I have spent most of the day trying to compare cover with various insurer's. It is difficult to compare like for like as each seems to offer a slightly different package. I had asked for advice on this site before so a lot of the work had been done for me already and I am very grateful. My kennel club insurance is about to expire and I have now got my list down to three and thought I would share my findings in the hope that this is helpful to others posting in the future. Other Champdoggers found Pet Plan offerred very good offer and I agree although their only policy which currently includes life cover was 'supreme unlimited' for which they quoted £18.25 which appeared to be a flat rate irrespective of my post code. Vets fees were unlimited so this is a good deal. Direct Line had one of the most useful staff members I have ever had the care to talk to. He was both knowledeable and extremely helpful and even gave me tips as to what to ask for when phoning other companies for quotes. This hopefully would bode well were a claim to be made. Their premium for ongoing treatment (ie. over 12 months) capped at £6000.00 was £12.03 which was very competitive but I would prefer the safety of life cover. Finally, on others advice, I phoned Scottish Pet who quoted £13.95 for life cover capped at £5000 per condition and the lowest excess I've seen of £35 per condition not yearly. It's not the easiest subject to investigate because often what you win on life cover you lose on the limit of cover per condition but I think I will opt for Scottish Pet. Hope this might help others in the future and thank you all of those who added your very useful comments to my previous request and saved me a lot of time and effort.

We had the usual Kennel Club insurance and when the initial three months ran out, renewed it. I received the renewal notice for this year recently and was amazed to find that it had gone up by £50 per annum, per dog! Have now taken out a group policy for my three with Pet Plan.

Hi Maisy, I like the sound of the Scottish Life too. Could you please let me have an address for it? Thank you.

Hello, their web address is www.scotpet.co.uk, address: Head office, Briary House, PO Box 3963 Polton Bank, Lasswade, Edinburgh EH18 1YA. Their phone number is 0131 660 6900. Hope this helps.

Thank you maisy :)

Hi All,

I have just recently changed my pet insurance form Pet Plan to MORE THAN which is under written by Sun Alliance. I felt that the cover was slightly better , I also read a good report about them in the Which magazine and it covers the price of the dog also which pat plam does not at the lower bracket. it is 9.99 per month.

the addy is morethan.com .

Worth a look. I actually had my petplan form in my hand and went through it bit by bit.. I think there may be a 6000 pound per illness but I don't have it here at hand to check but like for like I felt for my circumstances it was better for me.

I was not prepare to pay 40 for 2 dogs because they are " BARFED" so they should be healthy.....ONLY KIDDING YOU LOT JUST A WEE JOKE..

Hope it helps someone..

Pam

As a medium size boarding kennel/cattery owner (licenced for 120 animals in total) I have used Pet Plan to cover clients pets for the last 9 yrs whilst in our care, and on the occassions that have required vet attention all claims have been met by this company without any hesitation and on this basis I would highly recommend them.

Bazza, have to say that PetPlan have amazed me today. I insured my wolfhound Lewis the day I got him (aged 7 months), and told PetPlan that he had been seen by his breeders' vet for right shoulder pain/abnormal movement, though there was no definite diagnosis at the time. I took Lewis to my own vet the next day, and he had OCD surgery to his right shoulder at a specialist vet hospital two weeks later. I didn't claim for that, and didn't intend to claim when Lewis had to have the left shoulder operated on two weeks ago. After all he'd been seen by my vet within the 14 day period, and I'd admitted that there was a problem with his shoulders when I took out the policy. But the vet nurse encouraged me to put in a claim for the second op. on the 'nothing to lose' principle. And in the post this morning was a cheque from PetPlan for £641.95!

Hi
Direct Line are fantastic as you said knowledgeable, kind and efficient staff _I've been insuring mine there for the past four years (ish) with no problems and they deal direct with my vet too which makes my life a lot easier - none of that they pay me and I pay the vet nonsense. I'd recommend them to anyone.
KirstyS
:)

I have not investigated this subject, but I remember seeing an advert from Cornhill, which said that Cornhill's insurance covered something that other insurers did not cover. So I suggest you see what Cornhill offer.

Michael

13 June 2002

Someone told me that More Than has a good policy with life cover. Is it definately life cover as in the condition still being covered on renewal? I have to ensure the puppy 3 friends and I have in quarantine on his release! Obviously wnat a good policy.

