Hi all...

I've just been sent my renewal for PetPlan insurance. I've been with them since June 2008, never had to claim, thankfully but they keep increasing the premium each year and I think it is getting ridiculous... I started at £13 per month just for the pet value insurance in 2008 and now the new qoute they sent me is £17.17 for the same cover... not that it matters too much but I feel it's not really fair...

I don't think I will stay with them if they keep doing that each year.

I went on Moneysupermarket.com and found an insurer website on there called: pet-insurance.co.uk

They offer a 20% online discount AND a 10% multi pet discount... as I would move both of my dogs they quoted me a price of £8.78 per month for a lifetime cover:

"Lifetime cover provides ongoing protection for pets and is ideal for pet owners concerned about their dog or cat developing a long term, chronic or recurring illness.
Once insured a pet will continue to be covered for rest of its life as long as the policy is renewed each year and the appropriate premium is received."

Vet's Fees Excess                            £85
Maximum Benefit
before excess

Vet's Fees                            £4000
Death                                         £1250
Boarding Kennel/Cattery Fees  £1000
Holiday Cancellation               £1500
Loss by Theft or Straying               £1000
Advertising and Reward               £800
Accidental Damage                            £750
Public Liability                            £1.5million
Personal Accident                            £200

Has anyone ever heard of them and if so what were your experiences with them???

I checked on the "About us" section of their website and they belong to:
"Equine & Livestock Insurance Co. Ltd. (Registered in England & Wales no. 294940) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA register number 202748). Equine & Livestock Insurance Co. Ltd. is also a member of the Association of British Insurers and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Would you recommend a different insurer?

Thanks for your replies.

Ute

Personally I wouldn't touch e&l with a bargepole, petplan for me, I pay over £100 for my 2 giant breed dogs and 3 cats but they have been amazing with paying out for the massive claims I had to put in for my old boy, can't fault them

E & L have a terrible reputation I'm afraid.

I'm with Healthy Pets for 3 of mine, cheap cover and excellent service. They've always paid out by return of post and although the premium does go up every year it's still the cheapest by miles. For the 2 collies I'm paying £13 a month (for both not each) and the silken youngster is £7 odds.

I agree with montybaber, wouldn't go near any company connected with E&I.

I was with M&S for a while but they kept massively increasing the premiums. I'm now with AXA and have found their increases have been minimal, and in a couple of instances have actually gone down! You can do an online quote here: http://www.axa.co.uk/insurance/pet

Petplan had hiked up one of my dogs monthly premium's so much that it was getting silly, £75p/m was no fun to be paying out.
I'm now with PetGuard, not claimed with them, and hoping not to :-D, but they are charging £28p/m for lifetime cover with a max of £7500 per condition per year, which i thought was good. No kennel cover if yr ill or delayed on holiday. I haven't got him covered to go abroad either.

They often do go up regardless if you claim or not as i questionned this with PetPlan and they said its to cover the increasing costs of vets bills which happen every year. I'm not so sure i agree with this as some people on here their premium's go down..

Hi,

thanks for your fast responses :-) I will certainly not go with e&l then... I've never heard of them before... but wanted to have opinions before I go ahead and buy it...

any recommendations are welcome :-)

I'm with Pet Plan for my 2 boys, never made a claim for either (touch wood) but the 4 year old golden's premium has just risen to almost £30 per month.  My collie/retriever X who is older has risen to £21 per month - this is the first increase since I have been with them for 3 1/2 years with these dogs.

Not sure what they base the increase on, certainly not how many claims someone makes, must just be an age and breed thing - they obviously think my crossbreed is healthier than my pedigree ???

I use a brokerage:

[url=]www.vip4u.co.uk[/url]

Why do I use them? Because I get to speak to a human, very nice people ... they only deal with insurance companies covering pet insurance, they also only deal with companies who will cover me if my dogs have an accident at any competition I may go to (many will not cover an agility/flyball accident), and they also cover my dogs if they are injured whilst working sheep. Not necessary for everyone, but a big factor for me. Plus they scout around each year to check for the best policy for me.  I've only had one claim, a couple of years ago, and they dealt with it quickly.

I'm paying around £26 per month for 5 dogs (yes, is the basic cover, but with 5 can't afford any more and some is better than none!).

