I'm sure that Petplan used to be £4000 for EACH illness in a year, but my daughter has just had a claim refused as she has used up all of her £4000 over several illnesses with her poorly boxer during this year. When she questioned Petplan and asked when the rules had changed the girl said it had always been £4000 per year overall and never per illness. I am 100 per cent sure it used to be that amount for each claim per year, does anyone know when this changed as we obviously have missed this update.

It's always been £4000 for everything as far as I know - certainly was for Soli and I was claiming for her for nearly 5 years until she passed at the end of October.

It's always been a total maximum payout per year, not per condition.

How far back are you going Jeangenie. I'm sure when I first went with them back in 1981 or thereabouts it was £2500 per illness ( obviously it has gone up since then ) and both my daughter and our friend, a retired Vet. nurse are also of the opinion it used to be . I might have the figure wrong it may have been £2000 but it was per claim - that is unless all 3 of us here are senile and not just me !!!
I had a very poorly GSD then and was relieved when a claim was for a different reason so it didn't all come out of the same pot and make me run out of insurance money. Mind you I left them some years ago so this question has not entered my mind until now.

I'm only going back 5 years, so it could well have changed since the early 80s. Of course there are different levels of cover - perhaps that's where the change is.

Just had a look on their website; the payment per condition is only on the 12 month policy (so it wouldn't be covered ever again); the 'Lifetime Cover' policies have a maximum payout per year, regardless of the number of conditions.

Yep, I saw that as well. They changed the plans a while ago, they used to have different names back then ( all lifetime) so maybe thats when it changed. I know that PP is more costly and I just assumed that this was because it was per claim, just shows how wrong I was and they are just costly......

They are but they have their advantages - good with claims and the premium doesn't tend to leap up each year as with a lot of companies.  Soli's a little more than doubled over her lifetime but that took it up to £37 at her last renewal - considering by then she'd had one of her conditions for 8 years, two for 2/3 years and the heart for the last year (and a big claim for a lump as well) I think that's very good going compared to a lot of people.

I am hugely disappointed with the recent changes though, the price for a new policy now is so high even just for the £4k cover that I'm unlikely to take one out with them again for quite some time :-(

sillysue,
I had words with petplan a few months ago.  I have been with them since 1981, up until recently had 5 dogs insured with them.  I made enquiries about uping the amount that i could claim each year from £4000.-00 to £7000-00. as I noticed that they had this amount now.  I found out that they brought out a new policy about three wks after my policy was renewed that would allow a new person to insure their dog for £7000-00 cover and pay less than I was paying for my £4000-00 (same postcode, same breed ect). as you can imagine i was not happy. I was told that I would have to wait until the pilicy was renewed (11 mths away) before I would be able to change it and then it would only be one dogs policy I would be able to increase the claimable amount for.  I stuck out and they agreed to increase one of my girls amounts as she was 9 & only had one claim in her life. one of my other dogs, a 4yrs old had never had a claim, so I removed her from petplan and put to AXa.  I am now insured with this dog for a lot more cover for mor than half what petplan were.

I second Axa. I switched 2 dogs and 2 cats from petplan to them, and went from paying £28 a month for the cats and £30 and £33 for the dogs (top cover) to £12 and £14 for the dogs and just under £8 each for the cats for cover that was very very similar.. I now have 3 dogs and 3 cats and it still costs me less with Axa!!

My only gripe with them is i've found you sometimes need to ring them to give them authorisation to speak to the vets about a claim, and that renewal paperwork is a bit slow to arrive.. otherwise, can't fault them!

My one issue with Axa is turnaround time for claims - only got Saffi with them at present but put 3 claims in so far, and all have taken around 2 months to get to assessment.  I'm now waiting on reassessment thanks to a cock up by my old vet, that at least doesn't seem to take so long - had one to do so far to clear up an excess query (again, caused by my old vet - can we see why I left yet...?) and it only took 2 or 3 weeks I think.

> I second Axa

I switched 3 of mine from Petplan to them due to rising premium with petplan. One thing ive noticed though is AXA are very slow at paying out. My vet submitted a claim on my behalf on 18th Oct, only yesterday was it put on the system by AXA and it will be another 14 days before I get a response/payment. Petplan would have had it settled by now, they are generally very quick at paying out.

I wonder if they have less admin staff so slower but lower costs?

Maybe.  When I was chasing the first claim up just after new year's they told me they were 'a little bit behind' with assessments - guess they've just never caught up lol!

I too have put all dogs possible with Axa, but unfortunately the boxers have so many on going probs. that they have had to stay with PP. This is how one of them has used almost £6000 this year combined illnesses, and my daughter thought she was safe as this was for 3 different types of illness, ( believing that it was £4000 per illness) but it looks as though she has to find £2000 herself this year. When the policy is renewed she will up to the £7k policy.

I'd sung the praises of AXA for a number of years only to have my premiums doubled at renewal. I sort of expected a rise with my old Goldie with numerous problems (it doubled to £60 a month), but when my then fit and healthy 5 year old Dobe doubled I was less happy.

Initially AXAs premiums went up very little at renewal but this years increases have been horrendous (my total insurance for 2010 was around £1300 a year, that's for 5 dogs, for 2011 it would be £2200 with AXA!). They also do a "good" price for new customers and at renewal it rockets, so beware.