Hi, i have insured my GSD puppy with Direct line pet insurance but have been reccomended another insurance company (M&S) ... i am not sure whether to change over to this other company and would like some advice on which insurance companys are worth signing up to...
I would be grateful for any advice
thanks
Sally

Hi, no experience with M&S but have got a dog insured with DLine and touch wood had never had a problem claiming etc they are great and very quick!

i have 5 dog insured with m/s  and had no trouble with it depends on your budget what you can afford,

i know m/s have but their policy price up but i would for go going to to show and pay the extra on their policy,

pinncels is another good one to, both the above you have to pay an excess of £50 per illness now

As well as increasing the prices of their policies M&S have also included excess's on all policies when they are renewed in future.

I recently changed to Healthy Pets because of M&S's extortionate price hikes and dropping the no policy excess, Healthy Pets are underwritten by the same company as M&S, AXA.

I've also had to make a claim and found them to be efficient and prompt.

pet plan. only one i can recommend.

I'm with M&S and am very happy with them. The cover has went up, and I now pay an excess but they've always paid out promptly. I only have one dog insured though, initially I wanted it for the 3rd party cover but he's also very accident prone and I've claimed over £1200 in the last year :rolleyes:

I went to Healthy Pets to get a quote for the other 3, to insure the 2 collies is only £7.30 a month going up to £19.33 a month if I add the other borzoi in, however thats the bronze (lowest) level and it only insures up to £1000 for illness, accident etc and nothing for death.

M&S cover up to £7000 per year vets bills and £2000000 3rd party, they give advertising costs, holiday refunds etc.

In my opinion Marks and Spencer are the best, as good if not better than petplan but cheaper with a lower excess :)

£1000 cover is for the lowest plan on healthy pets.

Like all things read the terms and conditions and the web sites carefully and choose the company that suits your needs.

Cheaper depends on the cover and the breed.  Of my two dobes, I have one insured with M&S, and one with PetPlan.  Remy (M&S) is £34 a month - that's risen twice from around £14 when we first took it out.  I've made one claim for £163.  Soli (PetPlan) costs me £20.50 a month; I've had one renewal and it went up 20p.  The cover is almost identical, with the exception that the excess is slightly higher - but with a monthly saving of around £14 a month I have to say, PetPlan gets my vote!

Of my other two, Opi is also with M&S, but hers has only risen by a pound the last two renewals; interestingly, the hikes only started after M&S went breed-specific.  Dobes being prone to a few things (and possibly because of their bad rep) was presumably responsible for the big hikes for Remy.  River isn't insured yet, but I'm looking at Argos - the platinum cover (best policy, almost identical to M&S and PP) would be £7.88 a month for her, and again very similar to the M&S and PetPlan policies.  And Argos also quoted me £13 for the dobes, despite Soli being 6 and incontinent!  Once she's had her op I'm switching everybody to them I think.  M&S were very good at paying on the two claims I've had from them, but the price hikes are just too much with four dogs, even though Remy's the only one whose policy has gone up significantly.

"Remy (M&S) is £34 a month"

Blimey Nikita, that's outrageous My beastly boys premium has went up twice with M&S, and his excess has been put up to £70, but I don't mind as I've claimed about £1200 and even with the increases I'm only paying £14.36. How on earth can they justify charging you £34!

Well I think I'm in for a shock when Mr B's insurance gets renewed, I've just filled in the online quote form for his brother who hasn't been treated for anythign in the last 12 months and is obviously the same breed and age and it came out at £27.50 a month - yikes :rolleyes:

That is good to know as despite our import never having had to be claimed for Pinnacle were putting up the premiums at an unreasonable level, and with Healthy Pets we are paying about the same (just over £120 this year) as we did the first year with Pinnacle which had been very competitive for the cover, the dog has only just turned 6 this month).  This is our second year with Healthy Pets and the difference in the premium is only in line with inflation.

Most of my dogs are insured with M&S but the premiums have gone up a horrendous amount and with the nil excess being dropped I no longer think they are particularly good value. I have recently insured Esme with AXA and the policy is the same as the M&S policy but cost me £80 a year less.

I'm amazed at how much the m and s policyies have all gone up. WHen i first insured meg a (now) 6yr old collie x it was about £135 for 0 excess two years later it has gone up to £225 with a £50 excess!! My other two have gone up to £270 each, which i think is extortionate considering they have now added the excess. I do think they offer the best cover around though. I am stuck with them as 2 of them have long term existing conditions. :rolleyes:
Nikita, as you have already claimed for yours is it worth while changing to another company as you won't be covered for anything they have previously had? (regardless of whether or not you have claimed.)

