M&S pet insurance price increase!

melanietaylor

I have just had a quote for my new puppy from M & S and am shocked to find the price has gone up by more than £100 from the previous puppy who is now 2 years old. Apparently their pricing policy changed on the 1st June so perhaps Martin might want to take their name off the site as they are no longer such good value for new policies.:eek: Does anyone have a different insurer they can recommend?

pboae

My premium was hiked this year too, apparently it was something to do with the underwriters. Obviously I wasn't happy about it, but having shopped around a bit it seems like I am still getting a good deal, it was just an absolute bargain before.

The only other company I would use are PetPlan, though NFU also get good reviews on here. Don't touch anything underwritten by E&L.

the_greed

I just insured my 8 week old puppy today with the PDSA, it cost me £113.75 which is £9.48 a month. It is underwritten by AXA and covers up to £5000 for ongoing condition.

worto03

Pet plan are doing £35 cashback using quidco at the mo but I got a quote and it seemed expensive compared to the old M&S but pretty good compared to some others and the cover is very good - both of my kitties are uninsured at the mo so I'll have to go for something soon.

worto.

Shokami

I've just changed from Petplan at £433 :eek: on renewal for my 2 siamese cats, to Animal Friends at £223. :j I'm saving £210 per year for the same level of cover, and there are none of the 'exclusions' that Petplan are so fond of sticking on their policies. Very quick service too. I received an email and a phone call to confirm within 6 minutes of completing and sending the online application!

pboae

Shokami, Animal Friends are underwritten by E&L. You might want to do a google search for reviews of E&L and see how other people have fared when they tried to make a claim.

the greed, PDSA are very reliable, and have a good reputation, but the £5,000 limit per condition is a deal breaker for me. It's really not a lot if your dog develops a lifetime condition.

My dog has developed arthritis, his basic medication is £50 a month + £25 for the supplements that go with it, then he has injections every 3 months at over £100 a shot. So that's £1300 a year, the PDSA cover would run out in less than 4 years, and that's before you add on the cost of consultations and occasional other treatments. I couldn't have even considered going to see a specialist, or future surgical options.

I prefer the security of knowing my dog is covered for life, I would hate to reach a point 4 or 5 years down the line when the insurance runs out and I can't afford the treatment he needs.

easilyamused

My insurance renewal came through at a much higher price too. My advice would be to go to their website and get a quote as a new customer - this brought my monthly premium back down to under a tenner again for some inexplicable reason. When I rang M&S to tell them this they said there was nothing they could do and advised me to cancel my current policy and take out a new one!

Madness, but for all intents and purposes it worked!

johnniegif

Removed double post - sorry.

johnniegif

My M&S Pet insurance cover renewal notice arrived on 3rd July, dated 22nd June. As others have described, my premiums have nearly doubled on my 3 year old mutt - who thankfully, we've never yet had to make a claim for. The letter gave me 10 days from the date of the letter to inform them if I didn't want to renew ... it arrived 11 days after that date!

I got an online quote from the M&S Money website and it was 10% cheaper than the renewal cost. I called the helpline to complain and they told me there was nothing they could do to reduce the premium because their underwriters have increased the premiums "in line with the increased cost of claims".

I sent an email complaint to their customer services ([EMAIL="customercare@axa-insurance.co.uk"]customercare@axa-insurance.co.uk[/EMAIL]) to the effect that their letter arrived after the notice period AND they had nearly doubled the premiums, effectively giving me little or no time to negotiate a better deal.

Today, I received a formal "cut & paste" response:

"Previously when calculating our premiums, we charged one price within a certain age span and did not take into consideration the individual risk of a claim. Therfore, in accordance with this reassessment, our rates are now based on the sex, age and breed of your dog, along with your postcode. We take these details into account as certain breeds are more susceptible to certain conditions at particular stages of their lives. These conditions can be more evident in one sex than the other and therefore, these details need to be assessed accordingly. Unfortunately, in your particular case, this has led to an increase in premium"

I read this nebulous repsonse as "We're really not interested and we'll quote some unqualified 'facts' which may or may not apply to your dog. Either way, we're not listening".

It seems crazy to me that M&S want to charge more for insurance than it costs me to feed my dog in a year.

I looked around on the web for a better deal and thanks to the greed's helpful entry above, tried the PDSA website. My premiums have now increased by about a pound a month instead of by eight pounds a month. The cover isn't quite as full as the M&S one, but to be honest, I only want a policy to cover *huge* vet bills in the unfortunate event that they are necessary. The PDSA policy also covers the dog for the life of the policy, not for the 12 month period of insurance, so any conditions are covered if you stick with their insurance.

Ironically, both policies are underwritten by AXA Insurance. I would definitely urge people (whose pet doesn't have a pre-existing medical condition) to vote with their feet and shop around for different insurance if their M&S premiums have massively increased.


Update: When the PDSA policy arrived I read the small print and had to 'phone their helpline to check, but infortunately it only covers the pet for a fixed amount (e.g. £5K) for the life of the pet. Once the money is used up on a particular medical condition, that is it. I found Halifax have a suitable policy which covers the dog for the life of the policy, with the maximum £6K limits renewing each year. Wouldn't you know it, this policy is also underwitten by AXA but will cost me £146.67 a year instead of the £196.15 which M&S wanted. The M&S policy is a little more generous than the Halifax's, but should be sufficient for my little mutt. Lets hope the prices don't go through the roof next year!

alfiesmum

I currently have my BMD insured with M&S for 162.00 per year. I rang them this morning for a quote on ur new pup, and the quote was £435.00!!:eek:

They said it was due to an increase by the underwriters or something? They also said that prices go up because once a vet finds out a dog is insured, they advise many unnecessary procedures. I said if they thought that then they ought to be speaking to the police about it not customers!

So I'm now looking elsewhere for the pup, and will be doing likewise when my M&S policy is up for renewal too.