John Lewis Pet Insurance renewal shocking 122% increase

Gazpablo

We insure our dog with John Lewis Insurance. We have trusted the John Lewis brand. Last year the premium was £300.92 for a cover for life policy; now we have received a renewal notice of £668.72 - an eye watering increase of 122%. Our Irish Terrier dog is six years old; we have never claimed on the pet insurance, the dog has had all yearly vaccinations and thankfully is as fit as a fiddle. Irish Terriers in our experience live for about 12 to 13 years on average and they are a hardy breed. Yes I understand pet insurance is related to dog age, past conditions and rising vet costs, and risks have to be factored into insurance costs but a 122% increase is a bad joke and smacks of a rip-off of monumental proportions. We expected better of John Lewis.

We had previously insured our dog with the Halifax, which then promptly closed down its pet insurance. Getting reasonable pet insurance is a nightmare of greedy insurance companies (and greedy vets). I think we will invest the yearly insurance premium we would have paid in an investment account. What is your experience of pet insurance and what can we do to get decent pet insurance?

Quentin

There is an article on pet insurance in the insurance section.

Click the link at the top of the page.

dacouch

When did you take out the cover

rs65

Gazpablo wrote: »

a 122% increase is a bad joke and smacks of a rip-off of monumental proportions.

A renewal premium increase isn't a rip-off but see if they do a new quote online and see how it compares.

See who your vet recommends.

Gazpablo

Cover started 28 April 2013, so this is a second year renewal. We have never claimed on pet insurance in the dog's life.
I consider a 122% increase in one year, with a healthy dog and no claims ever made is a complete rip-off - sorry.

dacouch

Gazpablo wrote: »

Cover started 28 April 2013, so this is a second year renewal. We have never claimed on pet insurance in the dog's life.
I consider a 122% increase in one year, with a healthy dog and no claims ever made is a complete rip-off - sorry.

Unfortunately / Fortunately most Insurers offer a lower than normal premium for the first year to enable them to appear high up on comparison sites in order for them to gain a customer.

rs65

JL are doing 20% online discount for first year's premium at the moment.

trailingspouse

put the £600 into a savings account - if you do this every year, you should have a tidy sum saved by the time your dog needs anything major.

rs65

trailingspouse wrote: »

put the £600 into a savings account - if you do this every year, you should have a tidy sum saved by the time your dog needs anything major.

Excellent idea in principle but how do you know when the dog will need anything major? What if it happens in the first year? What about the other aspects of cover like liability?

The dog in question has a life expectancy of about 6 years so even at these premium levels they will put about £4k into savings. At last years premium level it would be £2k. Have you seen vet bills recently.

TomsMom

I had exactly the same last year with my dog's JL insurance renewal, it was 120%. I took out the insurance when she was 2 years old in June 2012, there was one claim for removal of a benign lump which came to £302.

I queried the renewal premium with JL and got the usual "it's based on age of dog, where you live, rise in vets' fees, rise in cost of medication, etc., etc." but no mention of the claim making any difference. I said the dog was one year older but still young at 3 years old, I live in the same house, my vet's fees had risen by 60p on the charge for consulation and 3% on medication cost, so why the massive increase. I got no joy from JL and they eventually passed me on to their underwriters, Royal & Sun Alliance, who are the ones who set the premiums. They looked into it and I got told the same thing but I did eventually get them to admit that yes, the claim had contributed to the increase.

All in all I spent a month discussing with JL and RSA but they would not budge, the increase in premium remained. I opted to downgrade my policy, I was on the top one with an annual amount of £12,000 so I downgraded to the middle one with £7,000 in the pot, I also increased my excess from their lowest of £60 to their highest of £140. This brought the premium down to a more acceptable level for me.

My son's dog was also insured with them and he had a 60% increase but had no claims, so for yours to be increased by 122% when you've not claimed is, indeed, eye watering.

I was quite persistent, but very polite, in trying to get an answer and spoke to a few people and in the end JL actually sent me £60 worth of JL vouchers as a gesture of goodwill. Very handy actually as not long after my tumble dryer packed up and they sold the one I wanted at the same price as everywhere else so I bought it from them. A nice gesture but at the end of the day I would have preferred to have a lower premium then and going forward.

My renewal will come through in a few weeks' time so I'm hoping there's no nasty shocks again this year.

Just to add, when I took it out online there was a 20% online discount plus a 10% new customer discount. So as you can't renew online there was that 30% added back in before any other increases they put on.

If you're considering changing providers, bear in mind that anything on your dog's vet's records showing any clinical signs or symptoms, whether claimed for or not, will be treated as a pre-existing condition by a new provider (that information was given to me by one company that I rang to enquire about moving my dog's insurance to). Because I had claimed for a lump there was a chance that any future lump which may develop might be excluded, so I was really between a rock and a hard place so I decided to stay with JL on the lower cover.

This site is very useful when trying to sort through the maze of pet insurance http://www.petinsurancecompare.co.uk/.

I'm very wary of self insuring, I know of someone whose dog had two hip replacements at a cost of £7,000 each and their insurance company paid up no problem but they would have been hard pushed to find £14,000 in the space of two years. I also know someone whose dog has developed a lifelong condition, needs regular medication and testing, and the cost of the monthly medication alone is more than the monthly premium they pay and they've had no problem with their provider paying up. Neither of these people have had a big increase on their premiums.

JKSandy

I use More Than and found them to be the cheapest when I switched to them last year, also got £60 cash back via Quidco, and this year it only went up £6.