I am with Argos , its £10.95 a month and pays out up to £2500 a year .

Its not one many think of but we have actually gone with NFU (national farmers union) we insured our car with them and asked for a quote just out of interest for the dogs as the supermarket chains did a huge hike, it was a very reasonable quote which we went with it was similar to direct lines full life cover but at a lesser price..

like i said i am with m/s last week chase had to have two ga  and op that was £1000,00 today the problem as come back spoke to the speclist vet who op on him is doing a house call tommrow. and he may have to go back in again next week,the problem he got going to last a long time thank god i got £7000 a year for each illness with m/s.

Just curious
Does anyone have Tesco's pet insurance?

Pam

I do, but am afraid I only took it outa week ago LOL
The reason I chose Tesco is that I have car insurance and someone reveresed into  my car when I wasnt even in it. Tescos had no end of trouble contacting their insurance company and getting the money off them. Took over a year, but my car was repaired as soon as I gave them the go ahead to get it done :) :) And they only asked for one quote :) :)
So I am hoping the petrs insurance are as good and efficiant as their car insurance :) :)
Lea :) :)

Harley is insured with M&S - started off at £13 a month and has risen to £25 under their new pricing structure. I had a quote from them for Cooper - can't remember what it was but enough to make me look around for other insurers. I went with the platinum cover from Argos and he is now covered for unlimited periods up to £6,000 per condition with £50 excess at a cost of £7 per month. When Harley's insurance needs renewing next month I will get a quote from them for him as well especially as M&S are no longer doing a nil excess option.

I have just put a claim in for Cooper for £272 so will be interested to see how long they take to reimburse. In all fairness to M&S they have been very quick in paying out on both Harley's claims. I have never insured my other dogs before and very rarely had to see a vet with them for anything other than routine visits. Both our current dogs are insured and so far we have made 3 claims in just 2 years.

We actually have one policy with direct line and one with sainsburys (great cover and very cheap), although at present we only have experience of claiming with direct line!

pet plan!!!

All three of ours are insured with PetPlan We did have a couple insured with M&S at one point but as has been said, the renewal figure doubled with no claims. I have never had a problem with PetPlan paying out (and one of ours has had a couple of very big claims :( ) and they pay our vets direct.

They are certainly the only company I would recommend now, but they aren't cheap - we pay over £100 per month for all three.

I would say that Pet Plan are the gold standard to measure others by, but they are dear.  I don't insure any of mien as I could not afford it.  Instead I have an account that I use.  It allows me to borrow 30 times the amount I put into it each month.  I think it still works out cheaper to pay the interest than to insure them all.

Since last Christmas I have had one of my worst years for Vets fees amounting to about £1000, it would still have cost me more in Insurance, as two of them are Veterans, and at least one of those would not have been covered (Mastitis) as it was the result of breeding.  The other two issues, a stubborn Ear Infection, and a gum growth came to £750.

Thank you all for your help... i think for the time being i will stick with Direct line... i did get a quote from Pet plan but they were just so expensive and having 2 dogs it would have cost me about £60 a month ...with Direct line i pay just over £18 a month at the moment for 1 dog and we are planning to get our other dog insured with them ... i will keep looking arround though
thanks everyone
Sally

wow i can only DREAM of a year amounting to £1000!!! mine ranges from £300 to £3000 a month!!!

ahah...thats why you're so keen on petplan then Sam, what on earth do you do to those gorgeous hounds of yours

I have two dogs, choc lab aged 2.5, only got him in March admittedly and he's cost me the price of his jab, Dicksy is 4.5 (cocker) cost me £100 recently for wet spot but apart from his jabs never another penny.  Both insured with Tesco but never claimed. 

pst, Kizi now 10 has only ever had one thing to visit vet for, conjunctivitis after getting into my Dads slimy compost heap.

Her Mum had no dealings with the Vet until a C section for her last litter (only 3 pups born 3 years after her previous litter), and removal of a warty tumour on the pastern at 9 years old.

Her Mum did have a mammary lump at 5, and a partial strip at 8, then nothing until PTS at 13 1/2.

Pet plan is for me. unlimited cover, I learnt the hard way with bracken I always figured £7000 per condition would be enough, boy was I wrong, it went well over double that, I do not regret one penny I spent on her treatment it gave me another 7 plus wonderful years after diagnosis, but in hindsight I wish I had unlimited cover, so from now on its unlimited just in case...........

justi.......ditto!!!

I'm with Pet plan too, the unlimited one Cost of £40+ a month for my dog but worth every penny and they have always been quick when I have used them.