Petplan-any alternatives??

johnbhoy70

Hey guys.

Ok firstly i should say we were with them for 12/13 years till last September when we had to put our wee cat to sleep. We never claimed on anything on the  policy in the whole time we had it so can't comment on that side of things. Also, from memory, in the initial years it was a negligible increase in premium but of course it started to creep up a bit more when she reached 10 and on top you had % increase on top of excess. I think monthly premiums ended up circa £22/23 in the last year for Classic+ i'm sure it was.

Ok roll forward to now and we're getting a couple of kittens from Cats Protection in the next few days. The new quote from them is £27.26 which includes a 17% initial discount for a combination of online and multi pet. That is for the middle policy of Classic+. I thought that was a fairly hefty permium for 2 young healthy kittens less than 6 months. Hit the comparison sites and of course there are far cheaper but without digging too deep you can see differences straight away. Even accounting for lifetime cover with a similar amount a lot of the excess also includes a % of the vet bill. 

Now Petplan make a couple of claims on their site. A few to mention are paying vet directly, % figure for claims paid and also the fact that they don't increase premiums after a claim. However, of course, that doesn't mean to say that others are bad. Has anyone had any experience of premiums hiked after a claim with another provider?? Also, if it came to it, within reason, we could probably pay a bill directly to the vet and get out money later as long as we knew they were paying. What got me questioning this more is that i read a Telegraph article by a vet who does recommend Petplan but also others too who have premiums quite a bit lower. As above, for a Classic+ (£7000 cover per year) with Petplan for lifetime cover they want £27.26 per month with £75 excess.  Now comparisons have thrown up

Admiral £16.53 pm for £5k with excess of £99
Sainsbury's bank £17.90 pm for £7.5k excess £99
LV £18.18 pm for £10k excess £150

There are others but that's a rough idea that i can get similar or more cover with a large name provider for less a month. I've tried when comparing to keep the excesses and cover as close as possible.

I'm probably over thinking this now but it's going to be a fairly decent amount of cash over the policy lifetime and really want to get it right at outset if i can.

I've spent a couple of days pondering on this now so have probably forgotten to mention some things.

Any thoughts or recent experiences would be appreciated

cheers

Marmaduke123

Check out Many Pets also. They will pay vets directly. Used to be called Bought by Many.

johnbhoy70

Marmaduke123 said:

Check out Many Pets also. They will pay vets directly. Used to be called Bought by Many.

Thanks for that. Yeah i've read they rate well too but they've come out at £26.18 for same cover of £7k but their excess is more than double at £160 so for the £1 difference in monthly i'd probably still go with PP.

Brie

Or "self insure".  Which is just setting aside some money in a pot that you designate for vet bills.  Must admit I've never had insurance for any of our mogs. 

We've had some hefty bills a couple of times (2 different unrelated cats were diabetic) but otherwise it's just the regular stuff that, as I understand it, the insurance wouldn't cover anyways.  Looking back the big bills (about £1k for one, £1500 for another) were less than me paying £10 a month for 27 years of cat ownership - and that doesn't take into account that we had 3 cats for a few years.

johnbhoy70

Brie said:

Or "self insure".  Which is just setting aside some money in a pot that you designate for vet bills.  Must admit I've never had insurance for any of our mogs. 

We've had some hefty bills a couple of times (2 different unrelated cats were diabetic) but otherwise it's just the regular stuff that, as I understand it, the insurance wouldn't cover anyways.  Looking back the big bills (about £1k for one, £1500 for another) were less than me paying £10 a month for 27 years of cat ownership - and that doesn't take into account that we had 3 cats for a few years.

Thanks. I did consider that in the past but quickly put it to bed when i took account of vet costs. I'm not adverse to the idea for other insurances as i dropped my boiler/CH cover and self insure. However, to me, pet insurance is one if you can afford i would try and stretch as much as/if you can. We didn't claim on PP the last time we had it and would have been 'well up' doing this but with the law of averages and 2 new cats now and the thought of possible future costs of diagnosis, chronic conditions etc it's just too risky for that potential outlay.

thanks again

SaverRate

I would recommend Tesco Bank for pet insurance underwritten by royal sun alliance. 

johnbhoy70

SaverRate said:

I would recommend Tesco Bank for pet insurance underwritten by royal sun alliance. 

Yeah thanks i was looking at them. Could save approx £9 a month with them for £7.5k cover (£500 more than PP) however the excess is £150+ 20% of the balance compared to £75 at PP which could wipe any savings out pretty quickly,certainly early doors.

M&S, Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, John Lewis and More Than are among some of the recommended best buys in the article i read.

