quite impressed at AXA. just had a look as i am changing one of my dogs from Petplan to another, think i may go with AXA. I noticed that they pay £100 towards cremation AND will pay £150.00 towards travel/accomodation cost if your vet refers you to another vet. WOW  the cost is so much cheaper, at presant I pay 28.42 for my working cocker with petplan with £4000-00 cover. AXA quoted under £10.00 for £7000-00 cover, does anyone have insurance with AXA? if so how do you find them with claims?

I've got four with Axa, very reasonable premiums so far (3 renewals).  I've only made one claim and it did take a while to come through but they did pay everything no problem.

thanks Nikita.

I moved from Petplan to Axa, 1 renewal so far ( only pence increase ) and no claims but seems ok so far

On 3rd year with AXA, 2 claims in 1st year, total over 1K, the vets were happy to be paid direct by AXA, premium went DOWN at 2nd year. premium went up this year but not by as much as some companies seemed to raise theirs.
Chris

My premiums rocketed with AXA this year. 3 doubled (Dobes and my old Goldie) and the Sussex Spaniel, that had had major claims, went up by £70 a year (not too bad considering). The only one that stayed a reasonable amount was Esme (3 year old Goldie). Based on my experiences they are good at paying  up, although can be a bit slow, and I'd think with a Spaniel you'd be OK premium-cost-wise for a few years at least. I've always said how reasonable their premiums were for the level of cover, until this years increases, which meant I was paying £900 a year more than last year for 5 dogs (2010 = £1300, 2011 = £2200). Hence, now I only have 3 insured with them!

I looked into Axa and I seem to remember that their insurance is fine if you vaccinate every year.  If you don't it invalidates the whole policy.  Best to check before you decide.

That is a good point tess2 and something I really must get sorted out!!

I checked this and was told that you are fully insured apart from illnesses that can be vaccinated against.

Section 8 - Death from illness
What We will pay
The Purchase Price up to the Maximum Benefit of £1,000 if Your Pet dies or has to be put to sleep by a Vet as a result of an Illness.
If You did not pay for Your Pet or cannot provide evidence of the Purchase Price We will pay the Market Value instead.

What We will not pay
1. Any amount if the death results from injury or Illness first occurring or showing Clinical Signs before Your Pet's cover started.
2. Any amount if the death results from an Illness first occurring or showing Clinical Signs within 14 days of Your Pet's cover starting.
3. Any amount if the death results from an Illness which is the same as an Illness in any part of Your Pet's body that first showed Clinical Signs before or within 14 days of Your Pet's cover starting.
4. Any claims that result from any Illness that Your Pet should have been vaccinated against. For dogs vaccinations should be for distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus and
for cats feline infectious enteritis, feline leukaemia and cat flu.5. Any claim if Your Pet is aged over 8 years at the time of the loss. 6. Anything mentioned in the General Exclusions on page 15.
Chris

I changed to AXA for 3 of my dogs recently from petplan as it was better cover and ended up saving me £35 a month. So far no claims, one set of policy documents did not arrive but a quick phone call and I got a new set posted out which arrived the next day.

I was with AXA for years and had no compaints until their renewal premiums rocketed. I was going to put one of my dogs back with them as it was a lot cheaper to take a new policy but they will not insure any dog now unless vaccinations are up to date. I spoke to an advisor on the phone to confirm this.

It's good that Axa have rethought their vaccination policy since I last enquired.  I didn't want to be forced to vaccinate so I chose Sainsbury insurance which was very similar in price.

ETA I have just seen the last post and apparently they have not changed their vaccination policy!

I'm confused now.  So if the dog is not boostered yearly, does that invalidate the policy completely or just mean that vaccinate-able illnesses won't be covered?

I may ring them next week I think.  I don't booster annually - but while I have 3 dogs that could go with another company, Saffi can't now because of her arthritis so I need to know if I've got to get her boostered or not.

This is what their conditions state. I phoned them before I completed my online quote and they confirmed that your vacs must be up to date or they won't insure your pet. I have gone elsewhere as I don't booster annually either.

You must comply with the following conditions to have the full
protection of Your Policy.
If You do not comply We may at Our option cancel the Policy or
refuse to deal with Your claim or reduce the amount of any claim
payment

3. You must ensure that Your Pet
is vaccinated each year against
distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis
and parvovirus for dogs and feline
infectious enteritis, feline leukaemia
and cat flu for cats.

It's good that Axa have rethought their vaccination policy since I last enquired.  I didn't want to be forced to vaccinate so I chose Sainsbury insurance which was very similar in price.

ETA I have just seen the last post and apparently they have not changed their vaccination

Sainsbury have the same condition, they appear to be underwritten by AXA.

