Rising cost of pet insurance

Uncle_Bob

Hi all,

I've just received the renewal invitation from Argos Pet Insurance and was a little surprised at the rate of increase - from £360pa to £467pa (29.7%!). This is for a 4 year old labrador and we have never made a claim on the policy.

Anybody else facing increases like this?

Annoyingly, if my mythical identical twin and his identical dog apply as new customers they are quoted the old price of £360pa!

wort

I too have had a renewal from argos, it's for my cat 1 year old no problems, and it's gone up over £50.
I've spent the morning on comparison websites and gone with one that's £80. Less than renewal quote !

morg_monster

Yes obscene increases also from Argos this year. One cat had a 50% increase, the other about 25%. Neither had any claims in the previous insurance period. We have platinum / life cover and both now have pre existing conditions (though probably quite cheap ones so we could pay for those ourselves) so not easy to just move providers. Currently we pay £56 a month to cover two moggies. We got them in 2010 when their premiums totalled £13.
We stuck with Argos this year by increasing the excess and also the guy on the phone gave us a £30 argos gift voucher per policy after I argued with him for half an hour trying to get the price down. But if it's the same increase next year I don't know what we will do, and it's only going to get worse. We may have move to a non lifetime policy and exclude their pre existing conditions (dental, cystitis) and hope for the best. We always try to keep a 0% purchases credit card on the go and usually get offered 5-8000 limit so that is another option for paying for treatment since we don't have the savings to cover any big things like a RTA.

teddysmum

Vet charges are rising anyway, but I think vets are doing extra or more complicated procedures because the client is covered by insurance, so more work means more cost to the insurers, who put up their prices.

thriftylass

Same as any other insurance. Loyalty doesn't count, you actually pay more for not moving. Shop around and get it cheaper.

We only stopped changing once the cat got too old for a good deal.

sheramber

But if your pet has pre existing conditions you lose cover for these if you change insurers unless you find one that will cover them after an exclusion period with no recurrence and no treatment.

My dog's insurance actually went down £6 per year when it renewed in August.

Slinky

Our cat's insurance has gone up by about £40 for the year with Pet Plan, and her excess from £70 to £85. She's only about 6 or 7.

Mandy53

My insurance for my 2 cats has also gone up as it did last year which i thought was due to having to claim for one of them but it,s not as my insurer ,Petplan said they do not" penalise" by increasing premiums when there,s been a claim. They said that they have applied a tax set by the Govt. which is the reason for the increase and this tax was introduced about 2 years ago,i think anyway.I don,t think this tax is compulsory and it is up to the insurer if they want to apply it but i might be wrong.Also ,as they get older the premiums rise too.

sheramber

Insurance Premium tax is a compulsory tax which is forwarded to the Government just like VAT, which does not apply to insurance hence the Insurance Premium tax.

It increased from 10 % to 12 % on 1 st June.