Help Animal Friends pet insurance declined claim

SeduLOUs

Regardless of the nature of the insurance, I doubt they will get away with classifying 'diarrhea' as a pre-existing condition. I just hope you get it resolved quickly and don't need to wait weeks to be able to go to an Ombudsman to get some common sense.

My dog has had several mild bouts of diarrhea and sickness over the years, but I have certainly not declared every runny poo and vomit to my insurers!

pinkteapot

Completely agree with SeduLOUs - and I hope my reply didn't confuse OP. Just wanted to highlight that not all insurance policies protect you from conditions becoming pre-existing - people need to be aware that there are different types when buying policies. So more a correction for anyone else reading the thread.

gettingready

But even with a per condition policy nothing within the policy would be classed as pre-existing. The "pot" for that condition may run out but that would not make it pre-existing at any point.

sheramber

My friend's dog had a bout of sickness and diarrhea before she took out insurance with Petplan.

Petplan excluded any future stomach trouble from her policy.

SeduLOUs

sheramber wrote: »

My friend's dog had a bout of sickness and diarrhea before she took out insurance with Petplan.

Petplan excluded any future stomach trouble from her policy.

I don't understand why anyone would declare a minor bout of D+V unless it was so bad that veterinary intervention was required and it was caused by some other virus/condition/problem.

My dog's worst one case lasted about 4 days when we moved house. We took him to the vet just as a precaution but no treatment was given and it was just put down to a bit of stress that quickly settled. I never even considered that it might be a 'condition' that needed to be reported... :huh:

Paradigm

You have to follow the complaints procedure before the ombudsman will even look at it.
[EMAIL="complaints@animalfriends.co.uk"]complaints@animalfriends.co.uk[/EMAIL]


As far as I know vomiting & diarrhea is a symptom of other illness rather than a being a "condition" in their own right. I'd fight this down to the wire....

sheramber

There was no clam at the time . As I said it happened before she insured the dog.

nor was it declared as an exisitng condition

The dogwas a naturally, skinny sheherd who dropped weight very easily so my friend took her to the vet as a precaution.

At a later date she claimed for somehting entirely different..

Petplan picked it up from the medical history for the dog which showed the vet visit in a previous year.

Petplan paid out for the claim made without any problem but put the endorsement about the stomach on her policy.

You don't need to have claimed for it to be considered an exisitng condition. A vet consutlation is enough.

pinkteapot

That's what worries me about our cat who I mentioned further up. He has recently been unwell with a fever and diarrhea. The vet ran tests but no cause was found. His gut was a bit tender and antibiotics cleared it up, so they said it was just a general infection he'd picked up (tests didn't pin it down further).

We're insured with More Than who are paying. We have lifetime cover so can stay with them at renewal, but our premiums will be walloped.

I wanted to switch to PetPlan at renewal, but if they then refuse to cover any incidence of fever and/or diarrhea then we can't move - those symptoms are too general.

It seems ridiculous that pet insurers can define such vague symptoms as conditions.

sallyj17

Unfortunately most people are not aware that pet insurance companies usually define a pre-existing condition as any illness, injury or symptom your pet has ever had.

For example Animal Friends define a pre-existing condition as

"any condition, symptom or sign of a condition occurring or existing in any form and at any time prior to the commencement date" or

"any illness, symptom or sign of a condition occurring or existing in any form during the first 14 days of the commencement date".

However you were aware of this... which maybe because Animal Friends did not make this clear to you when you took out the policy.. so you might want to consider appealing on these grounds!

Usually you have to make a declaration when you take out the policy.. but you may have grounds to complain .. if you misunderstood the meaning of the terms in the declaration. For example Animal Friends are currently asking people taking out policies to agree

"You accept that we shall not provide cover for any illness, injury, symptoms or conditions that are pre-existing at the date you take out your policy with us or which exist at the time you take out the policy or any matters related to them"

Now if you interpreted this as meaning that that conditions/symptoms actually existed at the time you took out the policy, rather than had previously existed and now cleared up.. you could complain on the ground the exclusion was not made clear to you.

By way of contrast Petplan who have similar definition of pre-existing condition are asking people

"Has your pet shown any signs of illness or injury or been unwell, either now or in the past? This is regardless of whether your pet was seen by a vet for the problem".

ElusiveLucy

This makes me so glad I took out lifetime cover for my cats fron when they were kittens. It means everything has been covered. I have to say Petplan have been brilliant, especially in the last couple of years when one of my cats was very ill. It was a very stressful time, but knowing they were covering all the bills and settling claims quickly was a real comfort. It has probably cost me a lot of money over the years but it was worth it for the peace of mind. Whilst the premium and excess have gone up each year, the premiums for each cat have been the same, so they do not hike premiums for cats that claim more - one of mine is never ill and the other has been really ill, but I pay the same for each of them