Rightyo then, I shall put it on the list :-(

I wouldn't go near Axa again, unfortunately I'm stuck with them for Spud . They take months to pay out, both my sister and myself have to had wait 3-4 months for any cheque to appear, we've both only received payment after phoning to see what was happening with our claims. But the worst of it is they will re-charge you the excess on recurring conditions every new policy year, they also tried it on when my sisters vet happened to put "renal failure " on one claim form and " kidney failure" on another claim, they tried to say it was two different conditions !, not a good service at all.

But the worst of it is they will re-charge you the excess on recurring conditions every new policy year,

[url=]Pet plan recharge the excess with recurring conditions at the start of the policy year also. I thought that most ins co's would, dont they?[/url]

>But the worst of it is they will re-charge you the excess on recurring conditions every new policy year

That's standard for all insurers, I believe, because each 12-month period is separate from the one before.

Yes, they all charge the excess each year - I dread september when Soli's renews with all her problems!

Just checked the sainsbury's T&Cs - they say the same as Axa, the dog must be up to date on boosters or it will invalidate the policy.

They are insisting you be up to date with vaccinations but say they will exclude any costs resulting from vaccinations, a bit hypocritical is it not.

Is anyone with Petguard?

My friends cat who was insured with pet plan got cat flu . She was not up to date with her vaccines as she had an immune disease that required steroid to treat . Her vet wrote them a letter to say they had advised not to vaccinate because of the problem / treatment cat had and they paid out for the claim . Don't know if she just got lucky but was very impressed , especially as all my lot are with them and 1 not vaccinated for similar reason but I wouldnt count on it .

When I took my insurance policy out I checked with Sainsbury and they told me illness which could be vaccinated against would not be covered but other conditions would.  So I wonder if they have changed their rules.  We are coming up to renewal in the next few months and I will now be looking at other policies.

I think it's quite clear that if you don't vaccinate you will not be 'fully' covered, in other words for diseases you can vaccinate against.

Yes and that's fair enough.  But for the whole insurance policy to become invalid if you don't vaccinate every year is a different matter.

But I think that isn't the case just misinterpretation.

It's not misinterpretation it is what I was told by a Manager when I phoned, they would not insure my dog plain and simple, how can that be misinterpreted. The only way to have it wrong is the staff have no idea what they are talking about.

> The only way to have it wrong is the staff have no idea what they are talking about.

That is often the case (after all theya re simply seellignoen fo many products) they are not that up on the small print, the only way to know for sure is to get a copy of the full policy conditions.

It can be interpreted either way, looking at the policy wording for Axa:

"You must ensure that your pet has received the required vaccinations, failure to comply with this may jeopardise your claim or cover - please refer to the General Conditions in the Policy Booklet for details."

The general conditions state that "You must ensure that Your Pet is vaccinated each year against distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis and parvovirus for dogs and feline infectious enteritis, feline leukaemia and cat flu for cats."

Going by the first statement, that could read as either that only a claim relating to any of the above diseases would be jeopardised, or that the entire policy would be jeopardised.  It's quite vague IMO, I will be calling them and checking with a manager tomorrow.  I will be checking about the vaccinations themselves too - according to the latest research, the best schedule is lepto annually and everything else every 3 years; so would following an up to date, veterinary recommended schedule invalidate the policy?  If so then I'll be moving Raine, River and Opi elsewhere as I am not comfortable with a full booster every year.  I don't mind following the up-to-date schedule and Saffi will have to have it if they insist as I can't move her, but I'm not going to give all 4 dogs all the boosters every year.

Got a bit confused by all this so I rang axa monday evening and got told that it invalidated the WHOLE policy, ie dog wasn't vaccinated so NO cover for broken leg
thought this was nonsense so requested a call from manager in claims. Spoke to them on Tuesday and went thru it all again, put on hold for ages while she went off to check further (horrible 'hold music!' eventually came back and gave me the 'official' decision, so I asked could I have it in writing. Got an email today - copied below...

Further to our conversation on the phone earlier today, you requested what we discussed in writing.
After speaking to my manager I confirmed that we would assess one claim if the vaccinations were not up to date and that the condition wasn't likely to have been prevented by having the vaccinations. We would strongly advise that the vaccinations where then carried out to prevent any complications if you need to submit any future claims.
I can also confirm that it would be OK to have vaccinations which last three years instead of one so long as the vets can confirm this in writing.
Kind Regards,

Oh brilliant, that's not so bad then.  Phew!

I was wondering about the whole thing - after all Saffi's arthritis claim started after she'd been here a year and she's not had any boosters while I've had her, and I didn't hear anything about it.

Which has just reminded me - I haven't checked if she needs it for the hydro.  Eeep...

No that's fine. Phew again!  :-P