I insure both my Boxers one with MoreThan (Royal Sunalliance) and
the other with PetHealthcare Services (also Royal Sunalliance).
I had my oldie Veteran insured with PetHealthcare Services on the unlimited plan and she sadly died last year. But throughout her insured life they were always excellent and any claims I put in were dealt with promptly (they received my claim friday and I had the cheque on the doormat on Monday!!), when I lost Trudi they were excellent also and
because I lost her at 10y.o. (I think that once they reach 11 yo this is excluded) I also got back her purchase price.
Never once was she excluded because of her age etc.
Either PetHealthcare (01491-571999) or Morethan (0800-300885) are good.
I can also vouch for morethan house insurance too, very quick to sort out any claims.
Like someone has already said you get what you pay for.
Kindest Regards
Kirstine

Hi I really reccomend TESCO they are great i recently put a claim in and they were exellent, I have a Staffordshire bull terrier dog and I Pay less than £9.00 a month!

Well I have today stayed with kennel club one £18 per month ,Pet plan I pay £32 a month
but the kennel club seem to be offering the same insurence ?? I think you have to be Einstein
to work all this out right.

pAT X

Remember the most important thing with pet insurance is to check the excess I believe with more than it is £80 this is pretty high and means the only time you will be claiming are when some major work needs doing which please god it won't for anyones dogs here.

Direct Line now do life cover i've insured my ESS puppy and it costs £13.54 a month

Jackie

What is the excess on that? Is it cheaper to pay all in one go?

I've used kennel club they dont breed descriminate and the excess is pretty reasonable compared to some of them, used pet plan before and jardin and KC look best.

Is the KC cover life cover though? I didn't think it was.

Fiona
x x x

buy this week dog world,big four pages on insurances,

Brainless

The Excess is £45, sorry i don't know if its cheaper to pay all in one go - never thought to ask (I was insuring a car at the time aswell and it was all adding up! in fact it cost the same as the pet insurance!)

Jackie

hi, i found a really good one by chance (browsing the net) if you are a breeder they give you 16 weeks free insurance to send your puppies to their new homes and breeder rates are really cheap £42 per dog per year, the cover is good, excess is £59 the address is http://www.dog-breeders.org e-mail:remember@compuserve.com
hope this helps. GAYNOR

Hhmmmm! Gaynor, unless things have changed, when they sent me the breeder details last year, they only gave 16 weeks free insurance if I gave them the new owners' credit card number to charge for 12 month's insurance on the day they bought the puppy. I binned all the information because I don't "sell" insurance! One of my pet purchasers later used this company for their dog (they thought it sounded reasonable too!) and when they lost the dog, the value was reduced by HALF "because he was castrated and not available for breeding", and reduced again because of his age etc. The final figure they received was pathetic.
It's certainly not a company that I would recommend.

hi val, I use the DBA's 16 weeks insurance too for pupies. The reason they want the CC number is to take £1 to register the dog with the National Pet register, (in case they are lost/stolen) which is a hugely reduced price. I suppose they hope the new owner will continue to insure the puppy with them once the free 16 weeks is finished, but it is easy to cancel and insure with another company. I use the DBA as they give you £10 back per puppy that you sell with their free insurance, but I actually recommend that new owners then insure with Pet Plan. Fingers crossed I dont know how well BDA payout on the freebie insurance, as far as I know, none of my owners have had to claim. Their parent company (for insuring the puppy after the freebie) is E&L and although they seem to offer favourable rates I have heard on this board that they are not the quickest payers- so I recommend Pet Plan.

hi val,
thanks for letting me know about this, i found it by chance and it seemed to be really good, but having just read what you have said about it, am now a little more than unhappy, will look into it more!!! guess like everyone i still have a lot to learn, luckily there are places like this where people can share their experiences.

once again thanks, GAYNOR

You're welcome. It sounded good to me too which is why I found out more! It seems that they're happy to take your money but find all sorts of reasons to make deductions when it comes to paying out, so I wouldn't feel happy even using it for my puppies.
On the one and only occasion when a puppy I sold was lost, Petplan paid out within 10 days, no questions asked, no deductions and no problems. That's what we pay insurance for, isn't it, to pay out if we're unfortunate to need it.