Tesco pet insurance

Tooley19

My dog has been insured with Tesco for over five years and my renewal has come through and will be £32!...when I originally insured Bobby I was paying around £18 and every year it has increased and now I pay £24 (which I expect!) I have called Tesco and asked why it is increasing by £8 a month I was told it is due to increasing vet fees and bobby's age...yet when I went onto Tesco online as a new customer and put all the same details in as they are now I was given a quote for £18.97! Would it be wrong of me to cancel my existing policy and start up a new one??!!

krlyr

Has your dog been to the vet for anything (other than routine vaccs/flea stuff) for the past 6 years? Just thinking along the lines of pre-existing conditions and potential exclusions if you start a new policy

KxMx

You'll also have no insurance at all for a time if you cancel Tesco and open another one with them, anything which starts in the exclusion period will not be covered. There is a lady here who that went badly for who posted recently.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5256547

Tooley19

Yes I thought about that too! He has only been in for an abscess a few years ago I wouldn't think that would be classed as a pre exsisting condition...?

Tooley19

Yes I think it's 14 days with no cover. It's a tough call as I know things can happen. I think it's terrible that they can charge so much as an existing customer and yet as a new customer it's so low!! Frustrating!! :mad:

krlyr

Abcess probably wouldn't - but never say never, some insurance companies do like to try their luck classing seemingly random things as pre-existing.

One option would be to overlap your cover. E.g. your existing policy renews 15th August, you buy the new policy 1st August, so you're covered by the old one for those 14 days.

KxMx

Have you approached Tesco with the fact that as a new customer you'd get the same policy for so much less? Can't hurt to try.

I wouldn't recommend taking out a concurrent policy with the same company, they could pick up on that and cancel them both on grounds of fraud etc. I know it isn't fraud as long as you don't attempt to claim on both, but I bet their T&C's somewhere prohibit two concurrent policies.

Tooley19

I've actually spoken to them today and told them I'd been online as a new customer. The lady said there is nothing stopping me doing that except to bear in mind the 14 day cooling off period where Bobby won't be covered! I think I'll take the risk and go for the new one if she said it's ok to do so just keep my fingers crossed!

mtbbuxton

Tooley19 wrote: »

Yes I thought about that too! He has only been in for an abscess a few years ago I wouldn't think that would be classed as a pre exsisting condition...?

One of my cats has abscesses listed as an exclusion as we'd previously had one treated. It also excludes all abscesses not just one in the same area. Admittedly, this was with Petplan, but I'd expect other Companies to apply similar logic.
Bear in mind that by the time you factor in the new customer discount, you're likely to face a much bigger premium increase next year too, so may not save that much long-term.

M x