not had any vet visits (i.e. papertrails of issues), but as someone pointed out, you would then face the issue of the 14 day exclusion period. Many people get around this by havin the new policy start 14 days before the old one expires, but this is usually with different companies, so I'm not sure how Petplan would feel about that.

Aretnap

A few years ago my then girlfriend had to spend in excess of three grand on specialist vet care when het cat got a thorn in its eye. She had nothing but praise for the way PetPlan dealt with it. They're not cheap, but with insurance as with everything else you get what you pay for to some extent.

Mr_K

£15 a month? Rip off ! Thats £180 a year - £2,520, over its 14 year lifespan.

As with a lot of insurance better to 'self insure' and put that £15 a month into a savings account for such emergencies. The likelihood is you'll be far better off - these companies only ever pay out a fraction of what they take in.

sithemadmonkey

Mr_K wrote: »

£15 a month? Rip off ! Thats £180 a year - £2,520, over its 14 year lifespan.

As with a lot of insurance better to 'self insure' and put that £15 a month into a savings account for such emergencies. The likelihood is you'll be far better off - these companies only ever pay out a fraction of what they take in.

£2,520 would barely cover one big claim (especially if it had long-term consequences) - self-insuring is only a sensible idea if you can afford up-front fees for a worst-case scenario immediately, or are prepared to bite the bullet and have your pet put down if you cannot afford the vet fees.

Saying that insurance companies only ever pay out 'a fraction' of what they take in is technically true, but that 'fraction' is a very large one - most insurance companies run a Combined Operating Ratio (Claims costs + Expenses / Premium) well into the 90% range, meaning that well over 90p of every pound taken in premium is paid out, either in claims costs or staff/administration costs.