Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:42 pm Post subject: Pet Insurance - my brain hurts!!!
Evening all,
In anticipation of Rolo's arrival, I am looking into Lifetime Insurance Cover......my-oh-my, what a minefield!!
After several hours of googling and "GO COMPARE"ing, I am now "CONFUSED" and it is not as "SEEMPLES" as one would think........
So, if anyone has this type of cover, I would be very grateful for your advice on who you use and your experience if you made a claim. The price varies quite dramatically, and I am mindful that the the lowest price is not necessarily the best option.
I'm in the same boat as you! My little girlie arrives on Monday and we can't wait.
One thing I would advise you check on is how the claim is paid. To give you an example, Pet Plan will ask that you pay the excess direct to your vet and then your vet claims directly to Pet Plan for the balance therefore you are only out of pocket for the excess amount. Tesco Pet Insurance however will ask that you settle in FULL with your vet and then claim the amount less the excess back from them; this could leave you with a huge dent in your bank balance albeit temporarily but how long they take to pay the claim can be a few weeks or more.
Dont always go with the cheapest as you will get what you pay for. All my animals (4 rabbits and 1 dog) are with petplan, they have been fantastic, example being one of our rabbits has been poorly a lot from a young age and he is only 3 years old, petplan have paid out around £2000 if not more so far for him without any trouble at all, we have just sent the claim form in and recieved the money within a week or so, they have never queried or refused a claim.....thankfully
I settled on Direct insurance in the end, they gave me the cover required at a reasonable price
I've not had to claim from them yet (thank goodness) but Caro did with Lexi and was very pleased with the way they dealt with the claim and the timescale
*other pet insurers are available*
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Vikki, Ruby, Henry & Hector xxx
I'm in the same boat as you! My little girlie arrives on Monday and we can't wait.
One thing I would advise you check on is how the claim is paid. To give you an example, Pet Plan will ask that you pay the excess direct to your vet and then your vet claims directly to Pet Plan for the balance therefore you are only out of pocket for the excess amount. Tesco Pet Insurance however will ask that you settle in FULL with your vet and then claim the amount less the excess back from them; this could leave you with a huge dent in your bank balance albeit temporarily but how long they take to pay the claim can be a few weeks or more.
That depends on your vet, I have to pay my vet the full amount then claim it back from the insurers minus the excess, and what if its an on going claim? I can't see a vet willing to hang around for 6 months to get their money
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Vikki, Ruby, Henry & Hector xxx
I've been with Pet Plan for around 15 years and have never had a problem with them paying, they covered Jessie's Mast Cell Tumour treatment and that cost around £5000 about 7 years ago.
i was with more than to begin with - my brain also hurt from going through them all and i just picked one which was relatively cheap but with a really good cover. my advice on more than?? don`t even go there!!! when everything came through and my head stopped hurting i read the small print. the excess as i knew was £70 what i didn`t realise is that it was £70 + 10% of the bill over and above that i had the highest policy with them which i think is £7000 per year? anyway if i had to claim the total that would have worked out £770 excess - total waste of insurance imo!
i`m not with argos on their platinum cover after speaking to a man who has studied all the insurers thoroughly and he recommended them and said his insurance website has had nothing but positive reviews regarding argos pet insurance (he runs a pet insurance comparison site but for the life of me i can`t find it). i didn`t use the comparison sites in the end as all they done was lead to more confusion. i can give you a summary of what i have and hope that it helps (also confirm that argos are quick to pay out and don`t try and mess you about as my mil was with them too and needed treatment for her dog`s HD)
i pay £17.08 (obviously different for everyone) per month for the platinum which covers:
vet fees - up to £7000 per year (ongoing cover provided up to £7000 per year per incident)
3rd party liability - £2million (£100 excess)
death from accident/illness - £1,500
cremation fees - £100
advertising and reward - £1000
theft or straying - £1,500
boarding fees - £1000
holiday cancellation - £3000
accidental damage - £500 (£100 excess)
quarantine costs - £1,500
loss of healthcare certificate - £250
repeat tick and worming treatment - £1000
emergency expenses cover abroad - £1000
unless stated the total excess per claim is £65.
not sure if that helped but hope i didn`t confuse you further!
I was with pet plan when we just had Harry but premiums increased steadily and I changed when we got Darcy as £80 odd pounds per month seemed a lot!
I'm now with John Lewis (was Greenbee) at about £35 per month in total (£17 to £18 each). It is lifetime cover and comparable to pet plan although I can't rememeber to exact details. I've also never had to claim though so couldn't advise on how good they are when it comes to that.
We're coming to the end of the our free weeks insurance so thought it was time to get it sorted. Why can't it be as straight forward as car insurance?! It truly boggled my mind with the different types of cover with each company.
In the end I settled with Argos as it seems like a popular choice and was a reasonable cost. I went for platinum as didn't want a time limit being placed on a condition.
Pick a company which you feel you can be with long term as changing companies if you lab developes condition wouldn't be covered by the new insurer.
I'm with Direct Line and got a good price for a joint policy for the puppy and a 10 year old rescue cat (who many companies wouldn't look at) - we are paying about £25/ month in total for the middle range of cover.
I used Pet Plan for about 15 years, but found the increase in prices quite high.
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