Outstanding vet bill

Tigger1969_2

My cat Tigger had to go to the emergency vets in May 2015...the cost of his stay was £680..this i thought was going to be paid for by the insurance company, but unfortunately they declined and did not pay saying his health problem existed before the insurance was taken out (this is in fact untrue)
Hence i was left with a bill i cannot afford to pay so it has been left standing.
About a month ago i began being contacted by a debt collection company who had taken on the task of getting this money for the vets in question.
Im on benefits so cannot afford a lot so made an offer of £5 a month.
I was told this had been declined by the vets
The next contact with the debt company showed the debt had increased.
I emailed them
It increased again
I emailed them
It now stands at over £800...and ive been told it will continue to increase "unless i make a realistic offer"
This to me is threatening and harassing..and it appears they are trying to make me pay more than i can afford.
They say my offer of £5 will take over 13 yrs to pay back
I am at a loss as to what to do
Any advice would be appreciated

Proxima_Centauri

I'm not sure what the usual protocol would be. I would imagine people need to get it in writing from the insurance company beforehand that the bill will be covered, before going ahead with the treatment.

How has there come to be a disagreement about whether or not it was a pre-existing condition?

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Tigger1969 wrote: »

My cat Tigger had to go to the emergency vets in May 2015...the cost of his stay was £680..this i thought was going to be paid for by the insurance company, but unfortunately they declined and did not pay saying his health problem existed before the insurance was taken out (this is in fact untrue)
Hence i was left with a bill i cannot afford to pay so it has been left standing.
About a month ago i began being contacted by a debt collection company who had taken on the task of getting this money for the vets in question.
Im on benefits so cannot afford a lot so made an offer of £5 a month.
I was told this had been declined by the vets
The next contact with the debt company showed the debt had increased.
I emailed them
It increased again
I emailed them
It now stands at over £800...and ive been told it will continue to increase "unless i make a realistic offer"
This to me is threatening and harassing..and it appears they are trying to make me pay more than i can afford.
They say my offer of £5 will take over 13 yrs to pay back
I am at a loss as to what to do
Any advice would be appreciated

The bill has now been outstanding for 19 months and by the sounds of it you've not paid anything. Feel sorry for the vet really. The fact that you are on benefits does not preclude you actually paying your bills and debts, although many think it does.

You need to do the following:

Write to the debt collection company, enclosing an honest and realistic schedule of your incoming and outgoings on a monthly or weekly basis. Ask them to freeze interest and charges.

Be prepared to make some sacrifices to get this paid quickly; get rid of Sky or your mobile. Got any Christmas presents you can sell?

Suggest that if they are intending to continue to decline your offer then they should take you to court and get a CCJ. This will add court fees but will set the amount owed. Then you can make an agreement with the court.

In the meantime, start making payments via standing order - the details of where to pay and the reference number will be on any letters they've sent you. If you can pay a lump sum (£50 for example) that would demonstrate your (previously missing) intention to pay.

You also need to give serious thought to how you'll pay if your pet needs any further treatment. If you can't afford it you need to consider rehoming your pet.

Undervalued

Tigger1969 wrote: »

My cat Tigger had to go to the emergency vets in May 2015...the cost of his stay was £680..this i thought was going to be paid for by the insurance company, but unfortunately they declined and did not pay saying his health problem existed before the insurance was taken out (this is in fact untrue)
Hence i was left with a bill i cannot afford to pay so it has been left standing.
About a month ago i began being contacted by a debt collection company who had taken on the task of getting this money for the vets in question.
Im on benefits so cannot afford a lot so made an offer of £5 a month.
I was told this had been declined by the vets
The next contact with the debt company showed the debt had increased.
I emailed them
It increased again
I emailed them
It now stands at over £800...and ive been told it will continue to increase "unless i make a realistic offer"
This to me is threatening and harassing..and it appears they are trying to make me pay more than i can afford.
They say my offer of £5 will take over 13 yrs to pay back
I am at a loss as to what to do
Any advice would be appreciated

If that is untrue then I assume you disputed it at the time. Did you make a formal complaint? Did you pursue it with the FOS?

If you can genuinely only afford £5 a month then, to be blunt, you are in no position to own a pet. Or is more a case of what you choose to spend you money on?

Proxima_Centauri

Lioness_Twinkletoes wrote: »

You also need to give serious thought to how you'll pay if your pet needs any further treatment. If you can't afford it you need to consider rehoming your pet.

A conversation I overheard on the bus suggested that people with no money go to the PDSA to get their pets treated.

https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do

sheramber

You need to be in receipt of specific benefit to get PDSA treatment.

You need to live in the catchment area of one of their surgeries or of a vet practice which gives treatment under the PDSA scheme.

Your pet needs to be registered with them for 6 months before it needs treatment to be able to claim.

You cannot claim for treatment already received.

Blue Cross, RSPCA and Dog Trust also have schemes for those in receipt of certain benefits and live in certain areas.

If your vet can state that the illness was not related in any way to a previous condition then use the insurance company's complaint system which should advise you about escalating the matter to the FOS.

All the time the bill is unpaid interest will be adding to it and the collection agencies fees will also be added.

boliston

Lioness_Twinkletoes wrote: »

.....

You also need to give serious thought to how you'll pay if your pet needs any further treatment. If you can't afford it you need to consider rehoming your pet.

I'm not a pet owner but to a lot of people their pet is their life so "re-homing" is not something they would consider until all other options have been exhausted.

boliston

Lioness_Twinkletoes wrote: »

....

You need to do the following:

Write to the debt collection company, enclosing an honest and realistic schedule of your incoming and outgoings on a monthly or weekly basis. Ask them to freeze interest and charges......

Is it not best to just pay the vet?

Your contract will be with the vet rather than a third party organisation so paying the vet directly would surely make more sense.

MrsTinks

boliston wrote: »

Is it not best to just pay the vet?

Your contract will be with the vet rather than a third party organisation so paying the vet directly would surely make more sense.

That will depend, most likely the vet does still ow the debt but part will possibly depend on if they can add interest - was there a credit agreement?

OP have you contacted the vet direct to make offer of payment? You would be likely to have had more luck that way - usually they won't pass anything to a debt collector unless you have made no effort to pay anything, although they're not required to either - ultimately it's no different than not having paid for any other service or goods. I appreciate you thought insurance would pay, but you would be better of trying to work with the vet to make the insurance company understand that this as NOT a connected pre-existing condition.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

boliston wrote: »

I'm not a pet owner but to a lot of people their pet is their life so "re-homing" is not something they would consider until all other options have been exhausted.

I appreciate that, but how will the OP pay if the animal needs further care? By then, it will be too late to rehome and euthanasia will be the only option. The hardest part of being a pet owner is doing the right thing for the pet - not yourself.

boliston wrote: »

Is it not best to just pay the vet?

Your contract will be with the vet rather than a third party organisation so paying the vet directly would surely make more sense.

Not if the vet has sold the debt on to a collection agency - which is highly likely after 19 months of (we assume) non-payment and no contact beyond making the same offer.

Thing is, the OP seems to think they have to accept £5 per month because they are on benefits. As has been shown this is not the case and the OP needs to do more to pay this debt.

Rev

Give Step change a call.

They will go through your incomings and outgoings with you and make a budget form. They will deal with the debt company on your behalf of you want too.

Whilst what you've done is morally wrong and you've not helped yourself by just ignoring it and hoping it would go away. Your credit file will also be trashed now for the next 6 years so expect to be rejected for any credit you may apply for.

Get on to step change now and get it sorted.