I'd recommend giving them a ring and see what they can come up with. :-)

Well.... in the end, after shopping around, comparing policies etc, I went with AXA... a very similar policy, if not better in some places than PetPlan. - I must say I phoned PetPlan to ask them if they could offer me a better price to what they've offered me in the renewal but they didn't really get into this too much so I cancelled...which was straightforward.

Penny's insurance is now only £8.54 (reduced from £17.17) and Dexter's is now £13.30 (reduced from "15.32 - this wasn't due for renewal yet) I suppose it's higher because he's still a puppy and may cause more damage to property..., 5% discount on 2nd pet (better than nothing at all...)

It's a very easy process buying the policy online and I phoned them as I had a question and I didn't have to wait in a queue and the person I spoke to was very helpful and friendly indeed.

I hope that I will not have to make a claim but you never know...

Thanks for all your suggestions again...

Ute

> I hope that I will not have to make a claim

I am with AXA, had 2 claims, my vet was quite happy for axa to pay them direct.
Both claims in 1st year and my premium went DOWN on renewal for 2nd year.
Chris

E & L have always been an absolue nightmare. My vet said that you may as well throw your money straight in the bin as insure with them. I'm glad you asked for advice before insuring.
Can anyone advise on The Green Insurance or Animal Friends? Both are underwritten by Red Sands which seems to be in Gibralta or South Africa (depending on what you read.) I have left M & S and am now abandoning Sainsbury's as their hike is phenominal (about £1200 per anum for my 12 yr old Golden!)
NFU have asked me to get a hip Xray and eye certs before they will take on my 7 yr old Golden. How bizzare is that! Why would anyone put a dog with no hip problems through a G/A just to insure her?
Direct Line  have also given a reasonable quote. Any comments about them please?
Do you know if the ones I have mentioned hike their prices massively each year?

Need replies as quickly as possible please. Many thanks, Sandy

Not sure why but I was thinking I read somewhere on here that AF weren't good either...

I had trouble finding somewhere that would insure my 3yr old
Bernese as most won't cover this breed and PP was too expensive. Petguard was recommended to me on here and I have cover for life and I now save about £50 a month..
AXA I would of gone with if they would insure my breed, alas they don't :-(

I switched to Axa with my gang. Was paying £85ish a month with PetPlan to insure 2 dogs and 2 cats, and its dropped to £37 for almost identical cover with Axa!!

We have been with Animal Friends and had to make a large claim(thousands) very soon after getting the insurance.
I have no bad word to say, in my panic mode(dog was hit by a car) I did not even follow their rules to the dot and they questioned why but still paid with no issues.
We have made about 6 claims including hydrotherapy and they have paid all very quickly.
Some were direct to the vets some claiming back what we had paid out first.
After being with them for a year and having used past the top limit per condition/year they hold for the cover we have(£6000) our premium went up about £2.00/month, which I'm perfectly happy to pay!
I have just brought another youngster and am looking for a cover for her, having looked few companies tonight I think Animal Friends come cheapest for her as well so we will probably go with them again.

Whilst my vet recommends Pet Plan (Don't they all! ;o) ) he also was very happy to say that the next best for cover and paying up, in his experience was - Sainsbury's! Really suprised, we have always used Tesco and he is equally happy with their payments too (our old Dobe had DCM so ongoing claims). I was given 4 weeks Pet Plan ins with our pup and when we enquired about extending were told it would be £27 a month with £100 excess. I'm sorry but too expensive for me - Tesco offers £4000 per condition (include alternative therapy in that and no time limit on claim) and only £60 excess and it only cost £14 a month. For us a better option - in 9 years of paying premiums for our old boy we never made a claim so only recouped what we had paid over his lifetime when he got ill; I'm hoping this lad will be as lucky but if not at least £4000 will go some way towards getting him sorted - and finding £60 excess is much easier than £100!

At work we've had problems with Tesco being very slow to pay out - as much as 6 months sometimes. So now the only company we'll claim direct from is PetPlan; clients with other insurance policies need to pay the vet and claim from their insurance themselves (although we will complete the forms free of charge, which is more than many vets do).