A very rough pattern seems to be that the PP monthly will initially be dearer but looking at how excesses are connstructed they would protect you more early doors if you needed a claim and therefore spreading the cost more over a longer period should you need it.

We have a few more days to decide and i think when my wife spoke to cats protection we get a free month with PP. Also, if we go with PP i'll try and get some cashback on top. Probsbly TCB at the moment.

bex88

I'm with Tesco (lifetime) for my Labrador and when she got poorly and racked up a few hundred from multiple vet visits, scans, bloods, antibiotics etc... and then sent to specialists, both the vets and specialist receptionists told me when I said I had Tesco insurance that that's good "they are one of the better ones."

Thankfully Tesco paid out the £4000 bill without question.

johnbhoy70

bex88 said:

I'm with Tesco (lifetime) for my Labrador and when she got poorly and racked up a few hundred from multiple vet visits, scans, bloods, antibiotics etc... and then sent to specialists, both the vets and specialist receptionists told me when I said I had Tesco insurance that that's good "they are one of the better ones."

Thankfully Tesco paid out the £4000 bill without question.

Thanks for that. Could i ask if your monthly premiums were hiked the following years after your claims as PP go quite big on saying that they don't. 

Tesco, Sainsburys Bank, LV, Argos and quite a few more offer similar cover with excesses that aren't too steep for about a £10 cheaper a month compared to PP at the start.

bex88

johnbhoy70 said:

Thanks for that. Could i ask if your monthly premiums were hiked the following years after your claims as PP go quite big on saying that they don't. 

Tesco, Sainsburys Bank, LV, Argos and quite a few more offer similar cover with excesses that aren't too steep for about a £10 cheaper a month compared to PP at the start.

They do hike the price a bit each year as they get older, especially as for the first year you get a discount added on for having a Clubcard (and in my case, a colleague card) but what I've done every year personally is cancel it at renewal and open a new policy (easy to do via online chat). This is because my girl hasn't had pre-existing / ongoing medical conditions. The only time I let it renew at the bit of a higher price what for the year following her operations, just to be on the safe side in case any further related problems arose, though unlikely, But after that year seeing she was completely fine, I cancelled again and opened a fresh one to get the 1st year discount.

(My girl had been spayed at 1 and a half and we opted for the Laparoscopic (keyhole) spay, which only removes the ovaries, not the uterus. Roll on 2 years later and she ended up with like a pyometra, but I think they mentioned it was 'mucometra' and the vet said in his career he'd never seen it happen with a spayed dog. So she basically had to have second spay (conventional) to remove her uterus that has filled with mucous and they also found stenosis (narrowing) of the tube coming from it, so widened that too and took additional tissue from around the area just in case any part of the ovaries were left from the original spay, though they said it didn't look like it. Sent the uterus off to a lab for cancer testing and it came back clear, thankfully!)

johnbhoy70

bex88 said:

johnbhoy70 said:

Thanks for that. Could i ask if your monthly premiums were hiked the following years after your claims as PP go quite big on saying that they don't. 

Tesco, Sainsburys Bank, LV, Argos and quite a few more offer similar cover with excesses that aren't too steep for about a £10 cheaper a month compared to PP at the start.

They do hike the price a bit each year as they get older, especially as for the first year you get a discount added on for having a Clubcard (and in my case, a colleague card) but what I've done every year personally is cancel it at renewal and open a new policy (easy to do via online chat). This is because my girl hasn't had pre-existing / ongoing medical conditions. The only time I let it renew at the bit of a higher price what for the year following her operations, just to be on the safe side in case any further related problems arose, though unlikely, But after that year seeing she was completely fine, I cancelled again and opened a fresh one to get the 1st year discount.

(My girl had been spayed at 1 and a half and we opted for the Laparoscopic (keyhole) spay, which only removes the ovaries, not the uterus. Roll on 2 years later and she ended up with like a pyometra, but I think they mentioned it was 'mucometra' and the vet said in his career he'd never seen it happen with a spayed dog. So she basically had to have second spay (conventional) to remove her uterus that has filled with mucous and they also found stenosis (narrowing) of the tube coming from it, so widened that too and took additional tissue from around the area just in case any part of the ovaries were left from the original spay, though they said it didn't look like it. Sent the uterus off to a lab for cancer testing and it came back clear, thankfully!)

Thanks again for that. I hadn't thought of shopping about after the first year especially if you've not claimed. I just stayed with Petplan the last  time for 12/13 years. I don't why really as I do it for all other insurances annually. Overlapping policies would of course be vital though because a lot  carry the initial 14/30 no claim rule I think. Could end way costlier than a car or contents claim if you timed that wrong.