Pet insurance

grahammh

Thought I should share this experience for any help to someone in the same situation. We have had our golden retriever covered by the same company since 2017. We got the renewal in yesterday and it had risen 28% to £1100. It had always been expensive but the dog is currently 10 years old and has only had one small claim for gastroenteritis. We thought this was a bit too steep, so as the policy was on my wife’s name I went into the company site and put in the exact same policy details in my name and the result came back at £454 which I found quite surprising but confirmed that level of cover from looking at comparison sites and they were all very similar. A phone call to the Company and detailing what we had done was confirmed by them that it was the same policy and level of cover so they cancelled the expensive policy and replaced with the new with no hassle. However I find it quite shocking that there should be such a difference for an existing customer and while we are in our 70s and are fortunate enough to be able to pay the insurance and are computer literate there are many people out there who rely on their pet for comfort and companionship and may be landed with this ridiculous situation. Really should be sorted out but I am so annoyed I just had to share it with you.

lisyloo

Be very careful especially if it was a lifetime policy.
Your previous policy may have covered you for conditions arising since 2017.
Now you've started a new policy you may have reset the clock wrt pre-existing conditions.

grahammh

Thanks for that but yes we are ok as while the only pre-existing there was gastroenteritis it was beyond its time constraint for that particular condition. Thus effectively we were fortunate in that there were no pre-existing conditions though I appreciate the warning.

x_raphael_xx

Pretty much every insurer does this. They hope people are too lazy to do comparisons and just stick with the same plan.
I always do comparisons every year, for pet and car insurance etc. I usually get a price then talk my current provider down.
The difficulty with pet insurance is the pre-existing conditions.

lisyloo

x_raphael_xx said:

Pretty much every insurer does this. They hope people are too lazy to do comparisons and just stick with the same plan.
I always do comparisons every year, for pet and car insurance etc. I usually get a price then talk my current provider down.
The difficulty with pet insurance is the pre-existing conditions.

I thought they weren't allowed to do this anymore? or is there some subtlety I've missed.
i.e. charge new customers less than existing customers.

grahammh

I think the new rules only apply to home, car, van and bike insurance at the moment.

sheramber

New policies don't cover conditions that arise during an initial period- often two or three weeks, apart from accidents, so if your dog develops something in that time you will have no cover.

Otherwise your wife could have done the same and got cover in her name.  

Make sure your dog is now registered in your name at the vets.