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Pet Insurance - Animal Friends - beware of this clause
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Tayls67
Posts: 1 Newbie
Hi all
I just wanted to let people that were considering Pet Insurance know about an unusual clause in Animal Friend's policies.
...LONG POST BUT WORTH READING IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING PET INSURANCE FROM ANY PROVIDER...
We have insured both our dogs from day one with these people, as we liked their policy of donating to animal charities and they were nice to deal with during quoting.
Our dogs are 2 & 3 years old and are mixed breed - we pay £34 a month for the eldest and £28 for the youngest for their 'Prestige' cover (highest level).
We recently had to claim as the eldest dog had a tear/hole in her right hind leg - by the time we saw it, it was the size of a 10 or 50p piece. It was a Saturday afternoon, so off we go to the emergency vet, this means that a consultation is £152 (£107 out of hours fee and £45 for the actual consultation).
Our dog ends up needing stitches (no surprise, as it was a large hole) and the vet recommends a general anaesthetic for the best result, we agree of course, we also check that this is needed, and can't wait until Monday (we were checking for the purposes of insurance as we have had to claim before for the same dog and had a struggle with Animal Friends about out of hours treatment).
Now, this cut was bad, it wasn't bleeding, but it needed treating.
So the op is done and we pay almost £700 for the work and are delighted our girl is well again.
So, we start the claim, they pay the claim less our £69 excess and less the out of hours fee. So, we contact them, they ask us to get the vet to contact them about what was needed and why out of hours, 3 weeks later (after chasing) they won't pay.
Why? In ALL of their policies they have a clause that says they will not pay unless the pet has an 'imminent life-endangering condition' - ie: it will die if not treated there and then.
So, they pay for the work, but not the out of hours charge and also, they state they will only pay our regular vet's consultation charge of £33, not £45.
My issue is that we were paying £62 a month (for both dogs, in total) and still weren't fully covered.
When I said that it is wrong to have this policy as it could make people wait until normal vet hours to have the work done - they said 'actually it is in the policy that you must get the work done when needed' - so if you waited they could refuse to pay then too.
We would never wait, I can assure you and insurance or no we would get our dog treated, whatever the cost - but these policies are surely not that of an 'Animal Friend'
We have closed our policy and are insured with another big name insurer, the cover is better (less limits on cover), they don't have this "death's-door clause" and is only £37 a month for both dogs - saving us £25 a month!
Through all of this, their people have been polite and friendly (apart from one snotty email from the claims assessor after I sent a formal complaint in) but I cannot understand this policy - perhaps they should call themselves 'Shareholder's Friend'.
I have just checked out their webpage again and this clause isn't there in the list of exclusions, so you would have take the policy out then read the email and it's in one of the 8 attachments (seriously) you get, to be able find this clause - SHARP PRACTICE in my opinion.
Our dog is well
PS: the last time we had a claim for out of hours, it was for a 3am visit to the vet - on that occasion, blood was coming out of both ends of our dog (she had Haemorrhagic Gastro Enteritis) - guess what - 'not imminently life-endangering, sir'
They're probably right, not imminent, but perhaps less than 12 hours from death...caring souls
We fought our corner that time and won, I'm glad to say - this is why we were keen to check with the vet this time.
Tayls
I just wanted to let people that were considering Pet Insurance know about an unusual clause in Animal Friend's policies.
...LONG POST BUT WORTH READING IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING PET INSURANCE FROM ANY PROVIDER...
We have insured both our dogs from day one with these people, as we liked their policy of donating to animal charities and they were nice to deal with during quoting.
Our dogs are 2 & 3 years old and are mixed breed - we pay £34 a month for the eldest and £28 for the youngest for their 'Prestige' cover (highest level).
We recently had to claim as the eldest dog had a tear/hole in her right hind leg - by the time we saw it, it was the size of a 10 or 50p piece. It was a Saturday afternoon, so off we go to the emergency vet, this means that a consultation is £152 (£107 out of hours fee and £45 for the actual consultation).
Our dog ends up needing stitches (no surprise, as it was a large hole) and the vet recommends a general anaesthetic for the best result, we agree of course, we also check that this is needed, and can't wait until Monday (we were checking for the purposes of insurance as we have had to claim before for the same dog and had a struggle with Animal Friends about out of hours treatment).
Now, this cut was bad, it wasn't bleeding, but it needed treating.
So the op is done and we pay almost £700 for the work and are delighted our girl is well again.
So, we start the claim, they pay the claim less our £69 excess and less the out of hours fee. So, we contact them, they ask us to get the vet to contact them about what was needed and why out of hours, 3 weeks later (after chasing) they won't pay.
Why? In ALL of their policies they have a clause that says they will not pay unless the pet has an 'imminent life-endangering condition' - ie: it will die if not treated there and then.
So, they pay for the work, but not the out of hours charge and also, they state they will only pay our regular vet's consultation charge of £33, not £45.
My issue is that we were paying £62 a month (for both dogs, in total) and still weren't fully covered.
When I said that it is wrong to have this policy as it could make people wait until normal vet hours to have the work done - they said 'actually it is in the policy that you must get the work done when needed' - so if you waited they could refuse to pay then too.
We would never wait, I can assure you and insurance or no we would get our dog treated, whatever the cost - but these policies are surely not that of an 'Animal Friend'
We have closed our policy and are insured with another big name insurer, the cover is better (less limits on cover), they don't have this "death's-door clause" and is only £37 a month for both dogs - saving us £25 a month!
Through all of this, their people have been polite and friendly (apart from one snotty email from the claims assessor after I sent a formal complaint in) but I cannot understand this policy - perhaps they should call themselves 'Shareholder's Friend'.
I have just checked out their webpage again and this clause isn't there in the list of exclusions, so you would have take the policy out then read the email and it's in one of the 8 attachments (seriously) you get, to be able find this clause - SHARP PRACTICE in my opinion.
Our dog is well
PS: the last time we had a claim for out of hours, it was for a 3am visit to the vet - on that occasion, blood was coming out of both ends of our dog (she had Haemorrhagic Gastro Enteritis) - guess what - 'not imminently life-endangering, sir'
They're probably right, not imminent, but perhaps less than 12 hours from death...caring souls
We fought our corner that time and won, I'm glad to say - this is why we were keen to check with the vet this time.
Tayls
0
Comments
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Perhaps they should change their name as it does not seem very appropriate0
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The other big name insurer I can think of does have the same clause, or similar wording.We have closed our policy and are insured with another big name insurer, the cover is better (less limits on cover), they don't have this "death's-door clause" and is only £37 a month for both dogs - saving us £25 a month!0
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