Tesco Pet Insurance renewal - german shepherd

ElmTree0512

Hi everyone
Hope you and your pets are all doing okay in this hot weather!

I’m after a bit of advice with regards to pet insurance and renewals/switches.

We have a 4 y/o male german shepherd who has always been insured with Tesco Pet Insurance. We chose Tesco because family used them and we knew they had no problems paying out to our vets etc. The cost was also fairly competitive at the time too - we wanted maximum lifetime cover. They are not a straightforward breed (often associated with back/hip/leg problems etc) so we always knew we weren’t going to be paying the cheapest (although our boy came from the most wonderful breeder trying to undo the horrible work of others, he has a beautiful straight back, straight legs and was part of a litter bred to reduce problematic genetic traits and degenerative disorders in the breed. She’s amazing!)

Since having him insured with Tesco, the price per month has always increased and I’ve always challenged it but been told ‘they can’t do any better’. At the moment the renewal price is £71.03 a month! I had another go at haggling this - he has never had a claim and is still young. The woman at Tesco on the phone was equally puzzled and couldn’t understand why it would creep up so much in just 4 years (the policy was just under £40 I think at the start). She went away to speak to someone and then said “Sorry, it seems that’s the best price we can do. Our system isn’t even showing an option for me to negotiate the price down for you so I can only assume the GSD breed has been re-reported and that’s just the cost now.” 

It feels like it’s so much higher than it should be! I’ve always been a bit wary of switching pet insurance because there are so many little discrepancies in the small print about previous ailments not being covered and it worries me. While we have never claimed for anything, he did have a cruciate ligament scare once and I’m worried that if we swapped and heaven forbid he did have that problem in the future, the new provider might look at the vet notes and say “Tough, looks like he hurt his leg once which probably led to this - you’re not covered.” 

Am I being completely clueless here and is it possible to switch without causing problems down the line? I’d hate to jeopardise anything if he needed surgery etc. 

Thanks in advance x

HampshireH

Not clueless and that scenario is possible. However you can get policies which only class a pre existing problem as from the last year or two - depending on the policy.

If you signed him up on a new policy it would probably be £40 again.

Our dog was insured by Tesco and after two years I was unhappy with the hike. I was told by them on the phone to start a new policy and IL get a great rate. That was true. And I did but obviously lost continuity and. The first two weeks of the policy.

I've moved away from them now as needed the reassurance of continuity now our dog is 5.

sheramber

Bought by Many  different policies which might be worth looking at.
It is certainly possible that the previous leg problem would exclude any claim in the future but you could query that with the underwriters before taking ut the policy.
BbM do have a policy where a previous condition can be have limited cover over a period before getting full cover after a period of no recurrence, I don't know if there is an age limit for that policy.
I have not used them and this is not a recommendation but there have been favourable reports on here.