I have been with Pet Plan since 1981 (yes I am that old)! I have five dogs covered by them, I prob pay in the region of £150.oo per month, but wouldnt be with out it. I have never had a problem with any claims and my dogs are my only luxery, so they get what to me is one of the best.

I know it's now well documented- but wanted to add E&L stands for Excuses and Lies apparently!

I use JLT pet guard insurance, they are under written by AXA, but offer different levels of cover, you can have true "for life" where the benefit starts again each year (not like naughty companies who say it's for life, when they mean they'll pay £x for each illness- and when it's gone it's gone)- but you can reduce the benefit to different levels. Public liability is also an option (after all you may already be covered somewhere else for that).
They also offer the not true for life polices, after all this does bring insurance down to more affordable level, especially in multi-dog households.

If you have a look they ask for minimal details before you get a quote and you can swap and change the benefits etc to see how it changes your quote.

Sorry, but this really bugs me!!For most people (myself included) the premis of having insurance for your pet is so that in the event of an accident, your pet can receive the treatment it needs while you, as owner, do not have to worry about paying a huge vet bill or at worse the cheaper alternative choice of euthinasia. More and more vets are now refusing to deal with insurance companies direct and want the owner to pay up first then reclaim from the insurance company.  Surely, this negates the point of insurance!!  People cannot afford big bills so have insurance - vets won't accept it - owners cannot pay bill = no treatment to a suffering animal (people won't go to the vet for fear of the bill) or the cheaper alternative - having pet put to sleep!
I appreciate that a vet practice is a business as any other, and need to make money, but surely not at the expense of a sick animal or distraught owner. These problems should be challenged with the insurance companies themselves. Many owners are not aware of the timescale it takes for vets to get their money back from the insurance companies or how difficult they can be. We insured our old fella from when we got him as a pup and never made any claims but paid out every month just in case! I know that if we had not had the standard - and yes cheap!!- Tesco insurance for him, we could not have given him the medication and referrals necesary for him to live as long as he did when diagnosed with DCM. If our vet had refused to deal direct with the insurance company, I would have had to make the very painful and difficult decision for euthanasia simply because I do not have access to the thousands of pounds that were necessary to treat him. That was what the insurance was for!!

To be fair, most vet bills can be covered by a credit card in the interim.

When i DID HAVE insurance i ALWAYS had TO PAY FIRST AND CLAIM BACK LATER, THAT IS ANOTHER REASON i SAW IT AS POINTLESS, and BETTER TO regularly SAVE FOR vets BILLS,a nd or have a lien of Credit for such emergencies.

Just for fun I looked at how much ti would cost to Insure my youngest (two this months) nearly £14 a month with AXA with £75 excess,a nd my 12 1/2 year old would be nearly £50 a months.  She has only had one trip to the vets since puppy hood, cost around £300 as she had a warty growth on her eyelid that had to be removed under GA, and a lump in her ear which proved to be just inflammatory tissue.

True - but not everyone has one! My sister is a single parent, not at work and bad credit so no credit card. She had insurance for her cat but when she needed to make a claim, was told the vet didn't deal direct and she had no way to foot the bill - therefore insurance was pointless! she made arrangement with the vet for payments in instalments and could not claim until bill was paid in full . now she no longer insures her cat (!!! ;o( ) but tries to save a bit each month instead. Having said that, it still would not cover the cost of a big claim and she has no other means of credit available to her. Should she and others like her be penalised because Insurance companies are too greedy to pay vets on time?

I had my renewal notice from Healthy Pets last week, and they'd doubled the premium for our two dogs from £35 to £70 - that's an additional £400 a year. We made a claim last year for some emergency treatment for my puppy that came to around £1500, and it looks as though they'd like to recoup this cost through our premiums (though obviously, they won't as we switched to another provider).  Surely this renders insurance pointless?  if you have to pay for the cost of a claim through raised premiums, why not just pay for it in the first place?  Anyway, we switched to AXA, which is £26 a month for a much better policy.

It's incredible what some insurances get up to...reading the whole thread, some seem to be either completely useless or too hard work to get the claim through... you'd think that these people understand pet owners/lovers who only want the best for their animals but it looks as if many of them don't really care as long as THEY get the premiums we have to pay...

It's a shame really.

