Pet Insurance guide discussion area

My experience with pet insurance is never to go cheap. It's the insurance product that generates the most claims so choosing a good company and policy is so important!

Have just bought a life time policy with John Lewis. I actually was with them last year but they increased my policy from £150ish to £235.52 after a year of no claims. I searched comparison sites and told them about a cheaper deal I had found and they have lowered it to £140 for the year. No doubt it will then go up again but I am still happy with the money saving. That's for £7500 cover a year.

Whiskey is 6.5 years old and they have told me that when he turns 9 I would then need to pay the excess or 20% if greater. Do people have an upper limit of what they would pay out? I imagine I would be happy to pay 20% of up to 7.5k for a condition which would enable him great quality of life, but wouldn't if he was suffering during that time. Tricky thing.

We are thinking of taking on a 4-5 year old rescue dog - a X breed stray from Romania (about the size of a small/Med Labrador - we have been told she is part Pyrenees Mountain Dog and in good health). Tomorrow I plan to start comparing prices etc. I have read MSE top 10 things to consider and the last 5 pages of this forum. With all this in mind is there anything I should look out for, be worried about or avoid etc. We have never had pet insurance before - we self insure our rescue rabbits but feel insurance is the way to go for a dog.

Any advice will be gratefully received - TIA

My lab is insured with Churchill for last 3 years. First yr no claim second he had elbow displasia cost £3800 they pd max 3000 so only had to find 800. Next yr policy up £4 to £17 which was ok with as they pd out . No more claims following yr now renewal is £22 .My dog still has some arthritis in his elbow and I know they wont pay out for this but is it worth me staying with Churchill how likely are they to pay out for anything else when I have maxed out on policy . There are many other cheaper ones but will they cough up if I switch. For the same money sainsburys offer £7500 cover on going max .I dont know what to do.He is 6 this yr.

hayleowner wrote: »

Worth asking but I suspect I'm out of luck so here goes.

I had three cats all covered with Direct line. I changed to ASDA (saved £10/month). I phoned to arrange the change over at the end of the policy for Jan 9th. I did this early December.

On Jan 14th my cat developed pancreatitis and after being in and out of the vets for 9 days she was finally put to sleep. I have looked at my policy with ASDA and there is a 15 day no claims section.

I know it's a long shot but any chance there is a loophole that if you have paid insurance all the previous year and gone straight into another there is any recourse for action?

Thanks for reading.
Rick

No, they can pay out as a gesture of good will, you can renew early so you never had a period without insurance which has unfortunately happened to you.