I use M&S and my vets claim from them direct.  They do this every month as my boy has immuno-therapy injections and they've told me that bills are paid promptly.

On one occasion I paid the vet for something that I subsequently realised I could have claimed for - it was slightly dubious (could have gone either way!), but they paid me without question and within a week.

I know that M&S aren't the cheapest, but based on my experience (2 dogs, multiple claims - one where I didn't follow strict procedure in an emergency) I'd recommend them :)

I also think it depends on the vets in question about whether they claim direct from the insurance company or not.

I am anti insurance, I only have what i have to have by law.  However, everyone told me the importance of pet insurance so i researched and purchased with AF, not long after my dog had to have a series of tests which cost around £250, this was easter, i am still waiting for my claim to be settled.  They refused it initially saying it was a pre existing condition, not so and backed up by the vet. Last week they said no because i said the symptoms were first noticed in the first two weeks of the policy (runny poos), but didnt see the vet until the policy had been in place for 5weeks........  insurance companies just take the premiums and then find every trick in the book not to pay......  might as well cancel my policy

Unfortunately they do not cover anything in the first 15 days of the policy as I know from the £1500 vet bill I had to pay when my pup was very poorly within days of the policy being taken out and before the full policy came into force. I still feel that insurance is very necessary in case of costly illness at any later time in the life of the dog. For the first time in my life I had to take out a credit card to pay this bill and will be paying it off out of my pension for years to come, I couldn't take a chance on an illness costing £5000 plus without insurance.

If the cover note is issued and signed by a vet (rather than the breeder) then the pup is covered as soon as it leaves the vet's premises.

"Excuses & Lies" I have never heard that before but I love it!

Porridge - How have you found the pet guard insurance,
ive been thinking of getting it for my girl - as most insurances wont insure her,
and the ones that will, end up costing over the 30 quid mark, but cant find any reviews on it,
so far for what i want - thats the cheapest insurance.

Even though pet guard is under written by AXA, just tried to do a quote by AXA and my breed isnt even on
there, so thats another insurance that wont insure my breed - even though pet guard will :S

Jane F my breed is the same in that many insurance companies won't insure or if they do its a high amount each month. I was recommended Petguard it on here by another person with the same breed - gone ahead and insured my eldest with them. I've yet to make any claim and i'm hoping I don't have to as he hasn't been to the vets in a long time.
It doesn't cover for him going abroad, kennel fees if i'm ill or delayed from a holiday and something else which I wasn't too fussed about.
I set him up with the highest cover for 3rd pty liability and covered him for £7500 per condition, per year for life(does that make sense?).

aha!!!  just found my policy with AF, seems i didnt state a date within the first 14day, but the 15th day!!! just been on to them AGAIN and after some derisory comment said it would be looked at but probably wont change!  that really got my back up, it clearly states FOURTEEN on the policy. 

sorry for rant.

Yep sue that makes sense - its basicly the same as im after,
its just mainly the £7500 and the 3rd party im after,
oh and complamentry threapys. Plus they do camera insurance aswell quite cheap,
so it could be a bonus - having both with the same insurance.

Think best thing i can do is try them, an if i have any major problems,
then report them.

My vets will only claim direct from Petplanas we have had too many claims refused from other companies and the clients convieniently forget ot pay! In very extenuating circumstances we will attempt a claim direct from other companies if the bill is massive and the client is a long stnading one, but it is rare these days that we can break the no direct claims rule. What we can do is ask the client to pay a proportion of the bill that they can afford and then claim that amount back and then once they have got the money back from the insurance they can pay for the next installment and claim that back etc.
Unfortunately insurance companies and bad debtors are to blame for the amount of vets refusing to do direct claims and i don't really blame them, because they still have bills and staff to pay each month and can't afford to wait around for months for a claim to be paid. For this reason we issue new pups and kitens (up to a year old) with cover notes from pet plan which gives them one month free from the moment they sign the form and they can continue later on if they want to. Its amazing how many people are suspcious about this but it isn't purely a sales ploy, its in everyones best interests for the animal to be insured immediately by a reliable company, even if they then go and research another policy to take out when the free cover has finished. However if you choose to go with a cheaper, possibly less reliable policy then you can hardly blame the vet for not wanting to claim direct.